7

Restoration and Management of

Degraded Tropical Forest
Landscapes

John A. Parrotta

Introduction

Tropical forest loss and degradation, as well as degradation of lands that fonnerly
supported forest, are proceeding at unprecedented rates, eroding biological diversity and
prospects for sustainable economic development of agricultural and forest resources.
Between 1980 and 1990, an estimated 15.4 million ha yr- I of tropical forests and
woodlands were destroyed or seriously degraded, principally through agricultural expan-
sion, uncontrolled livestock grazing, logging, and fuelwood collection (Food and Agri-
culture Organization, 1993). This is equivalent to annual forest cover losses of 0.8%, the
greatest losses occurring in moist deciduous forests (6.1 million ha, or 1.00%, y-I) and in
tropical rain forests (4.6 million ha, or 0.6%, y-I). Significant losses during this period
also occurred in upland forest fonnations (2.5 million ha, or 1.1%, y-I) as well as in
deciduous to very dry forest zones (2.2 mil1ion ha, or 0.5%, y-l).
In India, for example, where deforestation and forest degradation trends have been
partially offset by ambitious industrial and nonindustrial plantation development efforts
over the past 20 years, forest cover' between the early 1980s and mid-1990s has reportedly
declined only slightly, from 19.49 to 19.27% of the country's total geographic area (Forest
Survey of India, 1997). However, these figures include forest plantation areas (which have
increased significantly during this period in some States) and more importantly do not take
into account the continuing rapid transfonnation of closed forest (forest cover with a
canopy density >40%) to open forest (canopy density 1~0%). Over a 6-year period,

I Lands with a tree cover having a canopy density greater than 10%.
John A. Parrotta • International Institute of Tropical Forestry, USDA Forest Service, Rio Piedras, PR 00928-
5000, USA. Present address: USDA Forest Service, Research and Development, RPC 4th floor, 1601 North Kent
Street, Arlington, VA 22209, USA: e-mail: jparrotta@fs.fed.us

135

R. S. Ambasht et al. (eds.), Modern Trends in Applied Terrestrial Ecology

© Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers 2002
136 Parrotta

between the late-l 980s and mid-1990s, closed forest in India declined from approximately
385,000 to 367,000 km2 (11.2% of the country's total land area), whereas open forest
increased from 250,000 to 261,000 km2 . Furthermore, over large areas of the country's
remaining natural forests, human and livestock pressures (specifically, grazing, periodic
fire, and fuelwood collection) have precluded effective natural regeneration to the extent
that even without further cutting of canopy trees, these forests are in decline, with their
complex ecological interactions between and among floristic, faunal, microbiological and
abiotic components becoming increasingly simplified, less tightly integrated, and less
productive. In such forests, it is but a short step between the inevitable mortality of
remnant trees and their reclassification as "wastelands."
Historically, the most common response to land degradation has been abandonment
or reliance on natural forest succession to restore lost soil fertility, species richness, and
biomass productivity. Periodic land abandonment has been the basis of apparently
sustainable traditional shifting cultivation and livestock herding systems worldwide. In
many tropical regions, however, fallow periods are often shortened or eliminated due to
increased population pressures and agricultural intensification. Without adequate inputs
such as plant nutrients, productivity and land utility commonly decline. As a result,
extensive areas of former forest lands in varying stages of degradation are in need of
management to improve their productive capacity to meet basic human needs, to enhance
prospects for effective watershed management, and to contribute to biodiversity conserva-
tion by providing improved natural habitat for wildlife.
Successful strategies for rehabilitating degraded areas must be based on the needs and
priorities of stakeholders and the associated costs and benefits. A large proportion of
marginal lands currently classified as degraded can and should be rehabilitated primarily
for food production. New cropping practices (including agroforestry technologies) and
more efficient agricultural resource management systems can assist this process and ensure
that agriculture remains sustainable and, in the process, lessens local pressures on natural
forest ecosystems. There remain, however, significant formerly forested areas in many
countries that cannot be economically rehabilitated in the near term for either agricultural
or intensive commercial forestry production, and degraded lands of high potential value for
conservation and watershed protection.
An unknown proportion of these lands would naturally revert fairly quickly to
secondary forest if the pressures on them (i.e., biomass harvesting, grazing, fire) were
lifted, as has occurred in many areas of South and Southeast Asia, where Joint Forest
Management programs have shown encouraging rates of forest recovery following
implementation of effective community-based forest protection measures (Poffenberger
and McGean, 1996). Other, more severely degraded, landscapes require some form of
human intervention, or management, to facilitate their recovery. On these sites, persistent
physical, chemical, and biological barriers, or stresses, preclude or severely limit the rate of
natural forest succession. These barriers typically include some combination of the
following "symptoms": recurrent fires; soil compaction, waterlogging, salinization, or
other soil physical and chemical limitations; erosion and soil nutrient limitations; absence
of obligate fungal or bacterial root symbionts; seasonal drought; low seed or rootstock
availability; lack of suitable microhabitats for seed germination and seedling establish-
ment; seed and seedling predation; and severe competition with grasses or ferns.
At present, most tropical reforestation efforts focus on the development of forestry
and agroforestry systems aimed at maximizing production of a very limited number of tree
species of economic importance. More rarely, forest restoration projects involve planting a