Secondary Forest

Secondary forests are often incorrectly dismissed as wastelands. The fact is, they can be very useful to local communities, and offer potential to the private sector. Secondary forests occur where land has been cleared of much of its original forest vegetation, and where woody vegetation has then taken over and trees have begun regenerating.

A global perspective

Secondary forests are expanding throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America, particularly in countries where tropical primary forest continues to be intensively logged.

It is estimated that around a third of Asia's tropical forest area is now occupied by secondary forests. In 1996 the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that Africa had 90 million hectares of secondary forest and Latin America nearly 165 million hectares.

A wealth of uses

If properly managed, secondary forests can generate significant environmental and livelihood benefits. Under certain conditions they can reduce pressure on primary forests through their potential to produce both wood and non-wood forest products. Furthermore, they fulfill environmental functions and can play a useful role in biodiversity conservation.

Secondary forests can provide an alternative resource to primary forests. They can deliver many of the same environmental services as primary forests. For example, secondary forests can be important in terms of watershed and soil protection. In addition, secondary forests are today the largest land reserve for agriculture and livestock production. If conversion into these land-uses is adequately planned and the converted areas properly managed, they can minimize local pressure on remaining primary forests.

Countries where little original forest remain, like Nepal, India, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Paraguay, are now recognising the significance of secondary forests for environmental, local livelihood and industrial purposes. Properly restored, managed and valued, secondary forests can occupy an important role for the less intensive production of timber, wood and non-wood forest products for local and national use, and even international trade.

The beneficiaries

Secondary forests are especially important for the rural poor, and for those who live outside the cash economy, because they are usually accessible to local people. In this way they can provide a range of goods to meet immediate livelihood needs, such as timber for village dwellings, fencing and posts, spices and herbal medicines.

Secondary forests also provide local people with many of the same goods and services as primary forests and, far from being wastelands, they can contain large numbers of desirable species, many of them deliberately planted or encouraged. Shifting cultivators often create secondary forest gardens by planting fallow areas with trees that provide fruits, nuts, resins and other products.

Some secondary forests also provide good hunting grounds. Many animals that usually live in primary forests, the orangutan for example, are now regularly found in secondary forests. In fact, certain browsing mammals and birds actually prefer the more open secondary forests.

CIFOR’s focus

The challenge is to ensure that the development process and management of secondary forests has the full participation of all stakeholders. Especially those at the grass-roots level who depend on forests for their day-to-day survival.

CIFOR is looking at the best way to manage these areas, establish where they are and identify any threats to their existence. CIFOR is also examining who has the right to use them and who is actually using them now. Only then will it be possible to make informed decisions on how secondary forests should be managed for the benefit of future generations.