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Forests have become net carbon emitters, researchers say, blaming human activity and climate change in UNESCO sites study — RT World News

According to a newly published study, forests located within 10 UNESCO World Heritage Sites have been declared net carbon resources over the last 20 years because of climate change and pressures from humans.

A joint study of UNESCO, World Resources Institute and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) was published Thursday. It found that deforestation and more frequent, severe fires in forests have adversely affected their ability to absorb carbon dioxide.

The researchers combined satellite-derived data and monitoring information at the site level from 2001 to 2020. They concluded that forests in World Heritage areas absorbed more carbon than their emissions. These vast green spaces absorbed approximately 190 millions tons of CO2 annually, which is equivalent to about half of the UK’s CO2 emissions each year from fossil fuels. 



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10 of the UNESCO-studied forests emitted more carbon due to various pressures and disturbances. The Sumatran rainforest and Kinabalu Park, Malaysian Borneo’s Kinabalu Park, Yosemite National Park, USA, and Blue Mountains, Australia, were some of the trees that were producing more carbon than they were absorbing.

The researchers found that while there is a wide range of pressures on forests, they are all affected by human activities like logging and clearing land for agricultural purposes. This causes them to be net carbon emitters. The dominant factors were extreme weather phenomena such as hurricanes and increasing severity of wildfires. This is often associated with prolonged periods of severe drought.

“Our study’s conclusion that even World Heritage-listed forests can contribute to climate change, despite being the most protected and iconic of all the forest types, is alarming. This provides evidence for the severe climate emergency.”Tales Carvalho Resende, UNESCO’s Tales Carvalho Resende co-authored this report.

The combined area of World Heritage forests is approximately twice as large as Germany’s.

Repomassnews.just comes a few days ahead of world leaders meeting in Glasgow to discuss UN climate change. This summit is bringing increasing concerns for the well-being of our planet.

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