The deforestation of lowland tropical forests has resulted in vast areas of impoverished lands. The exposure of the soils to torrential rains and the baking sun quickly results in nutrient leaching and soil compaction, and subsistence agriculture is short lived. Because many of these high rainfall areas are best suited to growing trees rather than seasonal crops, the question becomes one of reclaiming the land by planting exotics -- such as pine, eucalyptus, teak or gmelina, where we know a lot about their silviculture -- or taking advantage of native tropical trees, either through natural succession if proximate seed sources are available, or through the planting of native species. In either case, the biological diversity of both plants and animals is enhanced by using native rather than exotic species.

In an effort to promote the reclamation of degraded lands and enhance biodiversity, OTS, in cooperation with the Costa Rican Forest Service (DGF), initiated an experimental plantation at La Selva in 1985 to test the commercial potential of 13 native timber species. This preliminary work showed that many of the species harvested in the wild can be domesticated and grown in plantations and that several show exceptional growth and form under plantation conditions (e.g., Vochysia guatemalensis and Stryphnodendron microstachyum), surpassing in some cases exotics such as Eucalyptus deglupta and Pinus caribaea.

(Espinoza, C. M., and R. P. Butterfield. 1990. Adaptabilidad de 13 especies nativas maderables bajo condiciones de plantación en las tierras bajas húmedas del Atlántico, Costa Rica, 159-72. In Actas Reunión IUFRO, ed. R. Salazar, Guatemala, Abril 1989, CATIE, Turrialba, Costa Rica).