Greenhouse gas emissions between 1993 and 2002 from land-use change and forestry in Mexico

▶ This is the first paper on GHG inventory in the LULUCF sector for a tropical country with national data. ▶ It identifies the importance of data sources that are required for such an effort. ▶ It identifies the sources of uncertainties in the data commonly available in tropical countries. In this paper we present the Mexican inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the land-use sector. It involved integration of forest inventory, land-use and soil data in a GIS to estimate the net flux of GHG between 1993 and 2002. The net GHG flux of 86.9 (±34.4%)TgCO2y−1 resulted from the balance of emissions of 64.5 (±12%)TgCO2y−1 from biomass loss, 4.9 (±259%)TgCO2y−1 from managed forests, and 30.3 (±106%)TgCO2y−1 from mineral soils, and the removals of 12.9 (±36%)TgCO2y−1 in abandoned lands. Main sources of uncertainty include lack of integrated soil and biomass data and the impact of the various management practices on biomass. Key factors are identified to improve GHG inventories and to reduce uncertainty.