Central Africa's mesic savannas should be conserved, not afforested

Abstract

Recent work has suggested fire suppression can be used to “restore” Central African savannas, increasing their biodiversity and capacity to sequester carbon. Here, we rebut this proposal, by showing that Central Africa's savannas are ancient, biodiverse, and fire-dependent ecosystems. Suppressing fire within them would permanently harm these savanna's biodiversity and degrade their functionality, likely without storing much carbon long term.