Achieving national scale targets for carbon sequestration through afforestation: Geospatial assessment of feasibility and policy implications. Issue 124 (October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Burke, Thomas; Rowland, Clare; Whyatt, James Duncan; Blackburn, George Alan; Abbatt, Jon
• Is Part Of: Environmental science & policy. Issue 124(2021)
• Page Start: 279
• Page End: 292
• Publication Date: 2021-10
• Subjects: Afforestation -- Ecosystem services -- Suitability mapping -- Constraints -- Site selection -- Woodland -- Natural capital -- Policy development; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Periodicals; Environnement -- Politique gouvernementale -- Périodiques; Sciences de l'environnement -- Périodiques; Environmental policy; Environmental sciences; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.70561
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2021.06.023
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1462-9011

Abstract

Highlights: Study provides first comprehensive collation of afforestation targets for UK. First high-resolution national assessment of space available for woodland. Physical, environmental & policy constraints considered in three planting scenarios. Targets achievable but require very large proportion of available land be converted. Large landscape & community impacts demand effective policies to encourage planting. Abstract: To explore the feasibility of meeting recently proposed large-scale tree planting targets, a UK wide assessment of land available for afforestation was carried out, considering a range of physical, environmental and policy constraints in three hypothetical planting scenarios. Results show there is sufficient space to meet these targets in all three scenarios, even if planting is prevented on good to moderate quality agricultural land and within protected areas. However, this would require planting on a large proportion of unconstrained land, especially for the more ambitious targets, which is unevenly distributed across the UK. This would limit opportunities for spatially targeting woodland creation, which may restrict the provision of additional ecosystem services such as air pollution control and recreation, and induce widespread negative impacts on landscapes and communities. In order to overcome these limitations, relaxing constraints, such as permitting afforestation of higher quality agricultural land, will need to be considered. Meeting many of the proposed afforestation targets would result in a transformational change in British land cover, which could replace or significantly impact the business models of tens of thousands of farms, and see the replacement of hundreds of thousands to millions of hectares of grassland, arable and horticultural land and other land covers. This would require rates of planting that far exceed those seen historically. Policies and mechanisms that could be used to encourage this planting, both by the state and private sectors, are discussed.