Tropical forest restoration is a key tool for both climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation. However, traditional tree planting efforts are costly, limiting scalability. This project seeks to better understand how naturally regenerating seedlings can be harnessed to meet restoration goals more effectively.
The project team will partner with Ponterra, a commercial developer of high-quality carbon projects that restore biodiversity and support rural communities. The team will take advantage of Ponterra’s large-scale reforestation project in Panama to determine what landscape conditions enable natural regeneration to reliably deliver carbon and biodiversity outcomes. Specifically, the team will map and identify existing trees and forest areas within agricultural sites and link those data to censuses of naturally recruiting seedlings.
The findings will directly inform tropical forest restoration strategies and will help determine where natural regeneration can best be leveraged to meet restoration goals.
This project received funding from the Yale and the World Partnership Fund, administered by the Office of International Affairs.
