Where to restore: Connectivity forest for spatial prioritization in forest landscape restoration

Forest loss, fragmentation, and transformation negatively impact forest biodiversity and ecosystem functionality worldwide. Improving landscape intactness and connectivity through restoration is critical. Determining where to restore remains, however, a challenge. As an approach for prioritizing restoration areas, we define connectivity forest (CFs) as forests outside recognized high conservation value forests (HCVFs) with capacity to support landscape-scale connectivity and green infrastructure (GI) functionality. Across a 1.3 million-ha watershed in boreal Sweden, we identified approximately 130,500 ha of CFs, equal to double the current HCVF area. By integrating CFs with consecutively lower HCVF probabilities, we demonstrate planning implementation at lower to higher ambition levels and identified specific restoration hotspots to guide local-scale restoration planning. Our CF approach has clear implications for efficient spatial targeting of restoration in forest regions where improving conservation in balance with continued forestry for wood production is required to meet national and international biodiversity and environmental goals.