Regional Optimization of Forest Management Strategies in China: Suggestions for Maximizing Carbon Sequestration while Limiting Environmental Trade-offs

To limit anthropogenic climate change, enhancing natural carbon sequestration through strategic forest management practices is grave, beyond solely reducing greenhouse gas emissions. China’s forest area, estimated at 220 million hectares in 2022, ranks fifth globally and encompasses a wide range of forest ecosystems, climates and soils, with great potential for carbon sequestration through the implementation of region-specific forest management strategies. However, uncertainties persist in quantifying the effects of environmental factors (e.g., soil properties, regional climate and altitude) on the net carbon accumulation of different forest management strategies. Filling this research gap is grave for optimizing region-specific forest management practices that avoid unintended trade-offs. Here, we synthesize existing research, focusing on reforestation, afforestation and natural forest regrowth in China. Reforestation displayed the highest areaweighted carbon accumulation rate (mean ± standard deviation=4.4 ± 3.84 Mg C ha^-1 yr^-1), followed by afforestation (2.765 ± 2.44 Mg C ha^-1 yr^-1) and natural forest regrowth (2.576 ± 2.82 Mg C ha^-1 yr^-1). Furthermore, the relatively high standard errors in the sequestration potential for all three strategies indicated significant variability in effectiveness due to regional environmental differences. On the basis of our findings, we present region specific recommendations for forest management strategies in China to achieve win-win solutions for climate modification and additional ecosystem services.