1. Determination of Deforestation Rates of the World's Humid Tropical Forests.
- Author
-
Achard, Frédéric, Eva, Hugh D., Stibig, Hans-Jürgen, Mayaux, Philippe, Gallego, Javier, Richards, Timothy, and Malingreau, Jean-Paul
- Subjects
- *
DEFORESTATION , *ARTIFICIAL satellites - Abstract
A recently completed research program (TREES) employing the global imaging capabilities of Earth-observing satellites provides updated information on the status of the world's humid tropical forest cover. Between 1990 and 1997, 5.8 ± 1.4 million hectares of humid tropical forest were lost each year, with a further 2.3 ± 0.7 million hectares of forest visibly degraded. These figures indicate that the global net rate of change in forest cover for the humid tropics is 23% lower than the generally accepted rate. This result affects the calculation of carbon fluxes in the global budget and means that the terrestrial sink is smaller than previously inferred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2002
- Full Text
- View/download PDF