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A call to reduce the carbon costs of forest harvest

Economic modelling of the global carbon cost of harvesting wood from forests shows a much higher annual cost than that estimated by other models, highlighting a major opportunity for reducing emissions by limiting wood harvests.
By
  1. William R. Moomaw

    1. William R. Moomaw is in the Fletcher School, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA, and Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, USA.

  2. Beverly E. Law

    1. Beverly E. Law is in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA, and Conservation Biology Institute, Corvallis, USA.

Forests accumulate and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and protect biodiversity1, giving them a defining role in controlling the global average temperature. By contrast, human activity typically increases carbon emissions to the atmosphere and diminishes species populations and diversity. Nowhere is this distinction more obvious than in the harvesting of wood from forests, but the carbon cost of this practice has been overlooked — until now. Writing in Nature, Peng et al.2 report the true carbon cost of wood harvests, which have reduced more carbon storage in vegetation and soils than any other practice except agriculture3,4.

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Nature 620, 44-45 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02238-9

Updates & Corrections

  • Clarification 04 August 2023: This News & Views article originally understated the IPCC’s stance on the importance of forest-ecosystem protection in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. The authors’ affiliations have also been updated.

References

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  2. Peng, L., Searchinger, T. D., Zionts, J. & Waite, R. Nature 620, 110–115 (2023).

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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