Secondary Forests Are
Worth Saving
A new research has
determined that tropical
forest that has regrown
after clear-cutting can
become almost as
biodiverse as untouched
forest, and are worth
conserving.
According to a report in
Nature News, by
comparing preserved and
regrown forest in Costa
Rica, a team led by
ecologist Robin Chazdon
of the University of
Connecticut in Storrs
has found that 90
percent of tree species
from the original
landscape can also be
found in secondary
forest.
The results, presented
at a tropical
biodiversity symposium
in Washington DC,
suggest these regrown
areas may be worthy of
conservation, even
though they were once
cleared.
You really need to be
looking at this entire
spectrum and trying to
manage it all, not just
focusing on the pristine
biodiverse gems, said
Thomas Lovejoy,
biodiversity chair of
the Heinz Center in
Washington, DC.
The symposium, hosted by
the Smithsonian
Institution, brought
together biologists,
policymakers, and
environmental
organization
representatives to
address controversy
arising from a 2006
paper.
In that, Joseph Wright
of the Smithsonian
Tropical Research
Institute (STRI) in
Balboa, Panama, and
Helene Muller-Landau of
the University of
Minnesota in St Paul
suggested that tropical
extinctions may not be
as dire as predicted.
As farmers migrate to
cities, the study
argues, forests may have
a chance to recover from
agricultural clearing.
One key question is
whether these abandoned
areas will be able to
reassemble the same
richness of species as
the old primary forest.
Chazdon and her
colleagues assessed tree
biodiversity changes in
northeastern Costa Rica
by surveying 18 hectares
of preserved old-growth
forest and 11 hectares
of secondary forest,
which ranged from 10 to
45 years old.
When they looked for
trees with a diameter
greater than 10
centimeters, they found
only 59 percent of the
old-growth tree species
in the regrown areas.
But, when they extended
their search to
seedlings and saplings,
the number rose to 90
percent. (ANI) |
