A new international study in a global scientific journal has recognised plantation trees as the best source for storing carbon and providing climate change mitigation in comparison to other types of tree plantings.
The peer-reviewed Nature Communications journal has published a study that plantation trees deliver almost three times more carbon abatement over 100 years than environmental plantings, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA), Ross Hampton said today.
"This study confirms that trees planted for harvesting will deliver more benefits for the environment than trees planted for environmental purposes. The climate implications are significant, up to 269% more carbon is captured by plantation trees and 17% more than achieved by leaving a newly planted fast-growing conifer forest unharvested.
"There are programs that provide incentives for farmers to plant biodiversity plantings for carbon purposes but no programs that incentivise farmers to plant plantation trees. This must be rectified, the biggest asset to Australia's storage of carbon is being left on the sidelines."
We already know that when trees are manufactured, they continue to store carbon, now we also know that as plantation trees grow, they store more carbon than any other type of planting. Plantation trees are necessary to fight climate change and move towards net-zero by 2050.
The finding that plantation trees store more carbon than environment trees is a win for all. Plantation trees can store carbon and when ready they can be harvested, this gives both the environment and the grower an additional incentive over environmental plantings.
"Australia has never needed to plant more trees than right now; it is experiencing a serious supply constraint for timber framing off the back of the current building boom. We need to be doing all we can to ensure that more plantation trees are planted to allow us to build homes that will house future generations of Australians," Mr Hampton concluded.
See the study here.
The original media release is here: 210708 AFPA Media Release_New_international_research_reveals_plantation_trees_for_timber_store_more_carbon_than_environmental_plantings_____
