Cutting Vines for Climate Research in the Belize Maya Forest

A new study shows liana liberation is a promising natural climate solution

A paper published in 2023 by Cayetano and co-authors at The University of Florida, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, and other partner institutions found that liberating 5-10 trees per hectare from their liana burdens in selectively logged forests could help the trees grow faster. The implications of this research are far-reaching. Not only do liberated trees produce more timber—a win for forest managers—they also sequester more carbon from the atmosphere, making this easy forest intervention a cheap and easy-to-implement natural climate solution.

Unlocking potential revenue from climate projects such as this one could also mean less pressure for owners of managed forests on smaller lots of land to convert the forest for other profitable land uses, such as agriculture. This ensures that the forest remains a forest. Selectively logged forests that are well-managed are, after all, still healthy forests, and can provide key ecosystem services. Liana cutting is part of a broader menu of improved and sustainable forest management practices that can help mitigate climate change while stewarding biodiversity, local livelihoods, and protecting the myriad environmental services that forests provide.

Researching the connection between lianas and biodiversity

For liana cutting to be considered a sustainable practice, forest managers likely need to avoid a blanket approach to vine removal to minimize risks to biodiversity and the integrity of the forest. While climate change and human disturbances are increasing liana infestations in managed forests, lianas themselves are not a new feature. They’re an important part of forest ecosystems: animals use them as a food source and to move around the forest, and humans depend on them, too. Some Indigenous communities rely on the vines for food, medicine, and materials, such as for basket weaving. These same communities have long been known to practice selective liana cutting to encourage growth of the species they favor for certain uses.

The extent to which wildlife depend on lianas is still poorly understood, but another project team working in the Belize Maya Forest aims to change that.

Erin Poor is a Landscape Ecologist at The Nature Conservancy who, along with Marcella Kelly at Virginia Tech, leads a project looking at the biodiversity co-benefits of natural climate solutions. In Belize, Kelly and Poor are working on a research project that looks at how forest wildlife depend on lianas for survival, and how liana removal could affect biodiversity.

The project team has set up camera traps and is using bioacoustic monitoring devices in the Belize Maya Forest to learn which species of wildlife are present, and to understand how and when they might use the lianas for food or transport. So far, they’ve observed monkeys, kinkajou, tayra (a type of weasel native to the Americas) and margay cats, among other mammals. At least some of these animals seem to depend on lianas, although whether the removal of the vine would constitute an inconvenience or have a more detrimental effect on their long-term survival is still to be determined.

“This really underscores the importance of selective liana cutting," says Poor. "Liana cutting has potential climate change mitigation benefits, but we know that wildlife also rely on lianas in the forest for food and mobility and we expect that complete removal of lianas could be very harmful to the species that rely on them.”

With these biodiversity unknowns in mind, the research team studying the benefits of liana cutting took a conservative approach in their numbers, suggesting only a small fraction of the lianas present in a managed forest are cut.

“To safeguard the rich biodiversity that relies on these lianas we recommend cutting the vines from only 5-10 trees per hectare,” Cayetano explains. “This minimizes any potential biodiversity risk while still ensuring a measurable climate benefit.”

In a managed forest, for example, a practitioner could choose to only cut lianas from future crop trees – timber species that are designated for harvest sometime in the future.

Harvesting timber isn’t allowed in the Belize Maya Forest, but Cayetano’s research will inform liana cutting projects in managed forests where sustainable harvesting is practiced. Humans need wood, so if we’re managing forests for wood anyway, we should be doing it right.

Beyond liana cutting: engaging stakeholder communities near the Belize Maya Forest

The Belize Maya Forest Trust (BMFT) is part of a larger conservation network of protected lands covering about a third of the Selva Maya, the largest tropical rainforest in the Americas north of the Amazon.

Aside from managing this swath of biodiversity-rich protected area and facilitating the kind of globally-relevant research that Denver Cayetano is undertaking, BMFT has launched a community outreach program and is working with local stakeholder communities on conservation of both the Belize Maya Forest, and of their own community spaces – forests, farms, schools, and local businesses. 

In one community program, BMFT is working with a local school on a regenerative agriculture project, where students are learning about organic farming practices and agroforestry, or the practice of planting trees in agricultural lands.

Another community stakeholder, nursery owner Heidi Gonzalez, is working with BMFT to grow Inga seedlings that will ultimately be used in forest restoration and agroforestry efforts in and around the BMFT.

“We really want to get Belizeans involved in both the protection of these local areas, and at the higher levels of research and management,” says Elma Kay, Managing Director of the Belize Maya Forest Trust. “Our communities depend on the ecosystem services of this forest for their health and livelihoods, but this forest also depends on our communities. We know that working together is key to finding long-term solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss, and we want to be a model for how to do this in other landscapes around the world.

At a local scale, Denver Cayetano’s liana cutting research could ultimately inform carbon markets projects that would bring more funds to the Belize Maya Forest to support the ongoing protection and conservation of these lands. Beyond Belize’s borders, the hope is that this climate-positive forest management strategy can soon be implemented in tropical and temperate forests around the world.

“Selective liana cutting is really an example of something simple and cheap that we can do right now, but that will have benefits for years to come,” Cayetano says. “It’s a win-win for people and for the climate.”