Fast-growing trees are taking over the forests of the future and putting biodiversity and climate resilience under pressure
Climate change, deforestation, and habitat loss are promoting increasingly uniform forests, where fast-growing tree species displace native trees. This reduces biodiversity, makes trees less resilient to disease, and weakens forests’ ability to store CO₂.

27 January 2026 by Henriette Stevnhøj

…

But the world’s forests are entering a new era, characterized by homogenization, biodiversity loss, and weakened ecosystems. This is shown by a comprehensive international study recently published in the leading journal Nature Plants.

…

This is a worrying development, according to Jens-Christian Svenning, Professor and Director of the Danish National Research Foundation’s Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO) at the Department of Biology, Aarhus University, and one of the leading authors of the Nature Plants study.

…

The most threatened species are often slow-growing specialists, as Jens-Christian Svenning describes them. These are trees with thick leaves, dense wood, and long lifespans, often associated with stable environments – particularly moist tropical and subtropical forests.

…