Tree-planting: a double-edged sword to fight climate change in an era of megafires

The world´s forests are one of the largest carbon sinks, making a substantial contribution to counterbalance the increase in atmospheric carbon from anthropogenic sources (Bastin et al., 2019). For this reason, there is broad support to forest conservation and restoration as an effective way to fight climate change. The European Union, following the Green Deal roadmap towards a decarbonization of the economy, has committed to ambitious habitat restoration goals in particular those with the most potential to capture and store carbon.