The Mountain Pine Ridge Reforestation Project

Background

By 2000, the pine trees in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Preserve in Belize were heavily attacked by the Southern Pine Bark Beetle (Dendroctomus frontalis). The beetle did so much damage that the natural restoration of the pine forest was practically unattainable due to a lack of seed resources and continuing fires. The alternative is to abandon management and allow a pine savannah to develop. This paper compares the carbon sequestion potentional for a pine forest and a pine savannah in this region. 

Goals & Approach

To achieve this comparison, this paper conducted a baseline biomass for each ecosystem. The authors used test plots for both a pine savannah and pine forest in which they identified the dominant species and measured their biomass. 

Reported Takeaways

The authors found that an established and managed pine forest will store 27.8 times as much carbon as the savannah, which would burn frequently. Based on these findings, the authors call for the reforestation of the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve by planting and the establishment of a managed forest scenario can and should be paid for with the sale of carbon credits.