These discussions are important because natural regeneration is not always successful, not

even in otherwise highly productive tropical rainforests—especially when the sites are
already so damaged by human management practices that they need additional time to
recover (Ibid.). There are inevitable trade-offs when setting priorities, such as temporal
factors (short-term versus long-term benefits), spatial factors (communities and upstream and
downstream users), sectoral trade-offs (land/water use for agriculture versus watershed
conservation), and local versus global interests (FAO 2003, 84). As Reid et al. write,
countries around the world are currently committing to restoring “millions of hectares of
forest, and with limited resources available for such work, it is important to understand what
the most effective techniques will be”.