Official data on forest growth in China may be off by more than 150,000 square miles, a new study reported on by the New York Times said, because prior data counted shrubs as trees.
The figure released by the United Nations shows a net gain of 167,568 square miles from 2000–2010. China has released similar figures. However, the new study claims the actual total is just 12,741 square miles.
“China’s forests are not as green as we think,” Xu Jianchu, co-author of the study and a professor of ethnoecology at the Kunming Institute of Botany in southwest China, told the Times.
Jiachu said the study emphasizes the importance of adopting a universal definition of forest. Currently, according to the Times, there are more than 800 definitions used globally, creating ambiguity in forest estimates.
