How Diverse is Tree Planting in the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso? Comparing Small-Scale Restoration with Other Planting Initiatives
, Daouda Traoré 2, Alain Touta Traoré 2, Emma Lucie Yago-Ouattara 3 and Franziska Kaguembèga-Müller 4
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
A well written manuscript with novel results and reasonably drawn conclusions. Good job. Nonetheless, there are a few mistakes that should be corrected before publication. They include:
Keywords:
-replace "tree planting" (that word already exists in your title) with "fencing". Also, consider changing NFTPs to NFTP.
Introduction:
-Line 62: Unclear sentence ("Dry forest in Burkina Faso represents approximately 25% of the household incomes in rural areas, and most of which them rely on fuelwood as a source of energy"). Please rephrase.
-Lines 101-103: grammatically incorrect. I suggest changing as follows: "One factor that increases the success of forest restoration efforts is involving local people in their design, implementation and monitoring. But reports from different geographic contexts indicate that this is not done systematically despite it being critical to the efforts' success."
-Lines 109-119: a few minor grammatical mistakes.
M+M:
-Line 150: replace "regions" with "provinces"? You use the word provinces in Figure 1's legend.
-Line 178: Please provide the month and year when the data was collected. Were there any other circumstances (weather, etc.) that might somehow have affected the data collection? If so, please state these.
-Line 179: change "due to" to "beacuse of".
-Line 182-188: Please "name" the groups using a capital G, ie. "Group 1, Group 2, Group 3". This helps the readers, and makes it easier to follow your results. Change throughout the manuscript, including all Tables.
-Line 203-206: unclear sentence. Please rephrase.
-Table 1 caption: please move it to the top of the table; change "They" on line 254 to "The variables", and provide what HCPC stands for.
Results:
-Please use the Past Tense for verbs throughout this section. This applies to e.g. Line 268, 279, 339-346, 360-369.
-Please provide what MCA stands for in the captions to Figure 3 and Table 3 (captions should be able to "stand alone" from the text).
-Please provide what CNSF (and NGO) stands for.
-Captions for Table 6 and 7: please copy the phrasing that you use in Table 2's caption. The latter is much easier to read.
-Figure 4: use larger letter labels (a, b, c; they are hard to see right now).
Discussion:
-It is a little long, but is overall quite all right and well written.
Conclusions:
-Line 632: "This study shows..."
Table S1 caption: Line 653: this part is unclearly phrased, please correct. "List of tree species planted by farmers of each in the identified: farmers who ..."
Author Response
Keywords:
-replace "tree planting" (that word already exists in your title) with "fencing". Also, consider changing NFTPs to NFTP.
MV: keywords have been replaced as suggested
Introduction:
-Line 62: Unclear sentence ("Dry forest in Burkina Faso represents approximately 25% of the household incomes in rural areas, and most of which them rely on fuelwood as a source of energy"). Please rephrase.
MV: The sentence have been rephrased.
-Lines 101-103: grammatically incorrect. I suggest changing as follows: "One factor that increases the success of forest restoration efforts is involving local people in their design, implementation and monitoring. But reports from different geographic contexts indicate that this is not done systematically despite it being critical to the efforts' success."
MV: Modifications have been inserted as suggested
-Lines 109-119: a few minor grammatical mistakes.
MV: Grammatical corrections have been applied
M+M:
-Line 150: replace "regions" with "provinces"? You use the word provinces in Figure 1's legend.
MV: The names of the regions have been replaced by names of the province, to be consistent between the text and the figures.
-Line 178: Please provide the month and year when the data was collected. Were there any other circumstances (weather, etc.) that might somehow have affected the data collection? If so, please state these.
MV: Clarifications have been added on timing of research activities
-Line 179: change "due to" to "beacuse of".
MV: Changes have been made as suggested
-Line 182-188: Please "name" the groups using a capital G, ie. "Group 1, Group 2, Group 3". This helps the readers, and makes it easier to follow your results. Change throughout the manuscript, including all Tables.
MV: Capital letters have been introduced all through the document
-Line 203-206: unclear sentence. Please rephrase.
MV: Sentence rephrased and shortened
-Table 1 caption: please move it to the top of the table; change "They" on line 254 to "The variables", and provide what HCPC stands for.
MV: Caption moved and clarification included.
Results:
-Please use the Past Tense for verbs throughout this section. This applies to e.g. Line 268, 279, 339-346, 360-369.
MV: Verbs have been changed where necessary all through the document
-Please provide what MCA stands for in the captions to Figure 3 and Table 3 (captions should be able to "stand alone" from the text).
MV: MCA acronyms has been fully spelled
-Please provide what CNSF (and NGO) stands for.
MV: Acronyms have been fully spelled out
-Captions for Table 6 and 7: please copy the phrasing that you use in Table 2's caption. The latter is much easier to read.
MV: Captions have been integrated with further elements to facilitate reading
-Figure 4: use larger letter labels (a, b, c; they are hard to see right now).
MV: Labels were improved
Discussion:
-It is a little long, but is overall quite all right and well written.
MV: the length of discussions was not shortened as not requested specifically and given the positive comments on content
Conclusions:
-Line 632: "This study shows..."
MV: Sentence modified including past tense
Table S1 caption: Line 653: this part is unclearly phrased, please correct. "List of tree species planted by farmers of each in the identified: farmers who ..."
MV: Changes made as suggested
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
This was an interesting study on afforestation / reforestation efforts, which is an important global topic. The study was quite detailed in nature and covered a large number of villages in central Burkina Faso. I enjoyed the discussion section. I have several comments that I think would help improve the paper. Most of them are aimed at clarifying the methods used in the study and text edits.
L 72-73: Great Green Wall: add the acronym (GGW)
L 116: if you mean different tree species = interspecific. If you mean within the same species = intraspecific. Perhaps you mean both. Please clarify.
L 149: Center? Center-West?
L 152-153: space needed for new paragraph
L 183: remove “)” after plots
L 164-190: The connexion between the selection criteria for the location of villages (164-170) and the study groups (178-190) should be clearly linked back to the study questions presented in lines 138-142. Please revise accordingly.
L 185-186: “but not involved directly in activities promoted by tiipaalga”. Later on, this group is mainly referred to as “farmers without fences” e.g. in Table 2. Please add the “without fence” information on line 185.
L 189-190: “and not reached by externally driven interventions promoting sustainable forest management”. I am wondering how that was assessed for group 3.
L 219-225: remove extra spaces
L 236-239: there should be some reference to support the choice of statistical analyses used in the study, e.g., why use the Wilcoxon Mann Whitney test instead of t-test or F-test
L 248: please provide more detail about this out of bag score (OOB), units, meaning, because it is often referred to in the results section
L 251: descriptive statistics were used. Please mention which stats you are referring to (mean, median, standard error, standard deviation, confidence interval, etc.)
L 263: A total of 65 tree species were collectively planted
L 266: group (no s)
L 276: 1.10e-1 = 1. Did you mean 0.10? Why use 0.10 instead of 0.05?
Table 2: There’s a “Farmers without fences (group 2+3)”. What is the justification for combining groups 2 and 3? They were not in the same village, which is why they were placed in different groups at the beginning of the study.
Table 2: There should be one letter (resulting from your test) next to each group for each variable. Please revise
Table 2: Clarify the difference between “Exotic tree species planted (%)” and “Exotic tree individuals planted (%)”
L 300: Figure 2 caption: “Values associated to couples of bars with a small letter are significantly different between each other”. For each tree species, I was expecting a test among the three groups (group 1 vs. 2, group 1 vs. 3, group 2 vs. 3). I do not understand the use of letters in this graph. Please clarify.
Table 3: replace commas with decimal points
L 323: Add period at end of sentence
L 324-334: this paragraph should be in the methods section
L 379: Moringa oleifera needs to be in italics
L 3979: extra space between "by" and "NGOs"
L 435: "The decision to also plant..."
L 486-488: “Biodiversity conservation could be enhanced by increasing landscape connectivity among these plots, allowing the movement of species and genes between habitats within landscapes”. This might need a bit more explanation given that the use of fences could be viewed as a detriment to landscape connectivity in some cases (e.g. wildlife movement, land fragmentation).
L 580: forest reproductive…material?
L 591: “In situ” should be italicized
L 616: extra space after knowledge?
L 618: production (no s)
L 632: This study showed (use the past tense)
L 632: tends (add s)
L 633: income (no s)
L 641: best practices (e.g., choosing tree species adapted to soil conditions)
L 643: maintaining
L 651: system (no s)
L 653: by farmers “in each group identified”:
Figure S1: this should be included in the manuscript, not as a supplementary material (unless this journal has strict page limits)
Author Response
L 72-73: Great Green Wall: add the acronym (GGW)
MV: Acronyms fully spelled as suggested
L 116: if you mean different tree species = interspecific. If you mean within the same species = intraspecific. Perhaps you mean both. Please clarify.
MV: Both intraspecific and interspecific were mentioned
L 149: Center? Center-West?
MV: Names of regions were replaced by the name of the provinces
L 152-153: space needed for new paragraph
MV: text edited as suggested
L 183: remove “)” after plots
MV: text edited as suggested
L 164-190: The connexion between the selection criteria for the location of villages (164-170) and the study groups (178-190) should be clearly linked back to the study questions presented in lines 138-142. Please revise accordingly.
MV: Short explanation added to the description of sampling strategy
L 185-186: “but not involved directly in activities promoted by tiipaalga”. Later on, this group is mainly referred to as “farmers without fences” e.g. in Table 2. Please add the “without fence” information on line 185.
MV: text edited as suggested
L 189-190: “and not reached by externally driven interventions promoting sustainable forest management”. I am wondering how that was assessed for group 3.
MV: the assessment of what farmers had not been reached by external interventions was done with the help of local forest officers.
L 219-225: remove extra spaces
MV: text edited as suggested
L 236-239: there should be some reference to support the choice of statistical analyses used in the study, e.g., why use the Wilcoxon Mann Whitney test instead of t-test or F-test
MV: an explanation on the use of the specific test was added
L 248: please provide more detail about this out of bag score (OOB), units, meaning, because it is often referred to in the results section
MV: a paragraphs was added with additional explanations
L 251: descriptive statistics were used. Please mention which stats you are referring to (mean, median, standard error, standard deviation, confidence interval, etc.)
MV: Only frequencies were reported. This was detailed in the text
L 263: A total of 65 tree species were collectively planted
MV: Modifications have been done according to suggestions
L 266: group (no s)
MV: Modifications have been done according to suggestions
L 276: 1.10e-1 = 1. Did you mean 0.10? Why use 0.10 instead of 0.05?
MV: statistical results have been presented with two cutoff values (p-value of 0.05 and 0.1) Given the small size of the sample they were both used to check for differently significant patterns in the data
Table 2: There’s a “Farmers without fences (group 2+3)”. What is the justification for combining groups 2 and 3? They were not in the same village, which is why they were placed in different groups at the beginning of the study.
MV: The purpose was to try to assess the effect of fencing, a significant element of differentiation, contrasting farmers with fences (Group 1) with those without fences (Group 2+3).
Table 2: There should be one letter (resulting from your test) next to each group for each variable. Please revise
MV: We only put a letter next to values that are significantly different, we tried to clarify this point in the captions
Table 2: Clarify the difference between “Exotic tree species planted (%)” and “Exotic tree individuals planted (%)”
MV: Caption of the table modified to be clearer
L 300: Figure 2 caption: “Values associated to couples of bars with a small letter are significantly different between each other”. For each tree species, I was expecting a test among the three groups (group 1 vs. 2, group 1 vs. 3, group 2 vs. 3). I do not understand the use of letters in this graph. Please clarify.
MV: comparisons refer to the three groups of farmers in the use of each species. Bars with the same letter are significantly different, while those without are not significantly different.
Table 3: replace commas with decimal points
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
L 323: Add period at end of sentence
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
L 324-334: this paragraph should be in the methods section
MV: Paragraphs moved as suggested
L 379: Moringa oleifera needs to be in italics
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
L 3979: extra space between "by" and "NGOs"
MV: The extra spaces have been removed
L 435: "The decision to also plant..."
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
L 486-488: “Biodiversity conservation could be enhanced by increasing landscape connectivity among these plots, allowing the movement of species and genes between habitats within landscapes”. This might need a bit more explanation given that the use of fences could be viewed as a detriment to landscape connectivity in some cases (e.g. wildlife movement, land fragmentation).
MV: Some clarifications were added. Damage on seedlings caused by small rodents and traces of jackal demonstrate that some movement of wildlife across the fences is taking place. Moreover, the release of pressure from grazing animals per se constitute a major boost in plant diversity inside the plots which can become repositories of diversity and disperse seed and pollen in the surrounding landscape.
L 580: forest reproductive…material?
MV: Corrections made
L 591: “In situ” should be italicized
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
L 616: extra space after knowledge?
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
L 618: production (no s)
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
L 632: This study showed (use the past tense)
MV Past tense adopted all through the conclusion
L 632: tends (add s)
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
L 633: income (no s)
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
L 641: best practices (e.g., choosing tree species adapted to soil conditions)
MV: An example of best practices has been added, more focused on seeds collection (eg: selection from a minimum number of tree)
L 643: maintaining
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
L 651: system (no s)
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
L 653: by farmers “in each group identified”:
MV: Modifications made according to suggestions
Figure S1: this should be included in the manuscript, not as a supplementary material (unless this journal has strict page limits)
MV: Figure S1 has been included in the main results
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
