Active or Passive Forest Restoration? Assessing Restoration Alternatives with Avian Foraging Behavior

Abstract

Active and passive restoration are two important strategies to aid the recovery of large areas of deforested and degraded tropical lands. Active restoration is where management techniques such as planting seeds or seedlings are implemented, and passive restoration is when no action is taken except to cease environmental stressors such as agriculture or grazing. We compared the habitat quality of active and passive restoration sites with similar landuse histories and times since abandonment for insectivorous birds by measuring vegetation structure, arthropod biomass, and the foraging behavior of three resident bird species in southern Costa Rica. Although vegetation measures such as amount of understory cover and tree species richness and density differed between the two restoration strategies, arthropod biomass and foraging behavioral measures were similar. Our results suggest that while active and passive restoration strategies may lead to different vegetation structures, they may support similar biomass of foliage-dwelling arthropods and be similarly used by foraging insectivorous birds. Passive restoration is generally less costlier than active restoration and, if local and landscape characteristics do not impede recovery, may be a viable alternative from the perspective of birds using the sites.

Recuperar bosques no es solo plantar árboles: Lecciones aprendidas luego de 7 años restaurando bosques de Pilgerodendron Uviferum (D. Don) Florin en Chiloé

“…Con una clara visión de lo que está sucediendo en el ecosistema a restaurar, es posible el desarrollar actividades de restauración exitosas. Actualmente, los enfoques o actividades de restauración de bosques suelen dividirse en "pasivas" o la eliminación de las causantes de degradación o el uso de regeneración natural de especies arbóreas; y "activas" o el uso de regeneración artificial, quema o raleo para lograr una estructura deseada (Morrison & Lindell, 2011;Rey Benayas et al 2008). Es importante mencionar que muchas veces se malinterpreta el concepto de la restauración pasiva asumiendo que equivale al abandono del ecosistema.…”

Arrested recovery in a sandy woodland correlates with a lack of heavy and long seeds in the seed bank

“…A starting point is to understand the mechanism of how and why spontaneous (passive) restoration efforts fail to return a target species' assembly. This is especially important as the economic and biotic benefits may be superior with passive restoration efforts than active ones in some circumstances (Sawtschuk et al 2010, Holl and Aide 2011, Morrison and Lindell 2011, Tropek et al 2012) and see Dorrough et al (2008). A growing literature documents the trajectories of passive restoration efforts (Standish et al 2007, Prach and Hobbs 2008, Sawtschuk et al 2010, Read et al 2011, Tropek et al 2012; generally there is an incomplete match between analog sites and the novel communities being assembled.…”

AVALIAÇÃO DA RESTAURAÇÃO PASSIVA DE UMA ÁREA DE MATA ATLÂNTICA APÓS O CORTE RASO DE UMA PLANTAÇÃO DE <i>Cupressus lusitanica </i>MILL

“…The lowest intervention level occurs when no management action is taken, beyond releasing the restoration site from stressors, which impair the spontaneous ecosystem recovery, in such a way that the site can undergo a passive restoration. Passive restoration may foster plant and animal communities' recovery (AIDE et al, 2000;MCIVER;STARR, 2001;GUERRERO;ROCHA, 2010;MORRISON;LINDELL, 2011) when the level of degradation is relatively low and given that there are sources of colonizers and faunal dispersal agents nearby (WUNDERLE, 1997;GUARIGUATA;OSTERTAG, 2001;CHAZDON, 2008). However, there is a degradation threshold, beyond which recovery is not possible without intensive intervention (SUNDING et al, 2004).…”

“…Other research compared the vegetation arising from passive and active restoration (e.g. SAMPAIO; HOLL; SCARIOT, 2007;MORRISON;LINDELL, 2011). In general, these studies were carried out in abandoned pastures.…”