Regrowing the Rainforest: The Potential of Restoration for Carbon Sequestration and Biodiversity

Charlotte Wheeler from University College London will be presenting her work on biodiversity and above ground biomass changes following deforestation and forest degradation.

Restoration of tropical forest to mitigate the effects of climate change has received increasing attention in the international political arena over recent years. This is only set to increase following the signing of the Paris agreement last year, which states that parties should ‘enhance forest carbon stocks’ over the coming decades in order to meet emission reduction targets.

Ecological restoration of degraded tropical forest is a promising option for enhancing terrestrial carbon storage, whilst also offering additional ecosystem services including biodiversity protection. However, to date research into the rate of carbon sequestration and the biodiversity co-benefits that restored tropical forest could offer are sparse. Results from two forest restoration sites with different disturbance histories, in Kibale National Park, Uganda and in the Yayasan Sabah forestry management area, Malaysian Borneo are presented. The potential of such ecological restoration projects within the broader context of landscape scale restoration is also discussed. With a focus on the importance ecological restoration in comparison to other high carbon density tree based agricultural systems.

The seminar will be at 2pm - directions to the School of Geography can be found here.

All welcome!