An analysis led by the University of Leicester shows that the African continent lost around 106 billion kilograms of forest biomass each year between 2010 and 2017.
New research suggests that Africa’s forests, long seen as a powerful buffer against climate change, are now adding carbon to the atmosphere rather than removing it.
An international study published in Scientific Reports, led by scientists at the National Centre for Earth Observation at the Universities of Leicester, Sheffield, and Edinburgh, found that forests across Africa have shifted from absorbing carbon dioxide to releasing more carbon than they store.
The change appears to have occurred after 2010 and highlights the growing urgency of global forest protection efforts, an issue that featured prominently at the recent COP30 Climate Summit.
Tracking biomass from space
To reach these conclusions, researchers combined satellite observations with machine learning to monitor changes in aboveground forest biomass over more than ten years. Forest biomass represents the carbon held in trees and other woody vegetation. The analysis showed that Africa’s forests gained carbon between 2007 and 2010, but extensive losses in tropical rainforest regions have since reversed that trend.
From 2010 to 2017, Africa lost an estimated 106 billion kilograms of forest biomass each year, roughly equal to the weight of 106 million cars. Most of this loss occurred in tropical moist broadleaf forests, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and parts of West Africa, where deforestation and forest degradation were the main drivers. Although some savanna regions experienced gains from increased shrub growth, these increases were not sufficient to counterbalance the overall losses.
