Assisted Natural Regeneration

Restoration of a Sri-Lankan rainforest: Using Caribbean Pine Pinus caribaea as a nurse for establishing late-successional tree species

Background

In the moist tropics, studies have demonstrated poor seedling establishment of late-successional trees on lands cleared of forest. This study examines the potential for establishing late-successional tree species that dominate the canopy of rainforest by planting within and adjacent to experimental openings that were created within a Pinus caribaea plantation.

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Tropical Dry Forest Recovery: Processes and Causes of Change

BACKGROUND

This paper aims at unraveling processes and pathways of tropical dry forest (TDF) secondary succession occurring after traditional shifting-cultivation practices. It focuses on the study of community dynamics, the development of forest structure, and changes in floristic composition, to understand what makes a group of species to be present, dominant, and eventually disappear, at a certain space and time. The work begins with a section on the use of tree rings to determine the ages of fallows. 

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Low technology tree propagation and the restoration of natural forest ecosystems

Background

This chapter outlines the need for reforestation in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Thailand, and describes the nursery and propagation processes necessary for successful production of native species for reforestation. The paper focuses mainly on the Forest Restoration Research Unit (FORRU), which was established to address the need for information on native species for reforestation, especially information on seedlings and nursery practices. Most information on propagation available before the creation of FORRU referred to exotic species.

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Applying Indigenous Knowledge to the Restoration of Degraded Tropical Rain Forest Clearings Dominated by Bracken Fern

background

The indigenous Lacandon Maya people of southern Mexico use a rotational agriculture system known in Spanish as the milpa for production of maize and other crops. This system rotates production to different plots, allowing the forest and soil to recover in the fallow years between production periods. In some cases, the Lacandon people actively manage forest recovery, sowing Balsa trees to prevent plots from being taken over by the invasive Bracken fern.

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Creative Ecology: Restoration of Native Forests by Native Trees

background

This article describes how the "native forests by native trees" restoration method used in Japan was applied to reforestation in Malaysia, and later in Brazil, Chile, and parts of China.

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Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria: A Potential Tool for Arid Mangrove Reforestation

background

Microbes (bacteria and fungi) play a crucial role in nutrient recycling in mangrove systems, which are nutrient deficient. Microbes make nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorous, available to mangroves, while mangroves may improve soil conditions for microbes (for example, by oxidizing the soil). PGPB may be nitrogen fixers, phosphate solubilizers, mineral uptake enhancers, and phytopathogen controllers.

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Assisted Natural Regeneration: Methods, Results and Issues Relevant to Sustained Participation by Communities

Background

This article describes forest restoration in Kandis village on Palawan Island, Philippines, an  assisted natural regeneration (ANR) project, and focuses on the social issues that affect success of ANR projects.

research goals & methods

The ANR approached used includes fire prevention, ring-weeding, and flattening of grasses.

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Helping Forests to Help Themselves—Accelerating Natural Regeneration

background

This chapter walks through the basic techniques of accelerated (or assisted) natural regeneration (ANR), describing when it is appropriate, when it should be combined with other techniques, how to increase the seed rain, and areas of needed research.

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Cattle and Weedy Shrubs as Restoration Tools of Tropical Montane Rainforest

background

In abandoned Latin American pastures, grasses often inhibit the establishment of woody species. This study tests the effect of cattle grazing on woody and herbaceous vegetation establishment in pastures of P. clandestinum and M. minutiflora.

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The Role of Animal Seed Dispersal in Accelerating Native Forest Regeneration on Degraded Tropical Lands

background

This article reviews the role of seed-dispersal in forest regeneration. In natural forest, species with animal-dispersed species tend to predominated in both early and mid-stages of succession, while wind-dispersed species tend to be vines and canopy species. The implications of wind versus animal seed dispersal are briefly summarized.

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