Science-Driven Restoration
for Resilient Forests

Gee, A., Werden, L.K., Verduzco-Salazar, O.E., Nie, R. & Waring, B.G. (2025). Secondary succession of a seasonally dry tropical forest is taxonomically stochastic but functionally deterministic. Forest Ecology and Management, 598. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123184.

This research took place in the Las Americas 7 sites at Plant-for-the-Planet Mexico and Plant-for-the-Planet Mexico made a vital contribution to data collection through field support, species identification, and the research nursery infrastructure. The paper found that the functional traits of tree species were predictable at different life stages and stages of tropical dry forest succession, and made recommendations for species selection and target states for restoration projects. For more information, see our blog.

Cole, R.J., Werden, L.K., Chiriboga Arroyo, F., Mendez Quirós, K., Quirós Cedeño, G. & Crowther, T.W. (2024). Forest restoration in practice across Latin America. Biological Conservation, 294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110608.

Plant-for-the-Planet Mexico was one of 166 restoration practitioners who contributed to this systematic assessment of forest restoration work across Latin America.

Averill, C., Anthony, M.A., Baldrian, P., Finkbeiner, F., van den Hoogen, J., Kiers, T., Kohout, P., Hirt, E., Reuben Smith, G. & Crowther, T.W. (2022). Defending Earth’s terrestrial microbiome. Nat Microbiol 7, 1717–1725. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-022-01228-3.

The authors present active microbiome restoration as a promising method to increase the speed and resilience of restoration, but emphasize that success is determined by ecological context and more research is needed to determine when and where these approaches are most effective. Three of the authors established the microbiome restoration experiment in Las Americas 5 to help address this knowledge gap.

Bastin, J.-F., Finegold, Y., Garcia, C., Mollicone, D., Rezende, M., Routh, D., Zohner, C.M. & Crowther, T.W. (2019). The global tree restoration potential. Science 365, 76-79. 10.1126/science.aax0848.

This paper mapped the global potential tree coverage and highlighted the opportunity for climate change mitigation through global tree restoration. It has been cited over 1,500 times. The research was part funded by Plant-for-the-Planet.

Crowther, T., Glick, H.B., Covey, K.R., Bettigole, C., Maynard, D.S., Thomas, S.M., Smith, J.R., Hintler, G., Duguid, M.C., Amatulli, G., Tuanmu, M.-N., Jetz, W., Salas, C., Stam, C., Piotto, D., Tavani, R., Green, S., Bruce, G., Williams, S.J. … Bradford, M.A. (2015). Mapping tree density at a global scale. Nature 525, 201–205. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14967.

This paper provided the first spatially continuous map of forest tree density at a global scale and has been cited over 700 times. Plant-for-the-Planet is acknowledged for "initial discussions and collaboration".