Study of Carbon Sequestration Processes in Forestry on Carbon Farms

The earth “plays a key role” in the climate system as an important carbon sink because land surfaces such as forests regulate the planet’s temperature and help store carbon. In the last decade alone, terrestrial ecosystems have absorbed about 30% of carbon emissions from human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.But our lands are under increasing pressure from deforestation, urbanization, industrial development, agricultural expansion, and unsustainable farming practices that undermine the ability to sustain food production, sustain freshwater and forest resources, and climate and air quality regulation. Conserving tropical forests has many benefits, from protecting biodiversity, sustaining indigenous and local communities, and safeguarding climate. To achieve the ambitious climate goals of the Paris Agreement, forest protection is essential. Yet deforestation continues to diminish the world’s forests. Halting this trend is the objective of the international framework for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+). While previous studies have demonstrated the contribution of tropical forests to mitigate climate change, here we show that tropical forest protection can ‘flatten the curve’ of the costs of transition to climate stability, estimating tens of trillions of dollars in policy cost savings.