How long does it take a rainforest to regenerate?
We all know it takes a long time for cleared rainforests to regenerate, but how long exactly? According to a study focusing on the Brazilian Atlantic forest, certain aspects can return surprisingly quickly – within 65 years. But for the landscape to truly regain its native identity takes a lot longer – up to 4000 years. The Atlantic forest originally stretched along the southern half of Brazil’s Atlantic coast, covering some 1.2 million square kilometres. Once lush, the forest has been continually exploited for food, wood and space. Today, land it used to occupy is home to most of the country’s population, including Brazil’s two largest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and only 100,000 square kilometres of forest remain. In 1993, however, the government created several protected areas to conserve the forest’s remnants. To determine how long it would take for the forest to regenerate, Marcia Marques and colleagues at the Federal University of Paraná collected data on different parc
