An international group of scientists has found that untouched tropical mountain forests in Africa contain more carbon than previously thought. However, the rapid disappearance of forest arrays contributes to high emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere of the planet, speeding up global warming. This is reported in an article published in the journal Nature.
Researchers measured 72,000 trees in 44 mountainous areas in 12 countries of Africa, from Guinea to Ethiopia and in the south to Mozambique. On each mountainous site, they laid areas on which they recorded the diameter, height and view of each tree.
It turned out that the hectare of the mountain rainforest contains 150 tons of carbon. The preservation of trees on this area reduces carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to the provision of electrical energy hundreds of houses within one year. African mountain forests accumulate more carbon per unit area than amazon rainforests, playing the role of a giant wood fuel tank. It surprised scientists, since the mountain climate usually does not contribute to the absorption of carbon dioxide by forests and slows down the growth of trees.
Scientists also found that in the last 20 years 0.8 million hectares were lost. More losses fell on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia, as a result of which more than 450 million tons of carbon dioxide were thrown into the atmosphere. If the current pace of the death of trees due to cutting down will persist, by 2030, another 0.5 million hectares of forests will be lost. About five percent of the tropical mountain forests of Africa has been cut down since 2000, and in some countries this indicator exceeds 20 percent. Currently efforts to save tropics within the Bonn call.
Bonn challenge, launched by Germany in 2011, provides for the restoration of 150 million hectares of degraded and deforest land by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. Obligations on the fight against deforestation took over 70 countries.