China has planted over 66 billion trees since 1978 as part of the Great Green Wall project to block the Gobi Desert. A 2026 study found these planted forests grow leaf cover 66% faster than natural woodland, but they store less carbon overall. Soil carbon in plantations can take more than 60 years to reach natural forest levels. Most global climate models treat all forests the same, failing to distinguish managed plantations from natural forests. This blind spot distorts carbon accounting and could lead to overestimating how much carbon tree planting programs actually remove from the atmosphere. The study highlights that fast canopy growth does not equal long term carbon storage.
