Natural regeneration assessment is necessary to understand the future species composition and stocking of a forest community.  A commonly measured attribute to evaluate natural regeneration is the mean number of young stems per species per hectare.

For a detailed understanding of regeneration, the young trees are classified into different height classes. For example, trees with height > 150 cm are defined as “large saplings”, trees with 50-150 cm height are defined as “small saplings”, and trees with height <50 cm are defined as “seedlings”.

The photo below shows the inventory data of the natural regeneration of the Biiso forest in Uganda. 

Step by step to evaluate the natural regeneration of a forest stand based on the mean number of young stems per species per hectare shown
on the next page.