ScienceDaily (June 4, 2001) — To help reduce global warming, the Kyoto Protocol encourages countries to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by planting more trees. But the Protocol fails to consider conservation, and countries could meet their commitment by replacing mature forests with rapidly-growing plantations.

"Replacement of old forests with plantations is a 'perverse incentive' of the Kyoto Protocol," says Reed Noss of Conservation Science, Inc. in Corvallis, Oregon, in the June issue of Conservation Biology. "The protocol could easily do more harm than good unless accompanied by strong incentives to protect biodiversity."

While the U.S. commitment is now in doubt under the Bush administration, the government had planned to meet half its annual commitment through land-based carbon sinks. Noss urges countries to conserve old-growth forests and to put any tree plantations on marginal agricultural lands.

Noss also considered how to protect forests during climate change. The good news is that forests have already survived many periods of dramatic warming and cooling, in part by shifting, contracting and expanding their ranges.

The bad news is that it will be harder for trees and other species in today's fragmented and degraded forests to shift their ranges in response to climate change.

To help forests adapt to climate change, Noss recommends two main approaches. First, we should maintain or restore connections between forests. These include elevational corridors so species can move up or down mountains as necessary, as well as corridors along the Mississippi Valley and other major north-south river valleys that allowed dispersal during past climate changes.

Second, we should protect climate refugia, which are areas that harbored species during past climate changes. Probable climate refugia include the southern Appalachians and the Klamath-Siskiyou region of California and Oregon; Iberia, Italy and the Balkans; and rock outcrops, cool slopes and many other small areas.

Related Stories

Biofuels Could Hasten Climate Change (Apr. 15, 2009) — A new study finds that it will take more than 75 years for the carbon emissions saved through the use of biofuels to compensate for the carbon lost when biofuel plantations are established on ...  > read more

Tropical Forests -- Earth's Air Conditioner (Apr. 13, 2007) — Planting and protecting trees -- which trap and absorb carbon dioxide as they grow -- can help to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But a new study suggests that, as a way to fight global ...  > read more

If A Tree Falls In The Forest, And No One Is Around To Hear It, Does Climate Change? (June 13, 2008) — There are roughly 42 million square kilometers of forest on Earth, a swath that covers almost a third of the land surface, and those wooded environments play a key role in both mitigating and ...  > read more

Old Growth Forest Must No Longer Be Ignored In Carbon Balances (Sep. 25, 2008) — Ancient forests, which accumulate large quantities of carbon over the centuries, should be taken into account in global carbon balance assessments. However, such old growth forests were not included ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

Right Mix Of Trees Fights Global Warming