Secondary forests regrowing on abandoned agricultural land constitute an important, albeit widely overlooked, component in the landscape matrix of tropical lowland America. These ‘new’ forest resources on private land-holdings derive either from unsustainable cattle-ranching practices of better-off farmers or are part of the crop/fallow system of resource-poor farmers. If previous land use was light, secondary forest management may offer an interesting use option to better-off farmers, providing that subsidies for stand improvement are given. Improved fallow systems using partly the successional vegetation may be a way to establish sustainable small-scale agriculture for resource-poor farmers. Given some technical and financial input, land-use systems based on secondary vegetation could play a vital role both in sustainable landscape management and biodiversity conservation.