Reforestation & aforestation have become ecological buzz words.
The antithesis of ‘deforestation’ the simple act of planting trees for carbon capture, has become one way in which Governments have been actively encouraged to reduce their Co2 emissions.
From India to Ethiopia, China to Costa Rica, there are more trees today than 30 years ago. ‘The Bonn Challenge, an international agreement struck eight years ago to add 1.35 million square miles of forests (an area slightly larger than India) to the planet’s land surface by 2030, is on track.’(1)
However, despite global carbon sinks & plantations being promised by international Government policies, concerns voiced by researchers is that the reforestation programmes being implemented, are based on the use of extensive monoculture trees. Although there is a place for monoculture, using this way of planting in place of established & permanent forests, could be seen as a way of hoodwinking the public into thinking that policy makers are creating future forests/carbon sinks; whereby the reality is, that a lot of the planting is for quick economically benefiting growth & can often decrease biodiversity, rather than increase it.
‘Richard Houghton, an ecologist at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, has estimated that if degraded tropical forests were allowed to regrow, they could capture up to 3 billion tons of carbon annually for as much as 60 years, potentially “providing a bridge to a fossil fuel-free world.”
Despite this rather dim view of the use of reforestation/aforestation in certain countries, Scientific research is proving that global reforestation programmes, rewilding & an ecological restoration system; has the potential to reduce & in some places reverse the onset of advanced man-made climate change. Some examples of the ways in which humans are combating the Earths extensive Co2 emissions, is with different programme & planting methods in reforestation/aforestation.
Akira Miyawaki, born in Japan in 1928, is a world-renowned botanist & specialist in the restoration of natural vegetation on soils that have been degraded by humans or by natural disasters.
Past master of the art of growing wild forests in less than 30 years & tirelessly pursues his goal of restoring forests as they were at the origin of the world, before human intervention.
His unique method of planting is based on four main principles:
-the selection of a wide variety of native species of the region, which will best adapt to the planting field;
-the random disposition of seeds in nurseries, which aims to reproduce the complexity of a natural environment in which competition and complementarity between species occur, and which accelerates vegetation cycles;
-soil fertilization using natural materials (recycled wood chips, decomposed plants, humus) before planting young shoots
-the autonomy of the obtained forests: after three years, the trees exceed 2 meters in height; the forest no longer needs man to grow. It can survive independently for more than 9,000 years. (2)
During a recent speech in the House of Commons, The Rt Hon Claire Perry MP spoke of the 25 year Environment Plan which “kick-started the creation of a vast Northern Forest, which will see 50 million trees planted from Liverpool to Hull. Tree planting is one of the most cost-effective ways to sequester carbon and improve conditions” (3)
The Woodland Trust envisages that ‘The Northern Forest’ 50 million trees, which are being planted around the cities of Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield & Hull, will not only create a vast carbon sink, but also:
• help tackle climate change by storing thousands of tonnes of carbon
• cool and clean the air in towns and cities, helping to reduce the pollutants that cause childhood asthma and respiratory disease
• improve water quality
• deliver economic benefits through the production of wood fuel and timber and wider economic benefits (4)
But is this enough? How else can we benefit from & cultivate natural carbon capture/storing options & continue to rewild our ecology?
One area of research which continues to remind us of how we can envelope an ecological restoration system, is in the naturally occurring carbon stores all around us.
Coastal habitats such as mangroves, salt marsh and seagrass beds, can store carbon 40 times faster than tropical forests. Peaty soils, being vital carbon store soils, are being oxidised by deforestation, drainage, drying, burning, farming & mining for gardening & fuel. Restoring these natural carbon sinks, is a way of creating balance & relying on the naturally occurring chemical reactions of the environments.
Upland soils are the largest carbon store in England & 300 million tonnes of carbon are stored in English peatlands, mostly in the uplands. Peat bogs have a natural ability to process carbon & have soaked up billions of tonnes of Co2 from the atmosphere globally since the last ice-age. Therefore, allowing these valuable resources to dry out through man made drainage, farming, mining & gardening; could have a detrimental affect on the peat bogs ability to continue to process & soak up human made carbon.
Therefore, even if it appears that some Governments are using reforestation/aforestation as a smoke screen for monoculture harvest, researchers are still adamant that if we apply ourselves to a more natural approach to climate change; an ecologically restorative programme can help further to change human behaviours & invest in a global wilding ethos.
Written by Katy-Jane Mason on behalf of Dolphin N2.
- https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-green-pledges-will-not-create-the-natural-forests-we-need
- https://www.reforestaction.com/en/blog/akira-miyawaki-creator-primary-forests
- https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/climate-change-protests?utm_source=43a16be9-781c-4aa8-9b3d-9268b64e555b&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate
- https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/about-us/woodland-creation/the-northern-forest-our-vision/
