One of the greatest challenges of our time is the climate crisis. An important part of mitigating climate change is dealing with the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), of which emissions into the atmosphere exacerbate global warming. The impacts of steadily increasing CO2 concentrations, since the industrial revolution, are already evident. The earth has already warmed by about one degree since the 19th century, sea levels are rising steadily, severe weather events are increasing and habitats are being increasingly destroyed.

 

It is now necessary to actively counteract this development and consciously remove CO2 from the atmosphere. This is where the so-called “carbon sinks” come into play, natural reservoirs that absorb and store carbon dioxide from the air. Worldwide afforestation projects can help to create these in the long term.

It should be noted that a forest can only act as a functional carbon sink if the trees still have biological advantages through height growth, i.e., the forest is not yet a fully grown primeval forest.