Despite the much-discussed loss and degradation of old-growth forests, secondary forests have expanded across social-ecological landscapes worldwide. Whether regrowing in abandoned areas and marginal agricultural lands, promoted through restoration initiatives, or as intrinsic components of fallows and agroforestry systems, secondary forests offer a wide range of essential ecosystem services and contributions to people. These include helping to mitigate the climate and biodiversity crises and underpinning agricultural systems and rural livelihoods that many traditional and Indigenous communities rely on.

My research agenda on secondary forests and forest regeneration has been grounded in collaborative networks and research projects with fellow researchers from various institutions over the past 15 years. This work ranges from the study of arbuscular mycorrhizal communities in experimental plots featuring different forest restoration models in the Atlantic Forest to the investigation of how ecological factors mediate forest succession in chronosequences and permanent plots monitored for over 30 years in the Amazon rainforest.

Two long-term projects and collaborations, in particular, constitute the core of my work in this research agenda: the Pioneiras Project and the Amazonia REGENERA Project.