Effects of national ecological restoration projects on carbon sequestration in China from 2001 to 2010

TLDR

Long‑term exploitation of forests and grasslands has degraded ecosystems and caused carbon loss, prompting China to launch six national ecological restoration projects since the late 1970s to protect the environment and restore degraded ecosystems. The study aimed to assess how the six restoration projects altered ecosystem carbon stocks and contributed to China’s carbon sink from 2001 to 2010. Researchers performed a large‑scale field survey and literature review of biomass and soil carbon in forests, shrublands, and grasslands across the project regions, covering about 16 % of China’s land area, to quantify carbon stock changes. Between 2001 and 2010, the project regions sequestered 132 Tg C yr⁻¹, with 74 Tg C yr⁻¹ (56 %) attributable to the projects, demonstrating a substantial contribution to CO₂ mitigation.

Abstract

The long-term stressful utilization of forests and grasslands has led to ecosystem degradation and C loss. Since the late 1970s China has launched six key national ecological restoration projects to protect its environment and restore degraded ecosystems. Here, we conducted a large-scale field investigation and a literature survey of biomass and soil C in China's forest, shrubland, and grassland ecosystems across the regions where the six projects were implemented (∼16% of the country's land area). We investigated the changes in the C stocks of these ecosystems to evaluate the contributions of the projects to the country's C sink between 2001 and 2010. Over this decade, we estimated that the total annual C sink in the project region was 132 Tg C per y (1 Tg = 1012 g), over half of which (74 Tg C per y, 56%) was attributed to the implementation of the projects. Our results demonstrate that these restoration projects have substantially contributed to CO2 mitigation in China.