If Left to Regrow, Brazil’s Atlantic Forest Could Recover Faster and Store More Carbon Cheaper Than Tree Planting

Several small examples of natural reforestation in Ireland and the United Kingdom, two nations interested in restoring past versions of their ecosystems, show the breadth of success one can have if you simply let nature take its course.

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The rebuilding project on the 3,500 acres of Knepp Estate has created one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in lower England, while a 1,600 acre 600 year old farm in southern Ireland has achieved something similar.

Natural regeneration has the potential, unsurprisingly, to restore much more biodiversity, especially if it is assisted in conjunction with seed dispersal, weed removal, and other simple management strategies.

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TO the meta-analysis found both, when he examined 133 articles on the subject and found that forest areas freed from agriculture and allowed for regeneration created 56% more species richness in all categories of animals, and on five measures of vegetation structure: cover, density, litter, biomass, and height.

“Instead of conserving with specific species in mind where you are focusing on maintaining a habitat, blocking it as is, so that the numbers of certain species are preserved, what we’ve done here is just take our hands off the steering wheel and just he stepped away and let nature take over, ”said Isabella Tree, co-director of the rebuilding project at Knepp Estate.

Another benefit is that natural forests trap much more carbon in the soil on average, such as one study found that regenerated forests absorb 32% more carbon above ground and sequester 11% more below what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change generally estimates.

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However, for these regenerated forests to last, scientists and policy makers must know how best to motivate locals and other stakeholders to leave regenerating forests intact in the long term.

the Forest news This article suggests that schemes such as a payment system for rural inhabitants who abandon or protect and maintain regenerated forests, or increased access to investment capital for agroforestry production, could be used to help convince those who depend on rural areas that they leave the trees alone instead of turning them into wood chips.

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