When a tropical forest burns or is selectively logged, it does not simply disappear. However, it loses far more carbon than is currently accounted for in most national climate reports. It has long been difficult to determine how much carbon a partially damaged forest can win back when left to recover.
A new study published in Science Advances draws together evidence from 146 studies across the Americas, Africa and Asia to put firm numbers on both sides of that ledger: how much carbon different disturbances remove, and how much recovering forests regain. The findings reveal a clear pattern: forest fires cause the greatest carbon losses, followed by selective logging and edge effects. However, they also show that partially disturbed forests substantially increase their carbon content over time compared to land that has been completely cleared. Using field plots, airborne surveys and satellite data, including global biomass maps from the European Space Agency's Climate Change Initiative, the meta-analysis provides countries with the emission and removal factors required to accurately report forest degradation and recovery to the United Nations.
Read the full article on esa.int: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Space_for_our_climate/Improved_reporting_needed_on_forest_carbon_emissions
