As much as three quarters of the estimated global potential for removing emissions through reforestation could face ‘significant’ social and institutional barriers, a new study from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) has suggested.
According to the study, Global socioeconomic constraints on afforestation- and reforestation-based carbon dioxide removal, which was published in the One Earth journal, afforestation and reforestation initiatives have already expanded forest cover by more than 300 million hectares worldwide.
In the process, these activities have been estimated to remove around 2.2 billion tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere each year, which is approximately equivalent to annual fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions across the European Union.
Social constraints
However, such expansion can come at a cost, with the potential for further forest-based carbon removal constrained by land availability, with poverty, food insecurity, insecure land rights and weak governance identified as some of the main constraints.
‘Large-scale forestation competes for land with food production and livelihoods, and its success depends on secure land rights and institutions that can support and protect projects over time,’ the study noted.
According to the study, while planting and maintaining forests face fewer social and institutional barriers in Europe, the hurdles are ‘significantly greater’ across Africa, India and Brazil.
“Because much of the estimated potential lies in places facing these constraints, especially in tropical countries, credible climate strategies must pair afforestation and reforestation with efforts that strengthen livelihoods, rights, and institutions,” commented Wenkai Bao, geographer at LMU.
‘Dominating role’
Elsewhere, Julia Pongratz, professor of physical geography and land use systems at LMU and a co-author of the study, added that carbon dioxide removal will need to triple between now and 2050, with forests set to play a key role in this.
“Additional forest cover will play the dominating role while we scale up technological removal options,” she said. “It is thus fundamental to understand – and eventually resolve – constraints to creating and keeping up these forests. It should be clearly stated, however, that planting forests can only complement – not replace – broader climate action and sustainable development.” Read more here and here.
