Successional forests in Colombia: an opportunity for recovery of transformed landscapes

Abstract

Over half of forest cover in the tropics are secondary forests, resulting from spontaneous forest re-growth, once human activities have ceased on a land. The successional process, which governs the recovery of forests structure and composition, is determined by multiple factors that operate at different scales and are related in complex ways. These contingencies may lead secondary forests towards unpredictable successional trajectories. In Colombia, successional forests are an integral part of the landscape, their area is increasing, and can be considered essential allies to achieve restoration goals; however, their ecological value has not been considered in conservation agendas. For this reason, our objective was to evaluate the state-of-the-art in knowledge about successional forests in Colombia to make research opportunities visible. We calculated the area occupied by successional forests in Colombia, as well as in the different regions of the country and we performed a review of the published literature on the research of these forests in the country. Finally, we proposed some considerations for their future study. In brief, successional forests are dynamic ecosystems, both taxonomically and functionally, which should be considered crucial elements of transformed landscapes, and thereby have the possibility of being integrated into large-scale conservation and restoration projects. This highlights the need to eliminate the stigma lying on them to begin to study them as valuable ecological elements within the landscape.