The Case for Engaging Smallholder Farmers in Assisted Natural Regeneration of Trees and Forests Across the Global Tropics and Subtropics

Smallholder farmers manage a significant portion of the world’s agricultural land, with smallholdings composing over 76% of agricultural land in Asia and 60% in Africa. By adopting assisted natural regeneration (ANR) practices, smallholder farmers and millions of land users across the global tropics and subtropics can become agents of restoration without having to abandon their farmland or rural livelihoods. Smallholder farmers are often family farmers that live close to their fields; they have a vested interest in reversing land degradation and have deep-rooted motivations for sustainability. Smallholder farms are generally unmechanized and are more likely to adopt diverse, sustainable, and agroecological practices that support higher levels of biodiversity than large-scale industrialized monocultures. In addition, smallholder farms are often situated within a landscape matrix composed of agricultural land amidst remnant forest patches. These attributes signal a high potential for natural regeneration on many smallholder farms and a high capacity for smallholders to implement farm-based ANR practices within larger-scale forest and landscape restoration initiatives.