{"id":50379847,"date":"2023-09-21T16:57:37","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T15:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogochino.net\/?p=379847"},"modified":"2023-10-12T07:26:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T06:26:59","slug":"379847-south-america-is-a-leader-on-tree-planting-but-just-two-species-dominate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/379847-south-america-is-a-leader-on-tree-planting-but-just-two-species-dominate\/","title":{"rendered":"South America is a leader on tree planting \u2013 but just two species dominate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The world is increasingly hearing a simple mantra for mitigating the climate crisis: plant trees. Forests are our largest<\/a> terrestrial sinks for carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas driving global heating. In 2018, the United Nations\u2019 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated<\/a> that significant afforestation can contribute to efforts to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5C. Hundreds of millions of hectares of new trees would be needed for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South America is among the world\u2019s leading regions in plantation forestry, with the second largest<\/a> area of tree plantations globally, behind only Asia, concentrated in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. However, even though 15%<\/a> of the world\u2019s approximately 131 million hectares of tree plantations are in South America, they have neither helped to solve the region\u2019s deforestation problems, nor proven greatly effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is because South America\u2019s tree plantations are almost exclusively for industry and are, in most cases, based around pine or eucalyptus monocultures. These plantations consist of a single species growing across an expansive area, accelerated by fertiliser and pesticide use. Monocultures do not facilitate biodiversity, which limits their capacity for carbon sequestration. Such practices promote soil degradation and the destruction of naturally occurring, native vegetation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese monocultures do not recover carbon in the same way as natural secondary forests,\u201d explains Carlos Nobre, an earth system scientist at the University of Sao Paulo\u2019s Institute of Advanced Studies, and a leading researcher on forestry issues in Brazil. \u201cThey can remove some [carbon], but they don\u2019t promote biodiversity because they are exotic species.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millions of hectares of exotic species<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In South America, 97%<\/a> of forest plantations are composed of exotic, introduced species, mainly pine<\/a> and eucalyptus<\/a>, used primarily for timber and pulp, respectively. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile are home to some of region\u2019s largest planted areas, and during the past century, all four countries introduced these species to develop their paper and timber industries, aided by government grants and initiatives to promote their use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n