2. The papers in the special issue: organization and content
This special issue comprises six papers. They cover topics
around tropical forest restoration that range from ecological
aspects of native species reforestation, effects of land use on birds
flocks and diversity, estimates of carbon in relation to forest fragmentation
and underlying drivers of forest diversity in sacred
forests.
In the first paper, Gunaratne and colleagues provided a synthesis
of their work investigating the ecological barriers to tropical
montane forest succession on anthropogenic grasslands
(Gunaratne et al., 2014). Their findings suggest that forest regeneration
on grasslands is impeded by limited seed dispersal, herbivory
of seedlings that do establish and fire. Planting studies
show that tree seedlings do better when grasses are removed
and herbivores are excluded. Macaranga indica and Symplocos
cochinchinense are two early successional pioneers that are
potential nurse trees; planted on grasslands, they facilitate other
tree regeneration beneath their canopy. Other potential techniques
that they suggest include the creation of fire breaks,
and scarification and exposure of mineral soil of grassland adjacent
to forest patches. In the second paper, Mark Ashton and colleagues
describe the use of pine plantations as a technique, both
to secure the natural recruitment of native tree regeneration
beneath the pine canopy and to facilitate the plantings of native
trees (Ashton et al., 2014a). They provide a case for restoration
for both conservation and utilitarian values, and make a strong
economic case for the economic restoration of native species in
the everwet regions of South Asia in comparison to the intensive
cultivation of tea.