The biodiversity and ecosystem service contributions and trade-offs of forest restoration approaches

TLDR

Global forest restoration aims to enhance ecosystem services and biodiversity, yet systematic comparisons of co‑benefits across approaches are lacking. The study synthesized 25,950 data pairs from 264 studies in 53 countries to compare climate, soil, water, wood production, and biodiversity outcomes between tree plantations and native forests. Native forests outperform plantations in carbon storage, water provision, soil erosion control, and biodiversity, while plantations yield higher wood production, underscoring trade‑offs that policymakers must balance.

Abstract

Forest restoration is being scaled up globally to deliver critical ecosystem services and biodiversity benefits; however, there is a lack of rigorous comparison of cobenefit delivery across different restoration approaches. Through global synthesis, we used 25,950 matched data pairs from 264 studies in 53 countries to assess how delivery of climate, soil, water, and wood production services, in addition to biodiversity, compares across a range of tree plantations and native forests. Benefits of aboveground carbon storage, water provisioning, and especially soil erosion control and biodiversity are better delivered by native forests, with compositionally simpler, younger plantations in drier regions performing particularly poorly. However, plantations exhibit an advantage in wood production. These results underscore important trade-offs among environmental and production goals that policy-makers must navigate in meeting forest restoration commitments.