Amidst a global rise in land carbon sinks crucial for climate moderation, threats from tropical deforestation and shrinking boreal forests jeopardize these gains. What should be done?

Bogor, Indonesia (18 July 2024) — An international and multidisciplinary team of researchers has released a groundbreaking new study that tracks over three decades of changes in the global forest carbon sink—equivalent to nearly half of the world’s fossil fuel emissions.

The US Forest Service-led study sought to uncover whether attempts to enhance carbon sequestration in the land sector—such as restoring degraded forests and planting new ones—are achieving the desired impact on the global carbon sink.

The scientists gathered information by analyzing decades of data from the global forest community and combined this with forest area estimates from remote sensing and other types of land surveys.

Key findings:

• The total amount of carbon stored in the planet’s forests was steady in the 1990s and 2000s but slightly smaller in the 2010s.
• Carbon sinks in temperate forests (like those found in Australia, China, Central and Southern Europe and the continental U.S.) and tropical regrowth forests have increased.
• Carbon sinks in boreal forests (such as those in Canada, Northern Europe and Russia) and tropical intact forests have shrunk.
• Overall, the global land carbon sink has expanded due to an increase in the non-forest-land carbon sink and impacts from large-scale reforestation and afforestation.
• Yet, two-thirds of the benefit from this land carbon sink increase has been negated by tropical deforestation alone.

As such, the co-authors concluded that “the single most important action for sustaining and increasing the forest carbon sink is to stop emissions from deforestation and degradation, along with protecting the large carbon stocks that have accumulated over centuries, especially in boreal forest soils.”

That will require effective international cooperation; financial, legislative and other incentives, particularly in tropical countries; deforestation-free supply chains and well-managed selective logging, among other efforts, they said.

“Although soil carbon is not included, this global account underlines the importance of sustainable conservation of protected areas and restoration of the degraded land sector, especially in the tropics. Future studies should include wetlands’ soil carbon, comprising peatlands and mangroves, which have 3 to 5 times the storage capacity of terrestrial forests,” said Daniel Murdiyarso, a principal scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) and a co-author of the study.

“Harvested wood products (HWP) also need robust scrutiny, in light of the contribution of wood-based industries to global carbon dynamics,” he added, referring to the study’s finding that annual HWP increased by 10% over the three decades studied, implying that more wood was being harvested from forests.

The results sent a clear message to proceed with caution, and not take forest carbon capacities for granted.

“Although the global forest sink has endured undiminished for three decades, despite regional variations, it could be weakened by ageing forests, continuing deforestation and further intensification of disturbance regimes,” the co-authors concluded.

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NOTES TO EDITORS

• For more information or to arrange interviews, contact Azzura Lalani at a.lalani@cifor-icraf.org. 
• Explore more findings specific to your region or country in the study here.
• Download the cover photo here.

ABOUT CIFOR-ICRAF 

The Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) harnesses the power of trees, forests and agroforestry landscapes to provide solutions to biodiversity, climate change and food security.

NAIROBI, Kenya (4 July 2024) – In recognition of the need to enhance tree conservation, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) has allocated one million Australian dollars to the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) to support its efforts to conserve tree diversity.

Although trees play a critical role in terrestrial ecosystems, they face considerable threats, mainly from the conversion of forested land to agriculture and urban settlements. The situation is exacerbated by climate change, which exposes trees to new stresses such as disease, pests, flooding and drought.

“Of the 60,000 tree species worldwide, 30% are threatened with extinction,” said Alice Muchugi, Theme Leader for biodiversity and tree genetic resources at CIFOR-ICRAF. “We urgently need to work on conserving the diversity of tree species and create sustainable pathways to their use.”

The CIFOR-ICRAF Tree Genebank in Nairobi holds one of the world’s largest tropical tree seed collections, comprising 248 tree species, many of which are held in duplicate at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and other genebanks. Tree species that produce which cannot tolerate drying and cold storage, as well as species for which true-to-type germplasm is required, are maintained as living collections in field genebanks, established in collaboration with national partners. Over 60 tree species are conserved at 37 field sites across 17 countries. The collection is used to supply quality seeds and cuttings to various users.

The result of over 30 years of investment, these field genebanks serve not only as repositories for conservation efforts but also as a valuable resource for learning more about the trees’ growth, development, and adaptability to various environmental conditions. The knowledge gained from these field genebanks is essential for the effective conservation, management and use of these important tree genetic resources.

This ACIAR funding will be used to support field genebanks across Africa in 2024 and 2025. This funding will enable us to secure, clean and maintain the field sites, as well to supply quality planting material needed for various restoration projects.

For more information, please contact Alice Muchugi at a.muchugi@cifor-icraf.org.

MAZABUKA, Zambia (13 June 2024) – At a four-day training in Mazabuka, Southern Zambia from April 22-25, 2024, Mize Community Conservancy (MCC)’s board members upskilled themselves on sustainable game ranching, with a view to ensuring the conservancy meets the needs of people and wildlife well into the future.

The MCC spans over 58,000 square kilometres and is located in the Nyawa chiefdom of Kazungula District, Southern Zambia. The conservancy is supported thought the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme, which is implemented in a number of key biodiversity-rich locations around the world, including the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) – the second largest nature and landscape conservation area in the world, spanning the international borders of five countries in Southern Africa.

The four day training was facilitated by the Wildlife Producers Association of Zambia (WPAZ), a national association which aims to foster the growth of the private wildlife estate, and especially its national contribution to food production and security, job creation, community development and wildlife conservation. The training aimed to equip the 15 board members with the knowledge and skills necessary for setting up and managing a successful community game ranch or conservancy.

“MCC has the potential to explore various avenues,” said Nathalie Van Vliet, senior wildlife and livelihoods research associate at CIFOR-ICRAF, who stressed the importance of community decision making about which wildlife value chain to engage in. “This training was designed to put into perspective what they will eventually undertake.”

The event provided a comprehensive overview of game ranch management, with emphasis on the practical aspects of daily operations. It covered a range of topics such as legal requirements, animal health management, translocation processes, and the economic aspects of game ranching, including income generation through trophy hunting, live sales, photo tourism, and accommodation services.

Participants also visited several game ranches, game processing units,hunting camps and learned about staffing, infrastructure, veterinary care and the importance of clean water and appropriate feed. They were introduced to a network of experienced ranchers to facilitate information exchange and shared learning.

The insights gained during the training inspired the MCC board to plan its next steps carefully, and offered a sense of hope that its wildlife resource management journey was on a positive track. “We identified areas where progress has been made, and areas that need improvement,” said MCC board chairperson John Simuuba. “We are eager to apply what we have learned.”

For more information on this project, please contact CIFOR-ICRAF’s communications administrator for Zambia, Lydia Amanzi: l.amanzi@cifor-icraf.org.

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About the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area and the SWM programme

The Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) is the world’s largest transfrontier conservation area, spanning the international borders of five countries in Southern Africa. KAZA-TFCA is home to an incredible diversity of landscapes, communities, wildlife and a mosaic of protected areas. However, habitat fragmentation, recurring droughts, human-wildlife conflict and poaching threaten these fragile ecosystems.

To address these challenges, the global Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme is supporting the establishment and strengthening of community conservancies to improve land-use planning, community livelihoods and sustainable wildlife management. This initiative, known as SWM Community Conservancy Project, is being implemented in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Workshop shares results from research and practice on women’s and minorities’ participation in restoration projects

29 May 2024 (Yaoundé, Cameroon)—Land degradation poses significant challenges to humanity, including food insecurity, rising food prices, climate change, environmental risks, and loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. In Cameroon alone, over 4 million people are affected by the degradation of approximately one-third of the total land area, totalling 15,160,000 hectares.

In light of this, on 7 May 2024, stakeholders from government bodies, civil society organizations, research institutions, and donor agencies convened at the La Falaise Hotel in Yaoundé for a workshop to present research results and achievements from the ‘Land Restoration for the Empowerment of Rural and Indigenous Women and Poverty Reduction in Cameroon (LRIWEP)’ project.

Cameroon has committed to restoring 12 million hectares of degraded land through the AFR100 initiative of the Bonn Challenge. Recognizing the pivotal roles of rural women and minority populations in achieving this ambitious goal, the LRIWEP project was launched in May 2022, in response to the need for sustainable and climate-resilient recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Led by the Center for Support to Women and Rural People (CAFER) in collaboration with the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), Actions for Biodiversity and Land Management (ABIOGET), and Rainforest Alliance (RA), the project sought to inform policies and practices that promote the participation of women and minorities in land restoration initiatives, and address gender-related barriers to economic opportunities for these populations. The project was funded by the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) under the Gender in Low-carbon Worlds (GLOW) programme.

At the end-of-project workshop, team members presented research results and share solutions to strengthen women’s autonomy in land restoration. With a diverse range of participants, including policymakers, community leaders, and representatives from academia and donor agencies, the workshop shared insights, gathered feedback, and began to chart a path forward for sustainable land management practices within the country.

The agenda included presentations on gender integration in land restoration projects, identifying constraints, and exploring stakeholder perspectives on institutionalization and scaling strategies. The workshop also featured testimonials from beneficiaries in the pilot municipalities of Ngambe-Tikar (Centre Region), Nkong-Zem (West Region) and Pitoa (North Region) and discussions on policy implications.

The event marked a crucial step towards achieving inclusive and sustainable development in Cameroon, where the restoration of degraded land not only safeguards the environment but also empowers women and Indigenous communities, driving poverty reduction and fostering resilience in the face of global challenges.

For more information on the project, please contact CIFOR-ICRAF scientist Divine Foundjem-Tita: d.foundjem@cifor-icraf.org and communications officer Laurianne Mefan: M.Gilda@cifor-icraf.org

New research provides “common credible reference” for reducing emissions from wetlands

(BOGOR, 28 May 2024)—Scientists at the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) have published a study that is set to lift the game in emissions reporting for high-carbon wetland ecosystems.

For countries’ emission-reduction efforts under the Paris Agreement to be effective – and to grow trust in climate finance schemes more broadly – baseline emission/removals levels and reporting must be as transparent and accurate as possible.

In the Indonesian context, that means taking a closer look at its wealth of high-carbon tropical peatlands and mangrove forests, of which it holds some of the largest areas in the world – and which currently sequester a combined total of around 31.2 gigatonnes of carbon. About 60% of Indonesia’s national emission reduction targets by 2030 depend on mitigation in the Forestry and Other Land Use (FOLU) sector. Yet national emissions continue to grow, with the sector contributing as much as 50% at present.

As such, protecting and restoring mangroves and peatlands ought to be a high priority for national emission reduction efforts. While deforestation in these landscapes has slowed over the past two decades, further avoidance of deforestation and degradation of these high-C reservoirs is a must to achieve ambitious targets of FOLU Net Sinks by 2030.

“Carbon-rich peatlands and mangroves are key ecosystems to manage as far as land-based mitigation strategies are concerned,” said Daniel Murdiyarso, a principal scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF and lead author of the study.

That means the country has a particular need for high-accuracy greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and improved national forest reference emissions levels (FREL) for these ecosystems – a need that has not been fully addressed to date. “While Indonesia moved from using Tier 1 IPCC default emission factors (EF) for drained peatlands in its FREL 2016 to Tier 2 EF in its FREL 2022, the later were not developed following the IPCC guidelines – with significant implications for GHG accounting,” said contributing author and CIFOR-ICRAF senior scientist Kristell Hergoualc’h.

In this context, the research team explored scientific challenges and gaps to develop high tiers and refined emission factors for Indonesia’s drained and rewetted peatlands, peat fires, converted mangroves, and mangroves on peatlands. Significantly, they found that about 10% of Indonesian mangroves fall into this last category. “This unique combination of two wetland ecosystems located in the same landscape is currently understudied, posing technical challenges for high quality GHG inventory and reporting, and should be prioritised for future research,” said contributing author and senior research officer at James Cook University, Sigit Sasmito.

Overall, the authors emphasized that emission reduction estimates will be much more accurate whenever high tier emission factors are employed. “The research outputs provide a roadmap for reducing uncertainty in accounting of GHG emissions and uptakes by Indonesian peatlands and mangroves,” said contributing author and CIFOR-ICRAF researcher Erin Swails.

With improved certainty on these subjects, programmes and projects will be able to take a more unified approach to support ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), and Indonesia will be well poised to take the lead globally in emission reductions in the FOLU sector. Such clarity will also build confidence in financial investment, as high-quality data will help to secure the involvement of the private sector alongside its public counterpart.

“With the application of refined emission factors, the Indonesian government should be more confident to report on emission reduction targets in its second NDC to the Paris Agreement, and well-prepared for the upcoming Global Stocktake in 2028,” said Murdiyarso.

“We suggest that these refinements will be essential to support Indonesia in achieving a FOLU net sink by 2030 and net zero emissions targets by 2060 or earlier,” concluded the co-authors.

For more information, please contact CIFOR-ICRAF principal scientist Daniel Murdiyarso: d.murdiyarso@cifor-icraf.org.

Upcoming workshop to present findings of four-year project (2021-2024) in North Cameroon

GAROUA, Cameroon (13 May 2024) – A new approach to incorporating agro-sylvo-pastoral innovations into production systems is yielding important results for farmers and other stakeholders in northern Cameroon – particularly in the realm of avoiding duplication of efforts and sustaining activities beyond the close of projects.

The innovation niches approach has been deployed within the Strengthening Innovation Systems in the North of Cameroon (ReSI-NoC) project.

ReSI-NoC is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), and Cameroon’s Agricultural Research Institute for Development (IRAD).

The project’s overall objective is to promote economically profitable, ecologically sustainable and socially equitable agricultural production, livestock and forest management systems in the North Region of Cameroon. It works to strengthen these systems in the arenas of inclusive planning, consultation, and the co-creation and implementation of technical, organizational and social innovations.

In this context, the innovation niches approach seeks to strengthen the organisational capacities of the beneficiaries of previous interventions that initiated or supported the project’s innovations, so that these beneficiaries can maintain the initiatives beyond the project period. An Innovation Niche is understood as a space where a set of actors experiment with technical, organizational, or social innovations in order to solve or anticipate a common problem. It is a geographical space in which an innovation is born, develops, and is co-constructed with different actors who ensure its emergence and development.

The ReSI-NoC project identified 60 innovation niches in the Northern Region, of which 12 were characterized, and eight were selected for support within three intervention zones: near protected areas, around Garoua, and in cotton expansion frontiers. The eight niches include local communities of the Tcholliré co-managed protected areas, Lagdo land tenure security, Poli/Pintchoumba climate-smart agriculture, Poli/Béka (Tchamba) environmental education, Ngong watershed approach, Lagdo transhumance, Touroua climate-smart agriculture and the Mbé/Ngahan shea butter value chain.

The project aims to strengthen niches by first identifying capacity needs to contribute to innovation, then defining the capacities to be strengthened, and finally organizing the necessary training and support, networking, and/or moments of exchange.

To present and further explore findings from the work in these innovation niches, with a view to sustaining their activities beyond the close of the ReSI-NoC project, a workshop will be held on 14-15 May at the Tour d’Argent hotel in Garoua.

For more information on the project, please contact CIFOR-ICRAF scientist Ann Degrande: A.Degrande@cifor-icraf.org and communications officer Laurianne Mefan: M.Gilda@cifor-icraf.org.

TAINAN CITY, TAIWAN and NAIROBI, KENYA (23 April 2024) – An international research team led by the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg), and including scientists from the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), has won the 2023 Cozzarelli Prize for an article on the potential of ‘forgotten’ food crops in sub-Saharan Africa to provide healthy diets in a changing climate.

The paper was one of six selected by the editorial board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) – a prestigious scientific journal based in Washington, DC – to receive the annual award for scientific excellence and originality at a ceremony on 28 April 2024.

Papers were chosen from more than 3,000 open-access research articles that appeared in the journal last year and represent the six broadly defined classes under which the National Academy of Sciences is organized.

The study – which was selected in the Applied Biological, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences category of the Cozzarelli Prize – also involved multidisciplinary scientists from the University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin), the National Taiwan University, and Scotland’s Rural College in Edinburgh.

The study used climate modelling to assess the potential of 138 traditional food plants that could diversify or replace staple crops, and identified 58 that are micronutrient-rich and are suitable for integration into cropping systems under current and projected climatic conditions. The authors concluded that diversifying food production in Africa with these neglected ‘opportunity crops’ improves both the dietary health and climate resilience of food systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Our study shows that in most locations where major staples are currently grown in sub-Saharan Africa, one or more forgotten food crops from different food groups will be suitable for cultivation under 2070 climate conditions – and can diversify major staples to support more nutrient-rich diets,” says Maarten van Zonneveld, head of genetic resources at WorldVeg in Taiwan.

The research was part of various initiatives that the study’s collaborating partners are involved in. WorldVeg is the only organization with a global mandate for vegetable research and development – including traditional crops – and works closely with the paper’s co-authors in Benin and Taiwan. CIFOR-ICRAF scientists were involved in the modelling and data analysis, and built on their rich experience with tree and shrub foods.

“Our results suggest that diversifying sub-Saharan African food production with forgotten food crops could improve climate resilience and dietary health,” says Stepha McMullin, a development specialist at CIFOR-ICRAF in Kenya. “But to successfully mainstream these foods, it is crucial that we work closely with both local producers and consumers. At CIFOR–ICRAF, we already work with rural communities in East and Southern Africa to do this, by designing and implementing locally tailored food tree portfolios.”

Recipients of the Cozzarelli Prize – which is named after former PNAS Editor-in-Chief Nicholas R. Cozzarelli – will be recognized at the awards ceremony during the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences. Online registration is possible here.

For further information:

• Azzura Lalani, Head of Global Outreach and Engagement, CIFOR-ICRAF: a.lalani@cifor-icraf.org
• Nick Pasiecznik, Communications Lead, World Vegetable Center: nick.pasiecznik@worldveg.org

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