Natural regeneration as a tool for large‐scale forest restoration in the tropics: prospects and challenges

Abstract A major global effort to enable cost‐effective natural regeneration is needed to achieve ambitious forest and landscape restoration goals. Natural forest regeneration can potentially play a major role in large‐scale landscape restoration in tropical regions. Here, we focus on the conditions that favor natural regeneration within tropical forest landscapes. We illustrate cases where large‐scale natural regeneration followed forest clearing and non‐forest land use, and describe the social and ecological factors that drove these local forest transitions. The self‐organizing processes that create naturally regenerating forests and natural regeneration in planted forests promote local genetic adaptation,…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: DEB‐1313788
• DF
  Department for International Development, UK Government
• CD
  Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior