Baseline Map of Carbon Emissions from Deforestation in Tropical Regions

✍ Scribed by Harris, N. L.; Brown, S.; Hagen, S. C.; Saatchi, S. S.; Petrova, S.; Salas, W.; Hansen, M. C.; Potapov, P. V.; Lotsch, A.

• Book ID: 111907838
• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 449 KB
• Volume: 336
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0036-8075
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1217962

✦ Synopsis

Tropical Carbon Loss

Accurate and precise measures of tropical deforestation and the resulting carbon emissions are needed in order to formulate climate policy.
Harris
et al.
(p.
1573
; see the Perspective by
Zarin
) used satellite observations of deforestation within the tropics of three continents to estimate that gross annual carbon emissions were approximately 0.8 Pg Cyr
^−2^
(Pg = 10
^15^
g) for the years 2000 to 2005, from the loss of 43 million hectares of forest. This result, which is about one-third of some previous estimates, should serve as a baseline for future assessments of changes in the rate of loss of tropical forests.