AWG (Art) Bongers

Art is a passionate ecologist, who is currently doing his research on natural regeneration under the ERC- Regreening Africa with Natural Regeneration (REACT) project in Kenya. Natural regeneration is a restoration technique that relies on the natural regrowth of vegetation after agricultural fields are abandoned. Most of the current knowledge comes from successional studies on such abandoned fields. However, natural regeneration can also occur on agricultural landscapes where farmers' livelihoods depend on these lands. Here, farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), where naturally occurring stems and underground stumps are managed, is often a suitable restoration method. His research aim is to unravel how natural regeneration – and its drivers and outcomes - develops throughout time in various socio-ecological systems in Kenya.

Before starting his PhD, Art did his MSc at WUR (Forest Ecology and Forest Management group), where he focused on secondary forests during both his thesis and internship. His thesis focused on the development of two hydraulic traits throughout succession in the moist tropical forests in southern Mexico. During this time, he developed a keen interest in functional traits and their role in ecosystem functioning, and ultimately how they can inform nature conservation and restoration. In his internship, which he did with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, he analysed how light affects the growth and survival of one-year-old seedlings planted underneath a secondary forest canopy.