Abstract
Under suitable conditions, deforested land used for agricultural crops or pastures can revert to forest through the assisted or unassisted process of natural regeneration. These naturally regenerating forests conserve biodiversity, provide a wide array of ecosystem goods and services, and support rural economies and livelihoods. Based on studies in tropical and temperate forest ecosystems, we summarize cases where natural regeneration is occurring in agricultural landscapes around the world and identify the socio-ecological factors that favor its development and affect its qualities, outcomes and persistence. We describe how the economic and policy context creates barriers for the development, persistence, and management of naturally regenerating forests, including perverse outcomes of policies intended to enhance protection of native forests. We conclude with recommendations for specific economic and policy interventions at local, national, and global scales to enhance forest natural regeneration and to promote the sustainable management of regrowth forests on former agricultural land while strengthening rural communities and economies.
Highlights
When crop fields and pastures that earlier replaced native forests are left unused, the process of natural regeneration— known as secondary succession, old-field succession, forest regrowth, spontaneous restoration or passive restoration—often leads to the development of a new forest system that gradually regains many properties of the previous forest ecosystem (Cramer et al 2008, Chazdon 2014)
Based on studies in tropical and temperate forest ecosystems, we summarize cases where natural regeneration is occurring in agricultural landscapes around the world and identify the socio-ecological factors that favor its development and affect its qualities, outcomes and persistence
We conclude with recommendations for specific economic and policy interventions at local, national, and global scales to enhance forest natural regeneration and to promote the sustainable management of regrowth forests on former agricultural land while strengthening rural communities and economies
Summary
Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Robin L Chazdon1,2, David Lindenmayer3, Manuel R Guariguata4, Renato Crouzeilles2,5,6, José María Rey Benayas7 and Elena Lazos Chavero8 Keywords: forest restoration, forest transition, land abandonment, out-migration, forest succession, reforestation, agricultural intensification
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have