Tropical reforestation and climate change: beyond carbon

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes; International audience; Tropical reforestation (TR) has been highlighted as an important intervention for climate change mitigation because of its carbon storage potential. TR can also play other frequently overlooked, but significant, roles in helping society and ecosystems adapt to climate variability and change. For example, reforestation can ameliorate climate-associated impacts of altered hydrological cycles in watersheds, protect coastal areas from increased storms, and provide habitat to reduce the probability of species' extinctions under a changing climate. Consequently, reforestation should be managed with both adaptation and mitigation objectives in mind, so as to maximize synergies among these diverse roles, and to avoid trade-offs in which the achievement of one goal is detrimental to another. Management of increased forest cover must also incorporate measures for reducing the direct and indirect impacts of changing climate on reforestation itself. Here we advocate a focus on " climate-smart reforestation, " defined as reforesting for climate change mitigation and adaptation, while ensuring that the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on reforestation are anticipated and minimized. Implications for Practice • Tropical reforestation has a clearly recognized potential for mitigating climate change, but its role in reducing vulnerability to climate change should also be acknowledged. • Climate-smart reforestation should be promoted, that is, reforesting for climate change mitigation and adaptation , while ensuring that the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on reforestation are anticipated and minimized. • Reforestation practices should be designed to avoid the implementation of one strategy (mitigation or adaptation) to the detriment of the other. • Adequate climate policy or institutional arrangements and appropriate technical assistance and information are needed if managers are to pursue the objectives of climate-smart reforestation. • Climate-smart reforestation should be integrated into broader disaster risk reduction programs, adaptation strategies, and landscape management plans.