Overcoming Key Barriers for Secondary Cloud Forest Management in Mexico

Abstract

Secondary cloud forests (SCFs), those that regenerate naturally following abandonment of human activities in previously deforested land, are of great value as refuges of high species diversity and for their critical role in hydrological regulation. This opinion paper analyzes the main environmental, socio-economic, and regulatory aspects that currently hamper the sustainable use and conservation of SCFs in Mexico for the provision of timber and ecosystem services. The main constraints identified include contradictory norms and policies and the marginalization of smallholders in timber production activities. Developing economic incentives for forest product harvesting and provision of ecosystem services derived from SCFs, while also addressing legal and normative aspects related to their sustainable use, is paramount. Given the high heterogeneity in floristic composition and stand structure of SCFs among localities, technical and social norms for sustainable use should be sufficiently flexible to allow adaptive management approaches. Future research areas should be focused on monitoring the response of SCFs to silvicultural interventions, documenting existing traditional practices as well as conducting socio-economic analyses of timber production and associated ecosystem services. This is essential for developing sound policies and approaches for the sustainable use and long-term management of SCFs in Mexico.

Gestionando algo pasajero: El bosque secundario en Perú

“…Dada la naturaleza transitoria del bosque secundario, su gobernanza efectiva -la cual apoya la promoción, uso sostenible y protección de la regeneración-tiene a veces demasiadas contradicciones y barreras en el trópico americano (Vieira et al 2014, Henao et al 2015, Toledo-Aceves et al 2021. En Perú existen dos barreras importantes para una gobernanza efectiva del bosque secundario; la primera relacionada con su discernimiento y la segunda con estructuras de gobernanza conflictivas.…”

Are nurse plants useful for facilitating the reintroduction of mid- and late successional tree species in tropical montane cloud forests?

“…These forests originally covered about 20,000 km 2 (Rzedowski 1978), but more than 50 % of their surface have been replaced by grasslands and agricultural fields during the past century (Challenger & Soberón 2008). These activities, however, in some places have progressively ceased over the last three decades due to the increasing emigration of rural population towards urbanized areas (Sanchez & Pacheco 2012) and the Mexican government has implemented public policies addressed to restore TMCF (Ramírez-Soto et al 2018, Trujillo-Miranda et al 2018, Toledo-Aceves et al 2021. These policies promote the transplanting of saplings of mid-and late-successional native trees in open areas or fallow because they are aimed in recovering ecosystem services as soon as possible, but this strategy usually fails because saplings do not tolerate the elevated solar exposure, high temperatures and water shortage conditions that prevail in these sites (Camacho-Cruz et al 2000, Ramírez-Bamonde et al 2005, Ramírez-Marcial et al 2006).…”