Mimicking Nature: A Review of Successional Agroforestry Systems as an Analogue to Natural Regeneration of Secondary Forest Stands

Over the past 30 years, successional agroforestry systems (SAFS) have been increasingly promoted in Latin America as an approach for recovering soils and improving agro-ecosystems in degraded landscapes. Successional agroforestry systems (SAFS) are complex, multi-strata systems composed of species assemblages that resemble native forest structures. The concept of SAFS integrates indigenous knowledge of intercropping multipurpose subsistence species, modern agroforestry techniques, and applications of assisted natural regeneration to emphasize biodiversity, adaptive management, and the use of ecological succession to establish a productive system. Much like the management of assisted regeneration of forest stands, mimicking natural ecosystems in agroecosystems requires the knowledge of species survival, growth, functional traits, and niche resource requirements in order to appropriately select multifunctional species and to develop spatial arrangements for stratified stand structures. In recent years, conceptual theories have been proposed that support parallels drawn between natural succession models of forest stand development to management of SAFS. This chapter summarizes background theory to ground the reader in key principles of ecological regeneration and silvicultural management, provides examples that have tested biomimicry hypotheses in agroforestry systems in the tropics, and introduces three case studies from current SAFS in Brazil, Nicaragua, and Belize to examine their potential to promote agro-biodiversity, regenerate severely disturbed agricultural landscapes, diversify harvest yields, and reduce ecological and economic risks associated with conventional agricultural systems.