ArticleNature communications2025
Biodiversity benefits of China's 20-year efforts in forest restoration.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effects of Habitat Types on Pollinators and Seasonal Variations in Plant-Insect Pollination Networks in Nanchong, China.Insects · 2026Article
- The effect of land costs on the economic and sustainability performance of solar photovoltaics in China.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Biodiversity benefits of China's 20-year efforts in forest restoration.Nature communications · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
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 planted forests performing similarly to natural forests over this period. Key factors facilitating this enhancement included tree cover and canopy structural complexity. Our findings suggest that restoring planted forests in degraded landscapes can provide substantial biodiversity benefits, although this should incorporate mixed tree species silviculture practices to enhance the structural complexity of planted forests. This study highlights China's achievements but also the potential risks involved in forest and biodiversity restoration, and provides general insights for the optimization of future restoration policy and management in China and beyond.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.