Approximately 59 million hectares of forest have grown since the year 2000, shows a study that also points out that regeneration is paying off in some places. The new vegetation has the capacity to absorb and store 5.9 gigatons of CO2.
Foto da floresta: Instituto Últimos Refúgios, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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The study was conducted by Trillion Trees in partnership with WWF over two years to determine where regeneration was occurring and for what reasons. Three categories of regeneration were determined: active regeneration (where species are replanted by human or external action), assisted natural regeneration (where the original forest is encouraged to regenerate), and spontaneous regeneration (where there is no human intervention). Commercial plantations were deliberately excluded from the study.
“Natural regeneration is cheap, requires no sophisticated technology, and has a high impact on reforestation, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation.”
(R. Crouzeilles et al., Environmental Research Letters, 2020)
4.2 million ha regenerated in Brazil
At first glance, it was noted that the areas of greatest regeneration were in the northern hemisphere. But a closer look also identified regeneration in Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Brazil. According to the survey, 4.2 million hectares have regenerated in Brazil since 2000. The majority, around the Atlantic Forest biome. The study also indicates some possible reasons for the biome to return naturally, without human help: progressive abandonment of coffee cultivation after the 1990s, improvement of cattle ranches with less use of pastures, and exodus of a large part of the population that inhabited the Atlantic Forest biome.
Other countries that recorded the greatest expansion of regenerated areas were Gabon, Mongolia, China (in the area northeast of Beijing, resulting from government efforts to contain sandstorms), and Mexico.
Even with the good news, scholars warn that deforestation is still greater than regeneration, and that it is also necessary to stop destroying the forests. And they guarantee that even if all this happens, one cannot think about the total replacement of the forest that has already been destroyed: “It is practically impossible. It would take decades or even centuries for a ‘secondary forest’ to become rich in carbon and fauna, as original forests and certain ecosystems are.” Still, restoring and expanding forests are actions that are part of the global challenge to absorb carbon, stabilize the climate, and restore fauna.
Fonts: Trillion Trees e The Guardian