Forest Restoration Must Navigate Trade-Offs Between Environmental and Wood Production Goals
Published:20 Mar.2022 Source:University of Cambridge
Forest restoration schemes should prioritise restoring native forests for greatest climate and environmental benefits, but these benefits incur a trade-off with wood production in comparison with tree plantations. Diverse native forests store more above-ground carbon, provide more water to nearby streams, and better support biodiversity and prevent soil erosion than simple tree plantations, a major new study published today in the journal Science has found -- but plantations have an advantage in wood production.
The study looked at the relative benefits of restoring native forests versus establishing a range of simple tree plantations in terms of biodiversity conservation and four key functions of value to humans -- or 'ecosystem services' -- provided by a forest: carbon storage, soil erosion control, water provisioning, and wood production.