Proforestation

Proforestation is the practice of purposefully growing an existing forest intact toward its full ecological potential.[1] It is a nature-based solution whereby existing forests are protected as intact ecosystems to foster continuous growth for maximal carbon storage and ecological and structural complexity. In suitable forested regions it is a powerful and immediate forest-based strategy that can address the global crises in climate and biodiversity.

Recent science identifies forest restoration as the most powerful strategy available to reduce atmospheric carbon.[2] Proforestation complements forest-based solutions like afforestation, reforestation and improved forest management. Of these, proforestation is the most powerful and immediate. Unlike afforestation, full proforestation does not require dedicating new land to forests.

Defining Proforestation

Proforestation refers specifically to enabling continuous forest growth uninterrupted by active management or timber harvesting, a term coined by scientist William Moomaw.[3]

Proforestation is a natural climate solution that addresses climate mitigation and adaptation by prioritizing natural processes and regeneration in existing forests to optimize cumulative carbon and ecological complexity.[4]

Proforestation seeks to strengthen and sustain complex forest ecosystems, or as forest ecologist Bob Zano explains, “where nature is primarily driving what happens here.”[5]

Proforestation differs from agroforestry or the cultivation of forest plantations, the latter consisting of similarly aged trees of just one or two species. Plantations often come at the expense of natural forests and cultivate little habitat for biodiversity, such as dead and fallen trees or understory plants. Further, once factoring in emissions from clearing the land and the decay of plantation waste and products at the end of their often brief lifecycles (e.g. paper products), plantations sequester 40 times less carbon than natural forests.[6]

Proforestation is specifically recommended in “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency, as a means to “quickly curtail habitat and biodiversity loss” and protect “high carbon stores” and areas “with the capacity to rapidly sequester carbon.”[7]

Proforestation is part of a suite of forest-based climate solutions that includes avoided conversion, afforestation, reforestation and improved forest management.[8]

Benefits of Proforestation

Proforestation offers many benefits, from sequestering carbon and sustaining biodiversity, to providing ecosystem services, including water filtration, flood buffering, and maintaining soil health.[9]

Carbon Sequestration

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, about 730 billion tons of CO2 (or 199 billion tons of carbon) will need to be removed from the atmosphere by 2100. This is an enormous amount (more than was emitted by the US, the UK, Germany and China since the Industrial Revolution) and forests will play an essential role in this removal.[10]

In the United States, forests currently remove enough atmospheric CO2 to reduce national net emissions by 11 percent each year.[11] And each additional 8.6 million hectares of land regenerated to natural forest would sequester another 1 billion tons of carbon by 2100.[12]

Research has found that in complex forests of all types, the largest one percent of trees (by diameter) store about half of the carbon.[13] Facilitating growth of larger trees will increase carbon sequestration. Research also found that replacing old growth forests with young forests, even counting carbon ‘sequestered’ in long-lasting wood products (e.g. houses), leads to an overall increase in carbon emissions and that proforestation leads to the largest carbon storage capability.[14] Compared to clearcutting, complex forest ecosystems retain more than twice the carbon.[15]

Proforestation in Policy and the Media

Proforestation was featured in July 2019 on NEXT[16] by the New England News Collaborative on New England Public Radio [17] and on the EnviroShow.[18]

Leveraging nature-based solutions (NBS) is consistent with the recommendations of the Paris Agreement and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the goals of the US Climate Alliance. Nature-based solutions can counteract the negative climate, environmental and ecological effects of deforestation and forest manipulation and extraction.[18][19]

In August 2019, an IPCC Special Report titled “Climate Change and Land” identified land use as a major driver of and a major solution to the climate crisis. A piece in The Conversation referred to the IPCC Special Report and highlighted the importance of natural forests and proforestation. Climate activist Bill McKibben came out against biomass and in favor of proforestation in an article titled "Don’t Burn Trees to Fight Climate Change—Let Them Grow" in the New Yorker. This policy position was echoed in a blog[20] piece co-released by the Nicholas School at Duke University Duke and the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies.

Proforestation was also prominently featured at the Climate Action Network International. Recent press releases on proforestation include Trinity College, Frontiers, and Symposium at Harvard Forest.

References
  1. Moomaw, William R.; Masino, Susan A.; Faison, Edward K. (2019). "Intact Forests in the United States: Proforestation Mitigates Climate Change and Serves the Greatest Good". Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. 2. doi:10.3389/ffgc.2019.00027.
  2. J. F. Bastin et al., The global tree restoration potential. Science 365, 76-79 (2019)
  3. Fen Montaigne, Why Keeping Mature Forests Intact Is Key to the Climate Fight, Yale Environment 360, 15 October 2019.
  4. Moomaw, William R.; Masino, Susan A.; Faison, Edward K. (2019). "Intact Forests in the United States: Proforestation Mitigates Climate Change and Serves the Greatest Good". Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. 2. doi:10.3389/ffgc.2019.00027.
  5. Dankosky, John (26 July 2019). "Episode 156: The Confusing Tangle of Immigration Law; Hunting for Old Growth Forests". NPR. New England News Collaborative. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  6. Lewis, Simon; Wheeler, Charlotte; Mitchard, Edward; Koch, Alexander (4 April 2019). "Restoring natural forests is the best way to remove atmospheric carbon". Nature. 568. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  7. Ripple, William; Wolf, Christopher; Newsome, Thomas; Barnard, Phoebe; Moomaw, William (January 2020). "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency". BioScience. 70 (1): 8–12. doi:10.1093/biosci/biz088. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  8. Mackey, B.; Kormos, C. F.; Keith, H. (12 March 2020). "Understanding the importance of primary tropical forest protection as a mitigation strategy". Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change: 1–25. doi:10.1007/s11027-019-09891-4. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  9. Griscom, Bronson; al, et. (October 2017). "Natural Climate Solutions". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (44): 11645–50. doi:10.1073/pnas.1710465114. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  10. Lewis, Simon; Wheeler, Charlotte; Mitchard, Edward; Koch, Alexander (4 April 2019). "Restoring natural forests is the best way to remove atmospheric carbon". Nature. 568. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  11. Moomaw, William R.; Masino, Susan A.; Faison, Edward K. (2019). "Intact Forests in the United States: Proforestation Mitigates Climate Change and Serves the Greatest Good". Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. 2. doi:10.3389/ffgc.2019.00027.
  12. Lewis, Simon; Wheeler, Charlotte; Mitchard, Edward; Koch, Alexander (4 April 2019). "Restoring natural forests is the best way to remove atmospheric carbon". Nature. 568. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  13. Fen Montaigne, Why Keeping Mature Forests Intact Is Key to the Climate Fight, Yale Environment 360, 15 October 2019.
  14. Harmon, Mark; Ferrell, William; Franklin, Jerry (9 February 1990). "Effects on Carbon Storage of Conversion of Old-Growth Forests to Young Forests". Science. 247 (4943): 699–702. doi:10.1126/science.247.4943.699. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  15. Nunery, Jared; Keeton, William (31 March 2010). "Forest carbon storage in the northeastern United States: Net effects of harvesting frequency, post-harvest retention, and wood products". Forest Ecology and Management. 259 (8): 1363–1375. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2009.12.029. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  16. NEXT
  17. Dankosky, John. "Episode 156: The Confusing Tangle of Immigration Law; Hunting for Old Growth Forests". New England News Collaborative.
  18. "Enviro Show Proforestation Interview With Susan Masino". The Enviro Show. June 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  19. Moomaw, William; Leverett, Bob; Jonas, Robert; Leverett, Monica (July 24, 2019). "How to fight climate change? Save existing forests". Daily Hampshire Gazette.
  20. Schlesinger, Bill. "Woody Biomass Fuels". Duke.edu.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.