South America’s Secret Forests

A trip through El Salvador surprised ecologist Susanna Hecht. She was told there were not forests left, but she found an abundance of trees. She called these woodlands “secret forests.” Turned out there trees were resurgent throughout Latin America, including Honduras, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, and in parts of the Amazon. But because scientists and policy-makers were preoccupied with tropical deforestation, Hecht said, they had been slow to take notice.