Active restoration accelerates the carbon recovery of human-modified tropical forests

Christopher D Philipson^{1 2}, Mark E J Cutler¹, Philip G Brodrick³, Gregory P Asner³, Doreen S Boyd⁴, Pedro Moura Costa⁵, Joel Fiddes^{6 7}, Giles M Foody⁴, Geertje M F van der Heijden⁴, Alicia Ledo⁸, Philippa R Lincoln⁹, James A Margrove², Roberta E Martin³, Sol Milne⁸, Michelle A Pinard⁸, Glen Reynolds¹⁰, Martijn Snoep¹¹, Hamzah Tangki¹², Yap Sau Wai¹², Charlotte E Wheeler¹³, David F R P Burslem⁸

Affiliations

¹ School of Social Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK. christopher.philipson@usys.ethz.ch m.e.j.cutler@dundee.ac.uk.
² Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
³ Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
⁴ School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
⁵ Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK.
⁶ Mountainsense Consulting, 7249 Serneus, Switzerland.
⁷ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, CH-7260 Davos Dorf, Switzerland.
⁸ School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK.
⁹ LTS International, Pentland Science Park, Penicuik EH26 0PL, UK.
¹⁰ South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Danum Valley Field Centre, Lahad Datu, Sabah, Malaysia.
¹¹ Face the Future, 6706 KN Wageningen, Netherlands.
¹² Conservation & Environmental Management Division, Yayasan Sabah Group, 88817 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
¹³ School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FF, UK.

PMID:32792397
DOI: 10.1126/science.aay4490

Active restoration accelerates the carbon recovery of human-modified tropical forests

Christopher D Philipson et al. Science.2020.

.2020 Aug 14;369(6505):838-841.

doi: 10.1126/science.aay4490.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Social Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK. christopher.philipson@usys.ethz.ch m.e.j.cutler@dundee.ac.uk.
² Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
³ Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
⁴ School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
⁵ Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK.
⁶ Mountainsense Consulting, 7249 Serneus, Switzerland.
⁷ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, CH-7260 Davos Dorf, Switzerland.
⁸ School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK.
⁹ LTS International, Pentland Science Park, Penicuik EH26 0PL, UK.
¹⁰ South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Danum Valley Field Centre, Lahad Datu, Sabah, Malaysia.
¹¹ Face the Future, 6706 KN Wageningen, Netherlands.
¹² Conservation & Environmental Management Division, Yayasan Sabah Group, 88817 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
¹³ School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FF, UK.

PMID:32792397
DOI: 10.1126/science.aay4490

Abstract

More than half of all tropical forests are degraded by human impacts, leaving them threatened with conversion to agricultural plantations and risking substantial biodiversity and carbon losses. Restoration could accelerate recovery of aboveground carbon density (ACD), but adoption of restoration is constrained by cost and uncertainties over effectiveness. We report a long-term comparison of ACD recovery rates between naturally regenerating and actively restored logged tropical forests. Restoration enhanced decadal ACD recovery by more than 50%, from 2.9 to 4.4 megagrams per hectare per year. This magnitude of response, coupled with modal values of restoration costs globally, would require higher carbon prices to justify investment in restoration. However, carbon prices required to fulfill the 2016 Paris climate agreement [$40 to $80 (USD) per tonne carbon dioxide equivalent] would provide an economic justification for tropical forest restoration.

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Active restoration accelerates the carbon recovery of human-modified tropical forests

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Active restoration accelerates the carbon recovery of human-modified tropical forests

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