Targeted rainfall enhancement as an objective of forestation

Arie Staal; Jolanda J. E. Theeuwen; Lan Wang‐Erlandsson; Nico Wunderling; Stefan C. Dekker

doi:10.1111/gcb.17096

Targeted rainfall enhancement as an objective of forestation

Arie Staal^*, Jolanda J. E. Theeuwen, Lan Wang‐Erlandsson, Nico Wunderling, Stefan C. Dekker

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Forestation efforts are accelerating across the globe in the fight against global climate change, in order to restore biodiversity, and to improve local livelihoods. Yet, so far the non-local effects of forestation on rainfall have largely remained a blind spot. Here we build upon emerging work to propose that targeted rainfall enhancement may also be considered in the prioritization of forestation. We show that the tools to achieve this are rapidly becoming available, but we also identify drawbacks and discuss which further developments are still needed to realize robust assessments of the rainfall effects of forestation in the face of climate change. Forestation programs may then mitigate not only global climate change itself but also its adverse effects in the form of drying.

Original language	English
Article number	e17096
Number of pages	30
Journal	Global Change Biology
Volume	30
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17096
Publication status	Published - Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Funding

We thank four anonymous referees for their helpful comments. AS acknowledges funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) Talent Program Grant VI.Veni.202.170. LWE acknowledges funding from Formas (no. 2019-01220, 2020-00688, 2022-02089), the European Research Council (no. ERC-2016-ADG 743080) and the IKEA foundation. NW acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (no. ERC-2016-ADG 743080). The work of JJET was performed in the cooperation framework of Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology (www.wetsus.eu). Wetsus is co-funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, the Northern Netherlands Provinces, the Province of Fryslân. The authors would like to thank the participants of the Natural Water Production theme of Wetsus for the financial support.

Funders	Funder number
Natural Water Production theme of Wetsus
Northern Netherlands Provinces
cooperation framework of Wetsus
European Research Council	ERC‐2016‐ADG 743080
Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas	2022‐02089, 2019‐01220, 2020‐00688
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	VI.Veni.202.170
Ministerie van Economische Zaken en Klimaat
Ikea Foundation

Keywords

drought mitigation
land-atmosphere feedback
moisture recycling
nature-based solutions
restoration

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1111/gcb.17096

AAM_Staal_et_al._2024_Global_Change_BiologyAccepted author manuscript, 482 KBLicence: CC BY

https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/433690

Cite this

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title = "Targeted rainfall enhancement as an objective of forestation",

abstract = "Forestation efforts are accelerating across the globe in the fight against global climate change, in order to restore biodiversity, and to improve local livelihoods. Yet, so far the non-local effects of forestation on rainfall have largely remained a blind spot. Here we build upon emerging work to propose that targeted rainfall enhancement may also be considered in the prioritization of forestation. We show that the tools to achieve this are rapidly becoming available, but we also identify drawbacks and discuss which further developments are still needed to realize robust assessments of the rainfall effects of forestation in the face of climate change. Forestation programs may then mitigate not only global climate change itself but also its adverse effects in the form of drying.",

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journal = "Global Change Biology",

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KW - restoration

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ER -

Targeted rainfall enhancement as an objective of forestation

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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