Plantations have a very important role to play in a future of rapidly growing timber demand and accelerating climate-driven pressures within remaining natural forests. They already produce up to half of the world’s industrial roundwood from just 7% of its forested lands. Yet wood plantations can also threaten critical biodiverse ecosystems and they also face a multitude of climate-driven threats that threaten productivity and resilience. It is also potenitally unwise that enormous tracts of the world’s plantation forest estate – including some of Earth’s most productive places from growing wood – are given over to the production of short-lived products, which are either burned or discarded mere years after harvest.

Research I am leading or involved in focuses on (i) the extent and conditions under which plantations can spare native forests from logging; (ii) on how the configuration of plantations within landscapes can influence the biodiversity value of remaining forests; (iii) on how plantation expansion can compete for land with other key sustainability agendas, including forest restoration and; (iv) on where future plantation expansion and intensification efforts might best minimise environmental costs.