Protecting and restoring forests is essential in the fight against climate change. Efforts often focus on conserving old-growth forests and planting new trees (which is indeed necessary), but a crucial element is often overlooked: managing forests that regrow naturally to increase the amount of carbon they capture.
Until now, scientists have not had a detailed picture of the capacity of these forests to eliminate carbon. But new research by The Nature Conservancy, WRI and the Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences shows that secondary forests – that is, forests that regrow after logging, fire, cutting to establish farmland, or other disturbances – could play a particularly powerful role against climate change. This is the first study to show where, and at what ages, these forests have the greatest impact.
We have found that secondary forests aged between 20 and 40 years can remove carbon from the atmosphere up to 8 times faster per hectare than young natural regrowth – provided they are allowed to reach this age. The problem is that few secondary forests reach this stage, due to human activities (logging, agriculture) or climate-related disturbances (fires, pests).
These results show that countries underestimate the value of secondary forests in their climate reports – and that protecting them or encouraging their continued growth represents an untapped opportunity for climate action.
Protect young secondary forests for optimum carbon removal.
Nature Climate Change, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02355-5
Contact LSCE: Philippe Ciais