Africa’s Forests Emit More Carbon Than They Store, New Study Finds

Data from space shows widespread biomass loss across tropical regions, pushing the continent past the tipping point.

Africa’s forests have now passed the point of acting as a carbon sink, with new research revealing they now emit more carbon than they absorb. The research, led by the University of Leicester, shows that African forests lost an average of 106 billion kilograms of forest biomass each year between 2010 and 2017.

The international team, which included researchers from the National Centre for Earth Observation at the Universities of Leicester, Sheffield, and Edinburgh, used satellite and radar data from the European Space Agency (ESA) and thousands of field measurements to track changes in above‑ground biomass over more than a decade. Their analysis shows that Africa’s forests gained carbon between 2007 and 2010, but “extensive losses in tropical rainforest regions have since reversed that trend,” turning the continent into a net carbon source.

Most losses occurred in tropical moist broadleaf forests, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and parts of West Africa. And whilst some savanna regions experienced gains from increased shrub growth, these increases “were not sufficient to counterbalance the overall losses.”

According to Professor Heiko Balzter, a senior author of the study and Director of the Institute for Environmental Futures at the University of Leicester, the results are “a critical wake‑up call for global climate policy. If Africa’s forests are no longer absorbing carbon, it means other regions and the world as a whole will need to cut greenhouse gas emissions even more deeply to stay within the 2°C goal of the Paris Agreement and avoid catastrophic climate change.”

Balzter also urged governments and financial institutions to scale up support for the newly announced Tropical Forests Forever Facility. He said climate finance “must be scaled up quickly to put an end to global deforestation for good.”

Article created by our partner – Jason Ross – Wood Central

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