Natural Regeneration is a Cost-effective Approach to Recover Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, and Biocultural Values in Many Contexts
Naturally regenerating tropical forests can contribute to biodiversity conservation and provide economic benefits for smallholders. But this natural process is often ignored and/or misunderstood in restoration and development policy. Landscape conditions, prior land use, and socio-economic factors determine if natural regeneration will occur and what its qualities and conservation value will be. Diverse natural regeneration often occurs in areas of low land-use intensity and where forest remnants are present, conditions that often occur on steep slopes and in former shifting cultivation landscapes.
Intentionally using natural regeneration as a restoration strategy can significantly increase the cost-effectiveness of large-scale forest restoration. In many contexts, natural regeneration is a cost-effective approach to recover biodiversity, ecosystem services, and biocultural values. These forests can support ecotourism and be managed for sustainable harvests of fruit, medicine, firewood, and other non-timber products. But many naturally regenerating forests are cleared long before they are able to provide benefits for people and nature. New policy frameworks are needed to scale-up assisted and farmer-managed natural regeneration in ways that benefit local communities and farmers.
SUPPORTING PAPERS
- New Frameworks Needed to Balance Costs and Ecological Benefits of Active and Passive Forest Restoration (Brancalion et al. 2016)
- How Community-based Forest Led to Rules to Protect Young Recovering Forests (Bray 2016)
- Steps Towards Implementing NR as a Large-scale Restoration Approach (Chazdon & Guariguata 2016)
- Natural Regeneration of Forest Can Promote Conservation Practices and Provide Economic Benefits for Smallholders (Chazdon & Uriarte 2016)
- Similar Early Pathways of Tree Recruitment in Natural Regeneration and Tree Planting treatments (Gilman et al. 2016)
- Both Social and Ecological Factors are Linked to Recovery of Biodiversity During Natural Regeneration of Tropical Forests (Latawiec et al. 2016)
- Small-scale Agricultural Practices Promote Healthy Forest Regeneration (Martínez-Ramos et al. 2016)
- Shifting Cultivation Fallows can Contribute to the Philippine National Greening Program (Mukul et al. 2016)
- Up-scaling the Benefits of Agroforestry Through Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (Reij & Garrity 2016)
- Mammal Populations Recover in Regenerating Forests in Kibale National Park, Uganda (Omeja et al. 2016)
- The Value of Community-managed Agroforests and Second-growth Forests as Restoration Approaches (Souza et al. 2016)
- Beyond the Biophysical: The Potential for Natural Regeneration Depends on Socioeconomic, Political, and Regulatory Factors (Uriarte & Chazdon 2016)
- Getting Help from Above: Enlisting Drones to Assist Natural Regeneration and Forest Restoration (Elliott 2016)
- Returning Forests, Often Ignored and Undervalued, Play an Increasingly Important Role in Climate Change Mitigation and Biodiversity Conservation in Tropical Landscapes (Chazdon 2017)
- Multiple Benefits of Spontaneous and Assisted Regeneration of Forests Come at Significantly Lower Costs than Planted Forests. (Chazdon et al. 2017)
- Leadership, Environmental Context, and Governance Affect Persistence of Restored Ecosystems (Reid et al. 2017)
- Leveraging Nature’s Potential can Increase Cost-effectiveness of Large-scale forest Restoration (Molin et al. 2018)
- Uneven Starting Points Complicate Comparisons of Outcomes Between NR and Active Forest Restoration (Reid et al. 2018)
- Many Secondary Forests Die young in Southern Costa Rica (Reid et al., 2019)
- Natural Regeneration Shifts into Reverse Gear in Latin America and the Caribbean (Schwartz et al. 2020)