Forestation at the right time with the right species can generate persistent carbon benefits in China

Significance Forest ecosystems have the potential to provide crucial carbon sinks contributing to national carbon neutrality initiatives. However, the policy relevance of existing evaluations on the biophysical potential of forest carbon sink was greatly limited because they ignored near-term to mid-term decadal carbon uptake dynamics and the suitable forest species for forestation. This study addressed these issues by answering the three key questions of potential forestation in China: where, with what species, and when to afforest. Progressive forestation of an additional 78 Mha with the right species up to the 2060s will provide a persistent biophysical carbon sink potential, effectively supporting China’s carbon neutrality strategy. Our research hence provides an example of building a forestation roadmap to support climate mitigation policies.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

• Publication date

  2023-10-02

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1073/pnas.2304988120PMID 37782782PMCID 10576152
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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