More analysis is needed to ensure that tropical forest degeneration and regeneration are consistently reported in carbon cycle models and in national reporting, according to a study funded in part by ESA’s Climate Change Initiative Biomass project.
The study analysed how tropical forests store carbon under varying conditions and then release it back into the atmosphere. The scenarios studied range from complete forest destruction through deforestation, which is relatively well understood, to forest degradation, whereby the forest’s condition worsens over time due to damage and organic decomposition, for example through wildfires or selective logging, which is often inconsistently reported in models or omitted altogether.