Developing a partnership with nature: Shaping new forests out of landscape elements

Robin L. ChazdonAssociation for Tropical Biology & Conservation

University of Connecticut, USAInternational Institute of Sustainability, Brazil

From 2000-2012, most of the global loss of tree cover occurred in the world's tropical regions

Protecting existing forests and halting deforestation and forest degradation are not enough

We need to regrow forests and rebuild landscapes in a partnership with nature We need to take the next step

Forests know how to do this

But they need our help

Calvo-Alvarado et al. 2009. Forest Ecology and Management. 258: 931-940.

Spontaneous natural regeneration can occur at large spatial scales

1966 23% forest cover2005 47% forest cover

Trajano de Morais Municipality, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

de Rezende et al. 2015. Atlantic Forest spontaneous regeneration at landscape scale. Biodiversity and Conservation

• In 36 years, forest cover increased by 3,020 hectares (15.3 %) through natural regeneration

• Active restoration planting in the same area would have cost U$ 15.1 million (U$ 419 k/year).

The science-policy questions are changing

1. How much primary forest needs to be conserved, protected, and set aside to sustain biodiversity?

1. What are the minimal biodiversity components needed to regenerate native vegetation in human-modified landscapes?

2. How can we prevent forest degradation and deforestation due to logging and shifting cultivation?

2. How can we improve forest-based livelihoods and promote local governance while fostering regenerating and restored forests?

3. How can conversion of forest land be minimized to accommodate agriculture?

3. How can agricultural land be spared to accommodate new types of forests?

Ecological memory: landscape elements that connect regenerating forests with

former forests

Ecological and cultural memory are both legacies and drivers of change

Arroyo-Rodriguez et al.. 2015. Multiple successional pathways in human-modified tropical landscapes: New insights from forest succession, forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research. Biological Reviews (in press)

High ecological memory

Low ecological memory

Potential for large-scale natural regeneration has been demonstrated

How and where to make this happen?

How much second-growth is there in the Neotropical lowlands?

Fagan et al. 2015. Targeted reforestation could reverse declines in connectivity for understory birds in a tropical habitat corridor. Ecological Applications (in press).

Archimedes said "Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the world.”

Natural regeneration as a lever for large-scale restoration

Thanks to SecFor Network, People and Reforestation in the Tropics Research Coordination Network and YOU!