Un-wrecking the rainforest, un-wrecking the climate.

Geo-engineering is the name of the game and reforestation is one of the big players.

I'm talking about carbon dioxide removal (CDR) here, a widely discussed and fairly self-explanatory method of geo-engineering (see: Caldeira et al., 2013; The Guardian).

Schematic of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)

Today's post is a short one, dipping into just one of a plethora of methods for CDR. There are many methods currently being researched and developed with the aim of trying to limit/reverse the effects of anthropogenic climate change. It's a highly controversial topic with pros, cons and unknowns attributed to every approach. When looking into CDR, it struck me that reforestation of tropical rainforests has the potential to have a dual effectiveness. Fairly obvious really, however, the focus of the majority of research is on carbon removal or solar geo-engineering, the indirect benefits are often missing from the conversation.With the reforestation CDR approach, surely one of its key qualities is the possibility that we could be killing two birds with one stone (if you'll pardon the pun) - or rather - could be helping to reduce the effects of global warming whilst simultaneously bettering and developing degraded rainforest habitats. Win-win?

The benefits of reforestation have been discussed by Zhang et al., 2015 - what becomes apparent through their appraisal of the approach is how reforestation has the potential to remove atmospheric carbon dioxide and act as a store whilst improving the quality of the regulating ecosystem services that forested areas provide. Their review of relevant papers highlights just how much land has the potential to be reforested, specifying too, how much of this land could be targeted at tropical rainforests:

"Globally more than 760 Million Hectare (Mha) of land, which includes 138 Mha for avoided tropical deforestation, 217 Mha for regeneration of tropical forests, and 345 Mha for plantations and agroforestry, is suitable for CDM projects" (P.900). 

Although this all seems peachy, of course there have been utterances of problems associated with mass reforestation. Specifically reforestation for meeting CDR targets, there are questions as to how effective the approach actually is, especially if it is relied upon without any attempts to curtail our carbon dioxide expenditure (Caldeira et al., 2013). However, what seems to be the over-arching conclusion, and one that I tend to agree with, is, when talking about climate change and the CDR approach, reforestation and afforestation is something that can be taking place all the time. With continued efforts in combination with other approaches, it has the potential to be an effective tool in climate change mitigation. On a wrecking-the-rainforest note, reforestation is a no-brainer - it's helping the climate, salvaging biodiversity AND boosting the effectiveness of ecosystem services. Let's get planting!