As the area of tropical primary forests decline throughout the tropics, secondary forests are expanding dramatically, and in many countries now exceed the total area covered by primary forest (FAO, 2005). In fact there may be very few tropical forests that are not impacted by humans in some way (Wright, 2010). Understanding the functional and successional dynamics of these secondary forests is important in terms of their management for timber, ecological services, biodiversity conservation, and non timber forest products (Guariguata and Ostertag, 2001).