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Ambitious pledges to restore over 400 million hectares of degraded lands by 2030 have been made by several countries within the Global Partnership for Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR). Monitoring restoration outcomes at this scale requires cost-effective methods to quantify not only forest cover, but also forest structure and the diversity of useful species. Here we obtain and analyze structural attributes of forest canopies undergoing restoration in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil using a portable ground lidar remote sensing device as a proxy for airborne laser scanners. We assess the ability of these attributes to distinguish forest cover types, to estimate aboveground dry woody biomass (AGB) and to estimate tree species diversity (Shannon index and richness). A set of six canopy structure attributes were able to classify five cover types with an overall accuracy of 75%, increasing to 87% when combining two secondary forest classes. Canopy height and the unprecedented “leaf area height volume” (a cumulative product of canopy height and vegetation density) were good predictors of AGB. An index based on the height and evenness of the leaf area density profile was weakly related to the Shannon Index of tree species diversity and showed no relationship to species richness or to change in species composition. These findings illustrate the potential and limitations of lidar remote sensing for monitoring compliance of FLR goals of landscape multifunctionality, beyond a simple assessment of forest cover gain and loss.

Pelo monitoramento de florestas em restauração, detectou-se que elas dificilmente atingem alta diversidade de formas de vida. Epífitas, plantas que vivem sobre árvores hospedeiras (forófitos), são fundamentais em um ecossistema. É importante promover o enriquecimento de matas com essa forma de vida. O objetivo deste trabalho é fornecer subsídios teóricos para realizar transplantes de epífitas de florestas que tiveram que ser legalmente desmatadas para florestas em restauração. Para isso, analisou-se a sobrevivência e desenvolvimento de indivíduos de Aechmea bromeliifolia (Rudge) Baker (Bromeliaceae) um ano após terem sido transplantados a seis distintas espécies de forófitos, em Floresta Estacional Semidecidual em restauração há 23 anos. As variáveis analisadas não responderam significativamente de acordo com espécie de forófito, rugosidade de sua casca ou cobertura de dossel. Mostraram diferenças significativas de acordo com o porte das epífitas, de forma que aquelas de massa intermediárias (105,5 a 239,4 g) tiveram maior sucesso no transplante. Monitoring of forests in process of restoration has shown that they have not been achieving high diversity of life forms. Epiphytes, plants that live on host trees (phorophytes), are essential in an ecosystem. Thus, it is important to promote enrichment of forests using them. The aim of this work is to provide information for procedures of transplantation of epiphytes taken from forests that had to be cut off to areas that have been restored. In order to perform that, we analyzed survival and development of individuals of Aechmea bromeliifolia (Rudge) Baker (Bromeliaceae) a year after been transferred to six distinct host tree species, in a 23-year old Semideciduous Seasonal Forest. These variables did not significantly respond to any particular phorophyte species, bark roughness, or canopy cover. They showed significant differences according to the initial weight of the epiphytes. The middle-sized individuals (105.5 a 239.4 g) were the most successful in transplantations.