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Ecosystem Service Provision by Secondary Forests in Shifting Cultivation Areas Remains Poorly Understood

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Abstract

It is often asserted that secondary forests (SF) provide inferior forest-based ecosystem services (ES), but there is limited research to generalize this claim. Here, we review comparisons between ES provision in SFs and other land uses in shifting cultivation landscapes. We searched the peer-reviewed literature and selected only studies that compare ES from SF with ES from other land uses. In total, 212 ES and 347 comparisons of different land use systems were recorded. Comparisons were mainly made for carbon storage, biodiversity, and soil variables. Very few provisioning ES were compared in the literature and no cultural services were recorded. SF were in most cases inferior to old-growth forest in terms of carbon storage and biodiversity, whereas soil quality comparisons varied. ES provision in SF was superior to agricultural systems, whereas comparisons with plantation crops varied. We conclude that the narrow focus on specific ES categories strongly limits understanding of SF in shifting cultivation areas and that it is more relevant to compare SFs with other agricultural systems rather than with old-growth forests.

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The research was solely based on data in the published peer-reviewed literature.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the comments from the guest editors of the special issue and the two anonymous reviewers. This article contributes to the Global Land Programme, https://glp.earth/.

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No specific funding was obtained and all work was done on research time allocated by the authors’ respective universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350, København K, Denmark

    Ole Mertz, Thilde Bech Bruun, Martin Rudbeck Jepsen & Jeannette S. Hinrup

  2. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond St, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, Scotland, UK

    Casey M. Ryan

  3. Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Mittelstrasse 43, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Julie G. Zaehringer

  4. Wyss Academy for Nature, Kochergasse 4, 3011, Bern, Switzerland

    Andreas Heinimann

  5. Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 12, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Andreas Heinimann

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  1. Ole Mertz
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Mertz, O., Bruun, T.B., Jepsen, M.R. et al. Ecosystem Service Provision by Secondary Forests in Shifting Cultivation Areas Remains Poorly Understood. Hum Ecol 49, 271–283 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-021-00236-x

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