Title: Restoring tropical moist forest in northwestern Costa Rica

Authors: Alan R.P. Journet, Kathleen D. Conway

Addresses: Department of Biology and Environmental Science Program, Southeast Missouri State University, One University Plaza, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701, USA. ' Department of Elementary, Early, and Special Education, Southeast Missouri State University, One University Plaza, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701, USA

Abstract: Central American tropical moist forest has suffered extensive removal to provide timber and/or agricultural products. As agricultural land is abandoned, there has been a growing interest in promoting recovery to a forest composition resembling that which was present previously. On an abandoned pasture at Lodge Los Inocentes, a private wildlife reserve and eco-tourist hotel in northwestern Costa Rica, we planted figs (Ficus spp.) of local origin which we hypothesize will serve as recruitment foci enhancing the return of tropical moist forest species. We report on the first three years of Phase I: establishing fig seedlings in the abandoned pasture.

Keywords: forest restoration; tropical moist forest; tropical forest; Costa Rica; wildlife reserve; eco-tourism; figs; abandoned pasture.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2006.053952

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2006 Vol.8 No.2, pp.12 - 31

Published online: 13 May 2013 *

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