LONDON -  National parks and nature reserves in South America, Africa and Asia are reducing carbon emissions from tropical deforestation by a third, helping to slow the rate of global warming, a new study shows.

The study found that tropical forests are preventing the release of three times as much carbon into the atmosphere as the UK emits each year.

Protected areas, which account for 20 per cent of the world’s tropical forest, also play a crucial role in providing habitats for species including orangutans, forest elephants and Asiatic lions, and they also conserve world heritage sites such as the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, was an audit of the role that protected areas of tropical forest play in preventing global warming.

The research, by the University of Exeter and University of Queensland in Australia, involved analyzing the likely level of tree loss in protected area - and the resulting carbon emission - had they not been protected from deforestation. It shows that protected forests and preventing millions of tonnes of carbon emissions from being lost through logging and deforestation.

According to the researchers, it’s the first study to analyze the impact of all protected areas of tropical forest on reducing carbon emissions. Tropical forests account account for about 68 per cent of global forest carbon stock - including trees, canopy and root systems.

But rainforests are under logging and clearing pressure to produce cash crops such as pasture land for cattle in South America, and palm oil in South East Asia, while in Africa, tropical forests are being cleared for agriculture and charcoal production for local cooking.  However, these activities come at a cost: deforestation releases nearly twice as much carbon than is absorbed by intact forests. 

For the study, ecologists analyzed the carbon stocks and losses of millions of hectares of protected areas such as national parks, world heritage sites, reserves for indigenous people, tourist sites and areas to protect endangered species.

They found that from 2000-2012, these protected area cut predicted carbon emissions by about one third.

‘Tropical protected areas are often valued for their role in safeguarding biodiversity,’ says Dr Dan Bebber, an ecologist at the University of Exeter and the co-author of the research.

‘Our study highlights the added benefit of maintaining forest cover for reducing carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, so helping slow the rate of climate change.’

From 2000-2012, tropical protected areas reduced carbon emissions by 407 million tonnes per year, which according to the researchers is equivalent to 1492 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

The UK’s annual carbon dioxide emissions are around 404 million tonnes per year, so the saving is more than three times the UK’s annual production of carbon dioxide emissions.

Total annual carbon emissions from the tropics are thought to be between 1 and 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon per year - equivalent to 3.67 to 5.05 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

While there was a concern that forest clearing would increase outside the boundaries of protected areas, the authors of the study did not find a measurable increase in logging in areas of rainforest just outside the protected areas.

 

 

Monitoring desk