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  • Review Article
  • Published:

Drivers and benefits of natural regeneration in tropical forests

Nature Reviews Biodiversity volume 1, pages 298–314 (2025) Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Natural regeneration of tropical forests following deforestation and land degradation offers scalable and cost-effective opportunities for recovery of forest structure, return of native species and delivery of ecosystem services, but requires suitable biophysical and socioeconomic conditions. In this Review, we assess the global extent and distribution of regenerating moist and dry tropical forests and review their contributions to nature and people. Local and landscape factors (such as the extent and type of agriculture and forests in surrounding areas) influence whether forest regeneration occurs and to what extent forest properties can recover. Advances in detection, monitoring and prediction of natural regeneration potential inform how to scale-up cost-effective restoration programmes and to create policies that promote forest recovery. We frame forest regeneration as a complex socioecological system and encourage transdisciplinary research agendas that focus on how to promote broad social, cultural, economic and environmental benefits offered by effective management and protection of regenerating tropical forests. Key steps to harness the local and regional potential for natural regeneration are to integrate forest regeneration with management, conservation and productive activities that benefit local communities, support livelihoods and provide attractive returns on investments.

Key points

  • Advances in detection, monitoring and prediction of natural regeneration inform how to scale-up cost-effective restoration programmes and to create policies that support forest recovery.

  • Tropical forest regeneration is a key nature-based solution for climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. Regenerating forests offer substantial, but overlooked, potential for emerging markets of carbon and biodiversity credits and payments for environmental services programmes. Such initiatives could mobilize critically needed financial resources for restoration of native forests for local communities.

  • A combination of ecological, social and policy drivers influences the quality and quantity of natural regeneration in a particular area. Recovery trajectories and attributes of natural regeneration vary considerably over time and across different contexts, reflecting land-use legacies, management of recovering forests, climate, soils, landscape composition and regional species pools.

  • Recovering forests can be assessed in terms of structure, diversity and taxonomic and functional composition, with recovery times for different forest attributes varying from a few months to over a century. Recovery is fastest for soil and plant functioning, intermediate for structure and tree species diversity and slowest for biomass accumulation and tree species composition.

  • Although many animal taxa are lost when forests are converted to agriculture, their diversity and abundance can recover during forest regeneration. Plant–animal mutualisms such as seed dispersal, pollination, herbivory and seed predation shape tropical forest recovery. Recovery of species interaction networks could improve the level and potentially the stability of ecosystem functions.

  • The dynamics of regenerating forests are embedded within the dynamics of complex spatial units such as landscapes and watersheds, directly linking the fate of these forests to livelihoods, values and rights of people who live and work in these landscapes.

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Fig. 1: Examples of remote-sensing technologies to monitor tropical forest regeneration.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 2: The average years since the last disturbance event and spatial distribution of regenerating tropical forests in 2023.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 3: Forest regeneration quantity, quality and recovery timelines.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 4: Political, social and ecological enabling factors for natural regeneration of tropical forests.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

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Acknowledgements

P.H.S.B. acknowledges the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, grant nos 2018/18416-2, 2021/10573-4, 2014/50279-4 and 2020/15230-5), the Dutch Research Council (grant no. 5160957745) and Shell Brazil (grant no. 22047-5) for financial support. V.H. was in part supported by the CGIAR MITIGATE+ project, the WRI Land & Carbon Lab and the Open Earth Monitor Project funded by the European Union (grant agreement no. 101059548). F.B. is supported by grants from the Dutch Research Council (SBEF-ALWOP.457 and NEWFOR-5160957745) and the European Research Council (PANTROP-834775). The authors thank L. Poorter for reviewing an earlier version of this manuscript and C. Jakovac for comments on Fig. 3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forest Research Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland, Australia

    Robin L. Chazdon

  2. Ecological Networks Lab, Department of Biology, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Nico Blüthgen

  3. Department of Forest Sciences, ‘Luiz de Queiroz’ College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo (USP), Piracicaba, Brazil

    Pedro H. S. Brancalion

  4. Center for Carbon Research in Tropical Agriculture, University of São Paulo (USP), Piracicaba, Brazil

    Pedro H. S. Brancalion

  5. Re.green, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Pedro H. S. Brancalion

  6. Global Land Monitoring Group, Section 1.4 Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany

    Viola Heinrich

  7. School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Viola Heinrich

  8. Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Frans Bongers

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All authors contributed to researching and writing the article. All authors contributed substantially to discussion and presentation of the content. R.L.C. led the organization and writing of the article. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Robin L. Chazdon.

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P.H.S.B. is partner at re.green, a restoration company. R.L.C. is global director of the Assisted Natural Regeneration Alliance, led by World Resources Institute.

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Chazdon, R.L., Blüthgen, N., Brancalion, P.H.S. et al. Drivers and benefits of natural regeneration in tropical forests. Nat. Rev. Biodivers. 1, 298–314 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44358-025-00043-y

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