Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential

Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system1. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests2–5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced6 and satellitederived approaches2,7,8 to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151–363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea2,3,9 that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets.EEA Santa CruzFil: Mo, Lidong. Institute of Integrative Biology. ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology); SuizaFil: Zohner, Constantin M. Institute of Integrative Biology. ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology); SuizaFil: Reich, Peter B. University of Minnesota. Department of Forest Resources; Estados UnidosFil: Reich, Peter B. Western Sydney University. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment; Australia.Fil: Reich, Peter B. University of Michigan. Institute for Global Change Biology; Estados UnidosFil: Liang, Jingjing. Purdue University. Department of Forestry and Natural Resources; Estados UnidosFil: de-Miguel, Sergio. University of Lleida. Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences and Engineering; EspañaFil: de-Miguel, Sergio. Joint Research Unit CTFC - AGROTECNIO – CERCA; EspañaFil: Nabuurs, Gert-Jan. Wageningen University and Research; Países BajosFil: Renner, Susanne S. Washington University. Department of Biology; Estados UnidosFil: van den Hoogen, Johan. Institute of Integrative Biology. ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology); SuizaFil: Araza, Arnan. Wageningen University and Research; Países BajosFil: Herold, Martin. Helmholtz GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics Section; Alemania.Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina.Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral.; Argentina.Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina.Fil: Crowther, Thomas W. Institute of Integrative Biology. ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology); Suiz

Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential

Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system 1. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests 2–5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced 6 and satellite-derived approaches 2,7,8 to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151–363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea 2,3,9 that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets

Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential

Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system 1 . Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests 2–5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced 6 and satellite-derived approaches 2,7,8 to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151–363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea 2,3,9 that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets

Intra-Annual Identification of Local Deforestation Hotspots in the Philippines Using Earth Observation Products

Like many other tropical countries, the Philippines has suffered from decades of deforestation and forest degradation during and even after the logging era. Several open access Earth Observation (EO) products are increasingly being used for deforestation analysis in support of national and international initiatives and policymaking on forest conservation and management. Using a combination of annual forest loss and near-real time forest disturbance products, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the deforestation events in three forest frontiers of the Philippines. A space-time pattern mining approach was used to map quarterly deforestation hotspots at 1 km pixel size (100 hectares), where hotspots are classified according to the spatial and temporal variability of the 2000–2020 deforestation in the study area. Our results revealed that 79–81% of the hotspots overlap with primary forests and 27–29% are inside the state-declared protected areas. The intra-annual analysis of deforestation in 2020 revealed an alarming trend, where most deforestation occurred between the 1st and 2nd quarter (92–94% in hotspot forests; 87–89% in non-hotspot forests), highly overlapping within the slash-and-burn farming season. We also found “new” hotspots (2020) formed mostly from landslide scars and partly from selective logging, the latter is believed to be underestimated. Our study paves the way for rapid and regular assessment of the country’s deforestation, useful for the respective environmental institutions who convene several times a year. Moreover, our findings assert the imperative of alternative livelihoods to upland farmers, efficient forest protection activities, and even the mitigation of landslide risks

Towards nationwide mapping of bamboo resources in the Philippines : testing the pixel-based and fractional cover approaches

In tropical and subtropical countries, the awareness on the importance of bamboos to the environment and economy is increasing and so is the demand for spatial bamboo information. However, mapping bamboos especially those naturally grown has been challenging, as these grasses are often mixed with other land-use and land-cover (LULC). In this study, we used Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2 remote sensing (RS) images, and their vegetation indices to accurately map the bamboos of Iloilo province in the Philippines using: (1) pixel-based method that mapped bamboos and other LULC at 10 m resolution, and (2) fractional cover method that mapped bamboo cover at 100 m resolution (% ha−1). A random forest model was trained for each method and then validated per hectare basis using a 50:50 training-validation ratio of a stratified random sample. The fractional cover method showed 0.34 higher Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and 5.10% lower Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) than the pixel-based method. Further validation within upland and lowland sites also favoured the fractional cover method, but the results of the two methods were closer in the upland site (bamboo plantation). Errors at 10 m resolution especially in the lowlands were mostly commission errors, likely because of the spectral similarity and proximity between bamboos and > 14 vegetations. Averaging the RS inputs into 100 m resulted in at most 12% separation of reflectance values among bamboos, forests, and other vegetations. Using the bamboo cover map, a total of 14,795 (± 1,283) ha bamboos and 7.45 (± 4.20) million harvestable culms (poles) were estimated for the whole province, where 54% come from the lowland. We suggest using the fractional cover method for nationwide baselining of bamboo resources.</p

Intra-Annual Identification of Local Deforestation Hotspots in the Philippines Using Earth Observation Products

Like many other tropical countries, the Philippines has suffered from decades of deforestation and forest degradation during and even after the logging era. Several open access Earth Observation (EO) products are increasingly being used for deforestation analysis in support of national and international initiatives and policymaking on forest conservation and management. Using a combination of annual forest loss and near-real time forest disturbance products, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the deforestation events in three forest frontiers of the Philippines. A space-time pattern mining approach was used to map quarterly deforestation hotspots at 1 km pixel size (100 hectares), where hotspots are classified according to the spatial and temporal variability of the 2000–2020 deforestation in the study area. Our results revealed that 79–81% of the hotspots overlap with primary forests and 27–29% are inside the state-declared protected areas. The intra-annual analysis of deforestation in 2020 revealed an alarming trend, where most deforestation occurred between the 1st and 2nd quarter (92–94% in hotspot forests; 87–89% in non-hotspot forests), highly overlapping within the slash-and-burn farming season. We also found “new” hotspots (2020) formed mostly from landslide scars and partly from selective logging, the latter is believed to be underestimated. Our study paves the way for rapid and regular assessment of the country’s deforestation, useful for the respective environmental institutions who convene several times a year. Moreover, our findings assert the imperative of alternative livelihoods to upland farmers, efficient forest protection activities, and even the mitigation of landslide risks

Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential

Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced6 and satellitederived approaches to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151–363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets.Fil: Mo, Lidong. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; SuizaFil: Zohner, Constantin M.. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; SuizaFil: Reich, Peter B.. Western Sydney University; Australia. University of Michigan; Estados Unidos. University of Minnesota; Estados UnidosFil: Liang, Jingjing. Purdue University; Estados UnidosFil: de Miguel, Sergio Ruben. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Investigaciones en Catálisis y Petroquímica "Ing. José Miguel Parera". Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Investigaciones en Catálisis y Petroquímica "Ing. José Miguel Parera"; ArgentinaFil: Nabuurs, Gert Jan. Wageningen University; Países BajosFil: Renner, Susanne S.. Washington University in St. Louis; Estados UnidosFil: van den Hoogen, Johan. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; SuizaFil: Araza, Arnan. Wageningen University; Países BajosFil: Herold, Martin. Helmholtz GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences; AlemaniaFil: Mirzagholi, Leila. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; SuizaFil: Ma, Haozhi. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; SuizaFil: Averill, Colin. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; SuizaFil: Phillips, Oliver L.. University of Leeds; Reino UnidoFil: Gamarra, Javier G. P.. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; ItaliaFil: Hordijk, Iris. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; SuizaFil: Routh, Devin. University of Zürich; SuizaFil: Abegg, Meinrad. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; SuizaFil: Adou Yao, Yves C.. University Félix Houphouët-Boigny; FranciaFil: Alberti, Giorgio. National Biodiversity Future Center; Italia. University of Udine; ItaliaFil: Almeyda Zambrano, Angelica M.. University of Florida; Estados UnidosFil: Vilchez Alvarado, Braulio. Tecnológico de Costa Rica TEC; Costa RicaFil: Alvarez Dávila, Esteban. Universidad Nacional Abierta y A Distancia (unad);Fil: Alvarez Loayza, Patricia. Field Museum of Natural History; Estados UnidosFil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santa Cruz. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Santa Cruz. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santa Cruz. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santa Cruz; ArgentinaFil: Zhou, Mo. Purdue University; Estados UnidosFil: Zhu, Zhi Xin. Hainan University; ChinaFil: Zo Bi, Irie C.. National Polytechnic Institute; FranciaFil: Gann, George D.. Society for Ecological Restoration; Estados UnidosFil: Crowther, Thomas W.. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; Suiz

Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential

Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system$^{1}$. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests$^{2–5}$ are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced$^{6}$ and satellite-derived approaches$^{2,7,8}$ to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151–363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea$^{2,3,9}$ that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets

Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential

Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system 1. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests 2–5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced 6 and satellite-derived approaches 2,7,8 to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151–363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea 2,3,9 that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets.ISSN:0028-0836ISSN:1476-468

Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential

Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system1. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests2-5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced6 and satellite-derived approaches2,7,8 to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only&nbsp;a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151-363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea2,3,9 that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets