![]() ![]() While many countries have included restoration activities as part of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) towards the 2014 UNFCCC Paris Agreement and in their strategies to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), very few include a CO 2 removal target through forest restoration in their NDCs, and even fewer have these quantitative forest restoration targets aligned with their Bonn Challenge commitments. The Bonn Challenge was endorsed and extended in 2014 by the New York Declaration on Forests, pledging to cut 16.5–32.3 Gt CO 2 annual emissions from natural forest loss. Most notably, under the Bonn Challenge, over 47 countries have committed to restore 150 million hectares by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. Īccordingly, international restoration programs have been growing, engaging country governments, private sector entities, and civil society organizations to re-establish tree cover across landscapes. The international community thereby seeks both to mitigate losses and to promote sustainable use of forests in the face of a growing global population and increasing demand for land and resources. The already-felt impacts of these losses, paired with continued diminishment of forests and ecosystem services, has brought global interest in conserving remaining forests and restoring those previously damaged and lost. ![]() The negative effects of these emissions on global climate are compounded by the loss of ecosystem services associated with the decrease in forest habitat. Forest loss and degradation not only entail emissions from carbon stored in biomass, but also the loss of a continuous atmospheric CO 2 sink, threatening our ability to abate increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the atmosphere and to mitigate climate change. Emissions from forest degradation due to fires, timber harvest, and fuelwood yielded a further 2.1 Gt CO 2 year −1 during that same period. Most deforestation and forest degradation is concentrated in the tropics, a region responsible of 3.7 Gt CO 2 year −1 emissions from deforestation between 20, averaging 6.2 Gt CO 2 year −1 between 20. estimated a gross forest loss of 2.3 million km 2 worldwide between 20, while net deforestation between 20 is reported to be 1.3 million km 2. Global emissions from deforestation and forest degradation have been historically high. These rates can easily be applied by practitioners and decision-makers seeking to better understand the positive climate mitigation impacts of existing or planned FLR actions, or by countries making restoration pledges under the Bonn Challenge Commitments or fulfilling Nationally Determined Contributions to the UNFCCC, thereby helping boost FLR efforts world-wide. This study represents the most comprehensive review of published literature on tree growth and CO 2 removals to date, which we operationalized by constructing removal rates for specific FLR activities across the globe. Agroforestry studies, were only found in Africa, Asia, and the Latin America and Caribbean regions. Biomass growth data was most abundant and widely distributed across the world for planted forests and natural regeneration, representing 45% and 32% of all the data points assessed, respectively. Natural regeneration removal rates were 9.1–18.8 t CO 2 ha −1 year −1 during the first 20 years of forest regeneration, followed by agroforestry, the FLR category with the lowest and regionally broad removal rates (10.8–15.6 t CO 2 ha −1 year −1). Mangrove tree restoration was the second most efficient FLR at removing CO 2, with growth rates up to 23.1 t CO 2 ha −1 year −1 the first 20 years post restoration. Planted forests and woodlots were found to have the highest CO 2 removal rates, ranging from 4.5 to 40.7 t CO 2 ha −1 year −1 during the first 20 years of growth. To fill this gap, we developed biomass accumulation rates for a set of FLR activities (natural regeneration, planted forests and woodlots, agroforestry, and mangrove restoration) across the globe and global CO 2 removal rates with corresponding confidence intervals, grouped by FLR activity and region/climate. ![]() However, the extent to which these activities capture CO 2 with associated climate mitigation impacts are poorly known, especially in geographies where data on biomass growth of restored forests are limited or do not exist. Forest landscape restoration (FLR) has been adopted by governments and practitioners across the globe to mitigate and adapt to climate change and restore ecological functions across degraded landscapes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |