Busted – The belief that monoculture plantations would capture more carbon

Australian scientists, after extensive research have found that the reforestation of damaged rainforests is much more efficient at capturing carbon than softwood monoculture plantations. This finding turns on its head the current thinking.

The scientist studied three projects in Australia: monoculture plantations of native conifers, mixed species plantations and rainforest restoration projects. They found that restoration planting stored significantly more carbon in above-ground biomass than the monoculture plantations of native conifers and tended to store more than mixed species timber plantations.

Restoration projects are more expensive then monoculture plantations. So it is unlikely that carbon markets will plumb for restoration projects immediately

Details are published in the latest issue of journal Ecological Management and Restoration.