Hyderabad: An analysis of satellite data by a team of researchers led by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), a conservation group, revealed that almost 59 million hectares (146 million acres) of forests, as big as France, have regenerated since 2000.
From Mongolia to southern Brazil, forests big enough to cover France have grown back during the last 20 years, but the gains did not make up for losses elsewhere, the study found.
That much of forest has the potential to absorb 5.9 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) - more than the annual emissions of the United States, according to the study.
The research looked at forests that have grown back spontaneously or with little human help, such as planting native trees or fencing off land to reduce grazing.
Scientists say that protecting and regenerating forests is a better climate change solution than planting trees, because existing forests absorb more planet warming gasses while also safeguarding wildlife and biodiversity.
They also observed that Brazil's Atlantic Forest was still only about 12% of its original size and needed to more than double to reach what the researchers said was the minimal threshold for lasting conservation.
Overall, separate research has shown that 386 million hectares of tree cover - an area more than seven times larger than that of naturally regenerated forest identified in the study - has been lost globally in the past two decades.
Forest regeneration is an important tool in the fight against climate change, says William Baldwin - Cantello, director of nature-based solutions at WWF-UK.
