Large-Scale Forest Restoration Accompanied by Biodiversity Recovery in Costa Rica's Redistributive Payment for Ecosystem Service Program

Abstract

Ecosystem restoration is widely recognized as among the most important means to combat both climate change and biodiversity loss. A vast range of studies have illustrated the potential for local ecological recovery, but its efficacy at large spatial scales remains highly uncertain. Until now, the lack of standardized biodiversity monitoring systems has restricted our capacity to evaluate the potential for ecological recovery at large spatial scales. Here, we use an ecoacoustic dataset from 119 locations to evaluate the biodiversity implications of large-scale forest restoration within Costa Rica's redistributive Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) program. Soundscapes recorded in degraded pastures were marked by significant changes in the timing and frequencies typical of mature reference forests. In contrast, we show that the acoustic patterns of restored PES sites have recovered and now resemble reference forests more closely. The age and ecological composition of naturally regenerating forests within the PES have led to more dramatic patterns of acoustic recovery (soundscapes 1.4 times more similar to reference forests than pastures) than in their monoculture plantation counterparts (1.24 times). The scale and consistency of these findings provide strong evidence of effective restoration at scale, highlighting the ecological merits of natural restoration approaches over monoculture plantations.