Loading...
Opportunities for biodiversity gains under the world's largest reforestation programme
Hua, Fangyuan Wang, Xiaoyang Zheng, Xinlei Fisher, Brendan Wang, Lin Zhu, Jianguo Tang, Ya Yu, Douglas W. Wilcove, David S.
Hua, Fangyuan
Wang, Xiaoyang
Zheng, Xinlei
Fisher, Brendan
Wang, Lin
Zhu, Jianguo
Tang, Ya
Yu, Douglas W.
Wilcove, David S.
Citations
Altmetric:
License
© The Author(s) 2016.
DOI
10.1038/ncomms12717
Abstract
Reforestation is a critical means of addressing the environmental and social problems of deforestation. China's Grain-for-Green Program (GFGP) is the world's largest reforestation scheme. Here we provide the first nationwide assessment of the tree composition of GFGP forests and the first combined ecological and economic study aimed at understanding GFGP's biodiversity implications. Across China, GFGP forests are overwhelmingly monocultures or compositionally simple mixed forests. Focusing on birds and bees in Sichuan Province, we find that GFGP reforestation results in modest gains (via mixed forest) and losses (via monocultures) of bird diversity, along with major losses of bee diversity. Moreover, all current modes of GFGP reforestation fall short of restoring biodiversity to levels approximating native forests. However, even within existing modes of reforestation, GFGP can achieve greater biodiversity gains by promoting mixed forests over monocultures; doing so is unlikely to entail major opportunity costs or pose unforeseen economic risks to households.
Description
Date
2016-09-06
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Files
Loading...
fisher2016b.pdf
Adobe PDF, 1.1 MB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
Hua F, Wang X, Zheng X, Fisher B, Wang L, Zhu J, Tang Y, Douglas WY, Wilcove DS. Opportunities for biodiversity gains under the world’s largest reforestation programme. Nature Communications. 2016 Sep 6;7(1):1-1.