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Our models suggest that natural regeneration is especially cost-effective relative to plantation forestry in much of Western Mexico, the Andean region, Southern Cone of South America, West and Central Africa, India, Southern China, Malaysia and Indonesia. Conversely, plantations are especially cost-effective relative to natural regeneration in much of the Caribbean, Central America, Brazil, North, East and Southern Africa, northern China, mainland Southeast Asia and the Philippines.
Which method of reforestation is more cost-effective in a given location is a function of several factors, including relative carbon accumulation and harvest rates (for example, higher for plantations in mainland Southeast Asia), relative implementation costs (for example, lower for natural regeneration in West and Central Africa), higher opportunity costs making the difference in revenue from wood products a smaller consideration (for example, in Southern China and Southeast Brazil) and distribution of feasibility (for example, more land where natural regeneration is feasible in Central Africa).
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