Predicting broad-scale carbon loss and recovery in managed tropical forests

摘要

Reducing carbon emissions from tropical deforestation and forest degradation, as formalized in the REDD+ framework, could substantially slow increases in atmospheric CO_2. Although REDD+ programs have predominantly focused on deforestation, tropical forest degradation from extensive selective logging affects an annual area equivalent to that converted to nonforest land use [1]. There appears to be considerable unrealized potential to reduce carbon emissions by mitigating forest degradation from unsustainable selective logging in tropical regions [2]. High expectations notwithstanding, precise assessment of this potential remains a challenge because forest degradation encompasses a range of selective logging practices, because tropical forests vary in their potential for carbon storage and the timescale of carbon recovery in degraded forests is uncertain.