Biodiversity benefits of China's 20-year efforts in forest restoration.

ABSTRACT: China has become a global leader in forest restoration, through massive investment and various large-scale programs since 2000. Nevertheless, the overall biodiversity outcomes of these efforts remain to be quantified. Here, using 402 non-migratory forest bird species as indicators, we assess biodiversity changes from 2000 to 2020 at a national scale, controlling for the effects of climate change by using an ecological niche modeling framework. We find substantial biodiversity benefits linked to the expansion of forest extent and the improvement in forest structure, with 73.6% of avian species experiencing habitat expansion and mean species richness increasing by 2.886 ± 8.418. Protection-focused and afforestation-dominated restoration programs both effectively enhanced biodiversity, with p

SUBMITTER: Wang B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12663451 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature