Conservation and rehabilitation of dry forests in the Caribbean

Caribbean dry forests have been subjected to intense and chronic anthropogenic disturbances including deforestation, fragmentation, and conversion to agriculture, pastures, housing and other non-forest land covers. As a result, very few undisturbed dry forest areas remain in the region. Our research over the past 30 years has focused first on the characteristics of native dry forests and more recently on new emerging dry forests after the abandonment of degraded lands. Naturally emerging dry forests on degraded lands provide clues for the rehabilitation of dry forests. Some of these include the positive role of alien species invasions during the early stages of forest regeneration, the rapid accumulation of native species after the closure of the canopy by alien species, the realization that successions are directional rather than cyclical, and the inevitability of a time tax during the recovery of forests. The planting of native species on degraded lands is an alternative to natural regeneration, but this technique is costly and requires understanding of life history traits of dry forest species. Rare and endemic dry forest species can coexist with alien species in rehabilitated dry forests and we will review the characteristics of these forests in comparison with those of the native forests that they replaced.