Ecological Approaches to Forest Restoration: Lessons Learned from Tropical Wet Asia

In this chapter, we present examples of restoration methods that have successfully returned forest cover to a selected set of study sites in biodiversity hotspots of south and southeast Asia. These methods range from specific site-based restoration treatments facilitating the return of the original rainforest to more general strategies to support the economic and conservation values of local communities.  They have demonstrated that successful restoration can be achieved across an assortment of different socioeconomic and ecological environments. These examples, which focus on ecological restoration of tropical lowland and lower montane rainforests, hold the promise of better-advised and more widespread application for similar landscapes in need of restoration.