Natural Forest Regeneration: Better than Tree Planting?

When Nature Conservancy's Susan Cook-Patton conducted her postdoc reforestation study seven years ago, she found that natural forest regeneration is better than tree planting.

In a new study, she found that scientists have underestimated the capacity of the forest to regrow naturally, absorb carbon, and counter climate change. She and her colleagues discovered how natural regeneration captures higher amounts of carbon more rapidly and surely than artificially planted trees and tree plantations.

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A New Study

They published their findings in the journal Nature. Her co-authors include scientists from a total of 17 environmental organizations and academic institutions. This research is by far the most detailed mapping of areas where regrowth of forests naturally occur. It assesses these forests' potential to store carbon.

The research team looked into nearly 11,000 carbon uptake measurements from secondary growth forests in approximately 250 research studies worldwide.

Natural Regeneration is Better

The study found that the current rates of carbon accumulation widely vary depending on the soil, climate, terrain, and altitude.

The study found that overall, natural forest regeneration is better for the area's biodiversity while also being more efficient at capturing carbon.

Even if some forests grow much slower and may die, still others grow faster from the fertilization they get from the increased atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is a phenomenon known as global greening.

Carbon Accumulated of Naturally Growing Forests

The study combined carbon accumulation and mapping data and arrived at an estimate of the amount of carbon that natural regrowth of forests can capture.

Their results showed that 73 billion tons of trapped carbon can be stored from now up to the year 2050. This is equivalent to approximately seven years of carbon emissions produced by industries today. This makes natural regrowth the emissions the single biggest natural solution to climate change.

According to Cook-Patton, their carbon accumulation estimates can provide needed data for natural forest regeneration. With the study's results, researchers and conservationists can now estimate the carbon trapping of naturally growing forests in their areas.

These estimates can allow researchers to compare carbon accumulation of deliberate tree planting versus natural regrowing.

According to Cook-Patton, artificial planting still has value, especially in degraded areas and soils where trees cannot grow. She adds, however, that natural regrowth has been severely unappreciated.

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Letting Nature's Innate Intelligence Work

Natural forest regeneration is especially attractive because it only needs us to keep our hands off and do nothing. Nature always works in restoring its forests slowly but surely, in field edges, scrubby bushes, abandoned pastures, and in degraded forests and abandoned forest lands.

The problem is the lack of data, because natural forest regeneration is not accompanied by investments, policy initiatives, and oversight and documentation. Identification of forest recovery is hard to detect and is seldom assessed.

A study by University of Arkansas' Philip Curtis found that three-fourths of lost forests subsequently undergo shifting cultivation, forest fires, logging, or temporary grazing. They all have a potential to recover naturally.

Planting Versus Letting Nature Handle It

Sure, planting billions or even a trillion seedlings within 30 years may have some benefit, but the logistics involved is staggering. One thousand trees will need to be planted each second, while hundreds of billions in dollars will be spent to operate nurseries, prepare the soil, seed them, and then actually planting them.

Meanwhile, natural forest regeneration is not only better, but better than tree planting. All we need to do is sit back and let Nature work its miracle.

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