African forests have officially transitioned from absorbing carbon dioxide to emitting it, according to a new international study.
Researchers from the Universities of Leicester, Sheffield, and Edinburgh found that the continent's forests began releasing more carbon than they captured after 2010. This shift threatens to undermine global efforts to meet the Paris Agreement's temperature targets.
Analyzing over a decade of satellite data, the study published in Scientific Reports reveals that widespread deforestation and degradation in tropical regions have caused massive biomass losses. These losses far outweigh any carbon gains from forest regrowth in other areas.
A decade of biomass loss
Between 2010 and 2017, Africa lost approximately 106 billion kilograms of forest biomass annually. This loss is roughly equivalent to the weight of 106 million cars.
The most severe declines occurred in tropical moist broadleaf forests, particularly within the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and parts of West Africa. While some savanna regions saw slight increases in carbon storage due to shrub growth, these gains were insufficient to offset the tropical losses.
Professor Heiko Balzter, Director of the Institute for Environmental Futures at the University of Leicester, called the findings 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," Balzter said.
He urged for a rapid scale-up of climate finance for initiatives like the Tropical Forests Forever Facility to end global deforestation.
To track these changes, the research team utilized NASA's GEDI laser instrument and Japan's ALOS radar satellites alongside machine learning. This allowed for the most detailed mapping of biomass changes across the continent to date.
Dr. Nezha Acil, a co-author from the University of Leicester, noted that reversing this trend requires stronger forest governance and enforcement against illegal logging. She highlighted large-scale restoration programs, such as the AFR100 initiative, as essential tools for repairing the damage.
Dr. Pedro Rodríguez-Veiga, who led much of the analysis, warned that the shift in Africa's forests is changing the global carbon balance. He noted that if these forests become a permanent carbon source, achieving global climate goals will become significantly harder.
