Comment on “The global tree restoration potential”

Abstract

Bastin <i>et al</i> (Reports, 5 July 2019, p. 76) claim that 205 gigatonnes of carbon can be globally sequestered by restoring 0.9 billion hectares of forest and woodland canopy cover. Reinterpreting the data from Bastin <i>et al</i>, we show that the global land area actually required to sequester human-emitted CO₂ is at least a factor of 3 higher, representing an unrealistically large area.