Global potential for natural regeneration in deforested tropical regions.

ABSTRACT: Extensive forest restoration is a key strategy to meet nature-based sustainable development goals and provide multiple social and environmental benefits¹. Yet achieving forest restoration at scale requires cost-effective methods². Tree planting in degraded landscapes is a popular but costly forest restoration method that often results in less biodiverse forests when compared to natural regeneration techniques under similar conditions³. Here we assess the current spatial distribution of pantropical natural forest (from 2000 to 2016) and use this to present a model of the potential for natural regeneration across tropical forested countries and biomes at a spatial resolution of 30 m. We estimate that an area of 215 million hectares-an area greater than the en

SUBMITTER: Williams BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11618091 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature