Wildfires, logging turn protected forests into carbon emitters: Study

Wildfires, logging turn protected forests into carbon emitters: Study

PARIS — At least 10 of the world's most protected forests are emitting more carbon than they absorb driven by human activity like logging and wildfires, a new report said on Wednesday. The alarming insight came from a study of planet-warming gases emitted from and absorbed by forests in Unesco World Heritage sites. The study revealed 10 protected forests had emitted more carbon than they locked away over the past 20 years, according to BBC. World heritage forests span an area twice the size of Germany. The same research also revealed the network of 257 World Heritage forests around the world collectively removed 190 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere every year. "That is nearly half of the UK's annual carbon emissions from fossil fuels," said Dr Tales Carvalho Resende, from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), who co-authored the report. "We now have the most detailed picture to date of the vital role that [these] forests play in mitigating climate change." But forests face a raft of pressures, including illegal logging, the expansion of farming and wildfires -- which are made more likely by climate change. Combining satellite-derived data with monitoring information at the site