Protected areas store as much carbon as fossil fuels emit per year, study finds

Jun 7, 2023

According to a new study, protected areas store as much carbon as fossil fuels emit per year. Image: Pexels/gali

Sean Mowbray

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A view over Brazil’s Florestal Reserve Adolpho Ducke. Researchers found that protected areas store as much carbon as fossil fuels emit per year and are more effective at doing so compared to unprotected areas with a similar ecology. Image: IMF/Raphael Alves via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Monte Pascoal National Park in Brazil. The recent paper’s findings underline the important role protected areas can play in tackling climate change at the global level, according to the study authors. Image: Flavio Forner/Conservation International.

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Researchers used satellite imagery gathered by NASA’s GEDI mission to compare carbon stocks in protected areas with their unprotected equivalents. At the global level, protected areas hold an additional 9.65 billion metric tons of carbon in their aboveground biomass, primarily due to avoided deforestation and degradation. Image: Flavio Forner/Conservation International.

Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve. Researchers found that in Africa, grassland and savanna ecosystems stored more additional carbon than similar, unprotected areas. In other regions, such as Latin America, forest landscapes stocked more carbon. Image: Jonathan Irish/Conservation International.

Canavieiras Extractive Reserve in Brazil. Given the global importance of the Amazon, researchers such as Magnago say the study emphasizes the need to protect the rainforest, particularly in Brazil, which is an ongoing deforestation frontier. Image: Flavio Forner/Conservation International.

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