The risks of overstating the climate benefits of ecosystem restoration/Reply

A previously published analysis7 showed that these regions, in fact, have high aboveground carbon stocks in agricultural lands, for example, 97 tC ha-1 in Indonesia, 46 tC ha-1 in Ivory Coast and 49 tC ha-1 in Cuba. Because these countries make up a large share of the highlighted 15% priority areas, taking a more realistic reference carbon stock would substantially reduce the carbon-sequestration potential. [...]we want to comment on the feasibility of the restoration options presented. [...]unconstrained restoration with large-scale abandonment of agriculture in these regions would have enormous impacts on the agricultural system, and beyond. [...]business-as-usual projections show major increases in population, food demand and agricultural production in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia13,14, further increasing the pressure on land systems. Plant functional type classification for earth system models: results from the European Space Agency's Land Cover Climate Change Initiative.