Forests could regrow naturally on more than 800,000 square miles of land around the tropics, without need for planting trees by hand, a new study finds.
In some places, lands are so degraded that it is necessary to plant trees by hand, but manual planting is costly and prone to failure. Forests that regrow naturally tend to fare better and host a richer array of wildlife.
For the study, researchers mapped areas where forests would be likely to regrow — areas where soils are healthy and there is already forest nearby to supply seeds. They found that, in total, these spots would cover an area larger than Mexico.
The impact of regrown forests on the climate could be immense. If forests were allowed to grow for three full decades, they would draw down enough carbon to offset 50 years’ worth of Australian emissions. The study was published in Nature.
Scientists were careful to note that many of these areas fall on farmland. Writing in The Conversation, they called for training locals to grow, harvest, and sell foods and materials found in regrown forests.
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