Conservation is a big deal – who should drive this project? Nature?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Let’s look at NATURAL rainforest recovery, with Timo Metz and team at Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.
They surveyed sixty-two plots in Ecuador’s Chocó rainforest. These ranged from untouched forests, cacao farms, active pastures, and regrowing forests. They used these to create models of different stages of rainforest recovery, over time.
They surveyed all kinds of life from insects to bacteria. Findings?
Compared to untouched forests, thirty-year regrowths recover ninety percent of total living biomass! They also predict seventy-five percent recovery of original species!
Looks like rainforests can stage a comeback all on their own!
Metz, T., Farwig, N., Dormann, C. F., Schaefer, H. M., Guevara Andino, J. E., Brehm, G., … & Blüthgen, N. (2026). Biodiversity resilience in a tropical rainforest. Nature, 1-8.