The principles of natural climate solutions

Ellis, Peter Woods; Page, Aaron Marr; Wood, Stephen; Fargione, Joseph; Masuda, Yuta J.; Carrasco Denney, Vanessa; Moore, Campbell; Kroeger, Timm; Griscom, Bronson; Sanderman, Jonathan; Atleo, Tyson; Cortez, Rane; Leavitt, Sara; Cook-Patton, Susan C.

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-44425-2

Cited by 18 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 73 publications

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“…As a result, this may incentivize project developers to prescribe reforestation plans that have fewer species and less structural and functional diversity in favor of meeting verification standards and maximizing carbon yields (D' Amato et al, 2022). Despite these shortcomings, there are clear pathways and principles for mitigating climate impacts by restoring forests while avoiding negative impacts (Griscom et al, 2017;Fargione et al, 2018;Ellis et al, 2024) including significant opportunities for reforestation in the western U.S. (Cook-Patton et al, 2020).…”

Section: What Approaches To Reforestation Can Foster Resilience To Cl...mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Mind the Gap’—reforestation needs vs. reforestation capacity in the western United States

Dobrowski,

Aghai,

Chichilnisky du Lac

et al. 2024

Front. For. Glob. Change

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Tree establishment following severe or stand-replacing disturbance is critical for achieving U.S. climate change mitigation goals and for maintaining the co-benefits of intact forest ecosystems. In many contexts, natural post-fire tree regeneration is sufficient to maintain forest cover and associated ecosystem services, but increasingly the pattern and scale of disturbance exceeds ecological thresholds and active reforestation may be warranted. Our capacity to plant trees, however, is not keeping pace with reforestation needs. This shortfall is uniquely apparent in the western U.S., where wildfire size and severity have increased in recent decades and long-term divestment in the reforestation supply chain has limited our ability to respond to existing needs. Here we present an analysis of key facets of both the supply and demand side of reforestation in the western U.S. and address six questions: (1) What is the current backlog of potential reforestation needs driven by high-severity wildfire?; (2) How will increasing wildfire activity through the end of the century affect potential reforestation needs?; (3) What is our capacity to meet current and future reforestation needs?; (4) How can we scale the reforestation supply chain to meet current and future demands?; (5) What approaches to reforestation can promote forest resilience to climate change and wildfire?; and (6) Where are opportunities emerging from recent policy initiatives, innovative public-private partnerships, and natural capital markets for scaling reforestation? Between 1984 and 2000, annual tree planting capacity met post-fire needs but cumulatively over the last two decades (2000 to 2021) it has fallen short of fire-driven needs by an estimated 1.5 million ha (ca. 3.8 million ac). We anticipate this gap will increase 2 to 3 fold by 2050. Scaling up reforestation efforts to close this gap will require increased investment across all facets of the reforestation supply chain, public-private partnerships, and novel approaches to reforestation that increase the resilience of western forests to drought and wildfire. We highlight emerging opportunities from recent policy initiatives and conservation finance for expanding reforestation efforts.

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