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Comment by PaulHoule

7 days ago

Works well in some ecosystems when people choose the right plant material. With the wrong ecosystem and the wrong plant material it's one of those ideas from the temperate core that fails in the tropical periphery.

From the examples, it looks like the age-old distinction between process and results: do you want to/get rewarded for having a forest after some years, or do you just want to plant some trees as cheaply as possible to tick a box?

Getting good results costs more because it requires caring about what you're doing and putting in extra effort to ensure success.

I don't know what counts as temperate core for you, but Japan is famous for its diverse climate zones.

  • Japan is mostly cold to temperate

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Japan

    except for some small islands like

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamitorishima

    There's a lot of concern that tree-planting projects wind up like this

    https://e360.yale.edu/features/phantom-forests-tree-planting...

    • I mean, you have major tree planting happening every summer in Canada, and it's all around trying to mono-culture the entire country for the sake of timber companies. They immediately spray Glyphosate on areas burnt by forest fires, so that low value fire break species like Alder don't establish themselves in the area and then they can send in tree planters to plant higher value pine, which is a serotinous species, ie: promotes fire. Then they blame all the bush fires on Climate change.

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    • The Yale article says forest scientists warn that "failed afforestation projects around the world threaten to undermine efforts to make [tree] planting a credible means of countering climate change by reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or generating carbon credits for sale to companies to offset their emissions."

  • I think it's less that Japan is famous for its climate zones and more that it's a safe, comfortable topic of conversation that Japanese people use - the whole "Did you know Japan has four seasons?" question that every foreigner hears. It's generally considered polite to respond with surprised interest rather than "yeah, so does most of the temperate part of the world."