Towards more effective integration of tropical forest restoration and conservation

Background

Tropical forests continue to face widespread degradation, with rates of loss outpacing gains. Despite international restoration goals like the Bonn Challenge and Aichi Targets, remaining intact tropical forests are shrinking—raising the risk of mass extinctions and climate impacts. While conservation and restoration are often treated as separate domains, integrating both is essential for sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services. Forest transition theory shows that as countries move from net deforestation to net reforestation, the roles of conservation and restoration shift. In most tropical landscapes today, both strategies are needed to reconnect fragmented habitats, enhance resilience, and improve human well-being.

Goals and Methods

The article calls for uniting forest conservation and restoration into a single, integrated approach to ecosystem and landscape management. It explores this integration through literature analysis, theoretical frameworks like the forest transition model, and a review of research published in the journal Biotropica from 2000–2018. The author examines how shifts in conservation and restoration research—especially their increasing social and interdisciplinary focus—create opportunities for synergy. The analysis also highlights where integration is lacking: fewer studies explicitly link the two fields, despite their conceptual overlap. Forest landscape planning, biodiversity thresholds, and restoration prioritization strategies are discussed as tools for bridging this gap.

Conclusions and Takeaways

Conservation and restoration are no longer separate paths—they’re converging disciplines that must work together to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises. Restoration can extend the reach of conservation by reconnecting habitats and increasing ecological function in degraded landscapes. Likewise, conservation supports restoration by safeguarding seed sources and buffering restored areas. Yet, major challenges remain, including policy barriers, conflicting land-use priorities, and limited recognition of the value in secondary and degraded forests. Moving forward requires holistic strategies that blend ecological science, social inclusion, and spatial planning. Success hinges on viewing forests as dynamic systems—requiring both protection and regeneration to thrive in the face of global change.