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Journalism of Courage
A new study says that carbon impacts from the loss of intact tropical forests has been grossly underreported. Published in Science Advances, the study has calculated new figures relating to intact forest lost between 2000-2013.
It has found that the long-term net carbon impacts, through 2050, are six times the current estimates. The revised total equals two years’ worth of all global land-use change emissions, the World Conservation Society (WCS) said in a statement.
Conventionally, only carbon emissions from readily observed forest clearance are considered. This study accounted for less readily observed degradation processes that follow forest clearance – selective logging, edge effects, and defaunation.
Another metric used in the new study is “forgone carbon removal” — which could have occurred had cleared or degraded forest areas remained intact beyond 2000. Full accounting of these additional factors led to a 626% increase in cumulative net carbon impact from intact forest loss, the study says.
“Our results revealed that continued destruction of intact tropical forests is a ticking time bomb for carbon emissions. There is an urgent need to safeguard these landscapes because they play an indispensable role in stabilising the climate,” the WCS statement quoted lead author of the study, Sean Maxwell of WCS and the University of Queensland, as saying.
