"Industrial timber plantations, mature oil palm estates, and other non-natural "planted forests" qualify as tree cover."
Interesting article, thank you, however I think you'll find that the vast majority of this "tree cover" is commercial in nature and thus adding little to bio-diversity or eco-systems.
An example would be Tasmania, the blue gum capital of the world, after Brazil. Native forests are clear felled, the stumps are burnt, then the area is replanted in blue gums, 1080 is spread all over to kill native animals and you end up with an ocean of mono-culture that gets included into the numbers.
I guess in one sense these trees do plant things, such as store a bit of carbon and produce oxygen. I have read that 1 cubic foot of timber from the oldest and biggest redwood, as an example, when burnt produces more carbon than the tree has stored in its entire existence.
Still, there was a glimmer of hope in that article. I shall research that further.
