Land Cover

Our various programs provide us primary data on the changes in land use around the world and enable better appraisals of the trends in forests that influence their role in climate and the global carbon budget. For instance, we have shown over many years that it will not be possible to meet the requirements of the Framework Convention on Climate Change without major efforts in the management of forests globally.

Forests and their soils contain more than twice as much carbon as does the atmosphere, and deforestation currently is the second largest source of carbon released into the atmosphere – about 25 percent as much as is released from burning fossil fuels. There is, moreover, the possibility that global warming will destroy forests over large enough areas that massive amounts of additional carbon will be released, speeding the warming in what we term a "positive feedback."

The drought and extensive forest fires of the recent summer in western United States, Canada, and the Russian forests of Siberia and the Far East are a prime example of the changes being wrought on the global landscape. The drought is now with us, is persistent, and is following a pattern that has long been anticipated as the continents warm. As the drought continues, bark borers and other insect pests multiply, increasing the mortality of trees and the further release of carbon as trees and the organic matter in soils decay. Such collateral changes are now conspicuous in forests of our own semi-arid west and in the forests of southern Alaska.

Because forests have such a large role in stabilizing the human habitat, we have maintained for more than twenty years that a Global Forest Inventory is essential for appraising trends in the areas forested and in the carbon storage in forests and their soils. The importance of this work grows as the climatic disruption intensifies. Besides moving away from fossil fuels, stabilization of climate as agreed to under the Climate Convention will require a cessation of destruction of the world’s remaining primary forests and a rapid shift to sustained management of the remaining forested areas.

©Woods Hole Research Center, 2008