Resource Library Search

Type any text into the search box. Narrow your search using the dropdown boxes or the filters in the sidebar. If there are no results, try using fewer filters or broder dropdown options. 

Advanced Search Options

Language

Subject Areas

Species

Promoting Biodiversity: Advances in Evaluating Native Species for Reforestation

background

This article describes the design of a long-term species screening trial conducted at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica.

Research Goals & Methods

Growth and survivability data is presented for 84 species (17 popular exotics used for timber and 67 little-known local species with timber potential) at 3 years of age.

Available with subscription or purchase

Growth, carbon sequestration, and management of native tree plantations in humid regions of Costa Rica

Background

Available with subscription or purchase

Early Species Selection for Tropical Reforestation: A Consideration of Stability

background

This study describes a screening of timber species planted in abandoned pasture sites to understand the effect of different site conditions on tree growth and to determine the species that grew with the highest variation.

Available with subscription or purchase

Screening trial of 14 tropical hardwoods with an emphasis on species native to Costa Rica: Fourth year results

Background

Commercial forestry plantations have consistently relied on a limitd number of species, often favoring exotic species over native ones. This is mainly due to a lack of information or understanding related to the silviculture of native species plantations. This article uses a long-term experiement site in Costa Rica's La Selva Biological Station to work towards filling this knowledge gap. 

Available with subscription or purchase

Growth of native forest species planted on abandoned pasture land in Costa Rica

Background

Reforestation programs in Costa Rica have largely utilized only four tree species. This study tests growth rates and form of eleven additional tree species native to the humid tropics, including five N-fixing species and six non-N-fixing species.

Available with subscription or purchase

Canopy development in tropical tree plantations: a comparison of species mixtures and monocultures

Background

The establishment of plantation monocultures has dominated much of the intensive forest management practiced in the humid tropics of the Americas, with most forestry research and practice concentrating on a small number of non-indigenous species. Growing interest exists in modifying these practices both by creating mixed-species plantations and by making greater use of native tree species.

Available with subscription or purchase

Woody Understory Plant Diversity in Pure and Mixed Native Tree Plantations at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica

Background

This study compares the species richness, abundance, and seed disperal method of individuals growing in the understory of native single-species plantations, native mixed-species plantations, and naturally regenerating (non-planted) areas of the La Selva biological station in Costa Rica.

Available with subscription or purchase

Growth and effects of thinning of mixed and pure plantations with native trees in humid tropical Costa Rica

Background

As reforestation with native tree species gains in popularity, more information about proper management is needed. This study examines the growth and responses to thinning of ten native species in mixed and pure-species plantations in the Caribbean Lowlands of Costa Rica.

Open access copy available

The Agroforestree Database

About

The Agroforestree (AFT) Database was created in 2009 by the World Forestry Centre and provides specifics and selection guides on both native and exotic agroforestry trees. 

Open access copy available

Strategies for the Recovery of Degraded Ecosystems: Experiences from Latin America

background

Open access copy available

A Review of the Agroforestry Systems of Costa Rica

Background

This literature review provides a historical overview of agroforestry systems in Costa Rica from the 1970s to the present.

Available with subscription or purchase

Amelioration of degraded rain forest soils by plantations of native trees

background

While much has been studied about the ability of tree growth to improve degraded soils in temperate zones, less is known about the impacts of tree growth on degraded soils in tropical zones.

Available with subscription or purchase

Tree species effects on soil properties in experimental plantations in tropical moist forest

Background

Forest soil properties are influenced by the complex interactions of vegetation, soil type, geology, management, and climactic patterns. Tree species can differ in their long-term effects on soils. This study resamples one of the earliest replicated experimental sites at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica, used to examine the effects of native tropical tree species on soil properties, to examine longer term effects on soil properties.

Open access copy available

Tropical rainforest regeneration in an area degraded by mining in Mato Grosso State, Brazil

Background

Gold mining has been a major cause of environmental degradation in the rainforests in the north of Mato Grosso State, Brazil. Regulations on mining activity are beginning to be developed, including standards for forest recovery methodologies. This study characterizes natural tropical rainforest regeneration in Matupa County, Mato Grosso State, Brazil.

Open access copy available

Growth in pure and mixed plantations of tree species used in reforesting rural areas of the humid region of Costa Rica, Central America

Background

Despite government incentives in Costa Rica for establishing and maintaining native tree plantations since the 1990s, farmers and small landowners often lack adequate knowledge about plantation management. Yield and rotation periods for each of the ten most common species grown in monoculture have previously been published. This paper compares productivity in monoculture and mixtures at La Selva Biological Station in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica.

Open access copy available

Screening Trial of 14 Tropical Hardwoods with an Emphasis on Species Native to Costa Rica: Fourth Year Results

Background

A lack of silvicultural information on native timber species in the tropics has contributed to the propogation of fast-growing exotic tree species in reforestation efforts. The plantations evaluated at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica were considered marginal lands with low input of forest maintenance, reflecting the conditions of many lands that farmers would use for reforestation.

Available with subscription or purchase

Profiles of Carbon Stocks in Forest, Reforestation and Agricultural Land, Northern Thailand

background

This study evaluates the difference in above-ground and below-ground carbon stock between forest, reforestation, and agricultural land in northern Thailand.

Available with subscription or purchase

Selecting framework tree species for restoring seasonally dry tropical forests in northern Thailand based on field performance

Background

Framework tree species are indigenous forest tree species, planted to complement and accelerate natural regeneration of forest ecosystems and encourage biodiversity recovery, on degraded sites. This study tests the extent to which 37 native forest tree species might act as framework tree species to accelerate recovery of evergreen, seasonal forest in a degraded upper watershed in Doi Suthep-Pui National Park in northern Thailand.

Open access copy available

Poverty reduction in the Doi Mae Salong Landscape

Background

The Doi Mae Salong Landscape has experienced deragadation in ecosystem services due to a variety of reasons along with the significant poverty and high risk to climatic variations. The IUCN partnered with the Supreme Commander’s Office of the Royal Thai Armed Forces to pursue forest restoration and support local livelihoods. The program ran from 2010 to 2013 in the Chiang Rai Province of Thailand.

Open access copy available

Enrichment Planting in a Logged-Over Tropical Mixed Deciduous Forest of Laos

background

This study evaluates enrichment planting using five native species planted in degraded (logged) forests in different arrangements.

Available with subscription or purchase