Reforestation is distinct from afforestation, which establishes forest on land that has not been forested in recent history. Both are categorized under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as land-use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) activities, and both can generate carbon sequestration credits under certain accounting frameworks.
Reforestation gained formal treaty status through the Kyoto Protocol (adopted 1997, entered into force 2005), whose Article 3.3 allowed Annex I parties to count "afforestation, reforestation and deforestation" since 1990 toward their emission targets. The Clean Development Mechanism permitted developing-country reforestation projects to issue temporary or long-term certified emission reductions (tCERs/lCERs), though uptake was limited.
Under the Paris Agreement (2015), reforestation features in many countries' Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and in Article 5, which encourages parties to conserve and enhance forest carbon sinks. The related REDD+ framework (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, plus conservation, sustainable management, and enhancement of carbon stocks) was operationalized through the Warsaw Framework agreed at COP19 in 2013.
Major political initiatives include the Bonn Challenge (launched 2011 by Germany and IUCN), which sets a goal of restoring 350 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, and the New York Declaration on Forests (2014). The Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use at COP26 (2021) saw over 140 countries pledge to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030.
Common policy debates concern:
- Permanence: planted forests can burn, be logged, or die from drought, releasing stored carbon.
- Monoculture vs. native species: industrial plantations sequester carbon but provide limited biodiversity.
- Land tenure: large-scale projects can displace Indigenous and local communities.
- Additionality: whether the carbon credited would have been sequestered anyway.
These tensions make reforestation a frequent agenda item in UNEP, FAO, and UNFCCC negotiations.
Example
At COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021, more than 140 countries—including Brazil, Indonesia, Russia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo—endorsed a declaration committing to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030, with reforestation a central pillar.
Frequently asked questions
Reforestation restores trees on recently deforested or degraded land, while afforestation plants forest on land that has not been forested in the recent past (often defined as 50 years under Kyoto rules).
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