Beyond tree planting: complementary roles of agroforestry and rainforestation in reducing tropical deforestation pressure
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Tree-based interventions are increasingly promoted as responses to tropical deforestation, yet the term “tree planting” conceals major differences among forest protection, natural regeneration, ecological restoration and agroforestry. This critical narrative review examines how agroforestry and rainforestation can contribute to reducing deforestation pressure, using the Philippines as a principal case while drawing lessons for tropical landscapes more broadly. Agroforestry can diversify farm income, improve selected ecosystem services and increase the permeability of agricultural matrices. Rainforestation—a Philippine approach based on diverse native tree species and site-appropriate production components—can rebuild forest structure and recruitment processes on degraded land. However, neither intervention recreates intact forest, and neither automatically prevents displacement of clearing, commodity-driven expansion or biodiversity loss. Evidence indicates that outcomes depend less on the number of trees planted than on prior land cover, spatial placement, species composition, tenure security, market incentives, long-term management and credible monitoring. We propose a landscape hierarchy: protect intact and recovering natural forests first; enable natural regeneration where ecological recovery is feasible; use rainforestation where active native-species restoration is necessary; and concentrate agroforestry within established farms, buffers and connectivity zones. A common monitoring framework should track forest-cover change, carbon, native-species composition, farm profitability, tenure and leakage. Agroforestry and rainforestation are therefore best treated as complementary components of integrated forest-landscape governance, not interchangeable substitutes for avoided deforestation.
Source: Research Square
Author: Janny Acosta Sumilla
Institution: Davao del Sur State College
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204487669