Book excerpt: Recent research shows that tropical forests are experiencing changes driven by many factors including deforestation and fragmentation, over-exploitation, invasive species, wildfires, insect and pathogen outbreaks, drought, windstorms and other climatically-enhanced events. Due to climate change, these disturbance events are becoming unprecedented in their frequency, extent and intensity. There is increasing concern that they may impact natural forest regeneration processes and drive rare and sensitive tropical woody plant species along an extinction trajectory. Although natural regeneration has potential to enhance ecological resilience, support local biodiversity, and provide ecosystem goods and services, it is often overlooked as an approach that can be aligned with biodiversity conservation goals, ecological restoration and climate change mitigation targets. Promoting natural forest regeneration may actually be less costly and more effective for restoring ecosystem functions.