Tree Huggers

Forests accumulate and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and protect biodiversity, giving them a defining role in controlling the global average temperature.

Writing in Nature, Peng et al. report the true carbon cost of wood harvests, which have reduced more carbon storage in vegetation and soils than any other practice except agriculture.

Economic modelling of the global carbon cost of harvesting wood from forests shows a much higher annual cost than that estimated by other models, highlighting a major opportunity for reducing emissions by limiting wood harvests.