Pursuing the goal of carbon neutrality in China: path for realization of carbon sequestration in planted forests

Highlights

● Analyzes the current situation of planted forests construction in China.

● Summarizes the dynamic and benefit of C sequestration in plantation forest.

● Proposes the enhancement path of C sequestration for planted forests in China.

● Provides the path for realization of forest C sink trading in China.

● Suggests some insights for C sequestration and emission reduction in planted forests.

Abstract

Tree plantations are an important forest resource that substantively contributes to climate change mitigation and carbon sequestration. As the area and standing volume of tree plantations in China have increased, issues such as unreasonable structure, low productivity, limited ecological functionality and diminishing ecological stability have occurred, which hinder the ability of tree plantations to enhance carbon sequestration. This study outlined the trajectory of carbon sequestration and its associated benefits in tree plantations by examining the current state of tree plantation establishment and growth, elucidated the strategies for advantages of carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation in planted forests, and summarized the existing problems with tree plantations. This paper underscores the pressing need for concerted efforts to boost carbon sequestration within planted forests and proposes management and development strategies for Chinese tree plantations. In the future, it will be necessary to apply scientific theories to practice and develop multi-objective management optimization models for the high-quality development of tree plantations. This will involve establishing a cohesive national carbon trading market, improving the prediction of carbon sequestration, and identifying priority zones for afforestation and reforestation, to better serve China’s national strategy for achieving peak carbon and carbon neutrality.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Planted forest / carbon stock / carbon sequestration / carbon management / climate change / promotion path

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2243225), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA23070201), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China (2023HHZX002).

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Lei Deng, Haitao Hu, Jiwei Li, Xue Li, Chunbo Huang, Zhijing Yu, Hailong Zhang, Qing Qu, Xiaozhen Wang, Lingbo Dong, and Zhouping Shangguan declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2024. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)