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LAND SPARING–SHARING

Use tropical forests or lose them

Nature Sustainability volume 2, pages 12–13 (2019)Cite this article

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Land-use planning to protect tropical forests requires understanding the relative impact of alternative uses. Low-impact forest management is crucial to produce timber while conserving biodiversity.

Setting apart land is usually called the ‘sparing’ approach, where each area has a distinct function of either full primary forest protection1 or timber production in plantations. In contrast, the ‘sharing’ approach combines forest functions, including timber production, with a more integrative landscape approach whereby low-impact logging maintains ecosystems’ functions and may avoid fragmentation of conservation areas2.These alternatives are subject to a current debate, referred to as the sharing versus sparing debate3, which questions whether land sparing is a better option than sharing the goals of production and conservation, for a given area of land. A sharing approach, in combination with strictly protected areas as well as forest plantations, may also maintain landscape carbon storage as required under the Paris Agreement on climate4.

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  1. Forest Ecology and Forest Management, Wageningen University and Research, PO Box 47, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Frits Mohren

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  1. Frits Mohren
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Correspondence to Frits Mohren.

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Mohren, F. Use tropical forests or lose them. Nat Sustain 2, 12–13 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0211-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0211-0

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