African forests absorb more CO2 than others (including the Amazon)

There is one more reason to protect African forests:the first systematically collected data demonstrate their crucial role in the carbon cycle.

• A study conducted - among others - by the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change evaluates the absorption of CO2 by African forests.
• These ecosystems play a crucial role in the carbon cycle, even more than the Amazon forest.

We know that the tropical forests they are our precious allies in the fight against climate changes, because they store large quantities of CO2.Until now, however, we only knew a minimal part of the role of African forests.A study published by Nature communications, to which the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), fills this void.Revealing that these ecosystems play a crucial role in the carbon cycle.Even more thanAmazon.

Why African forests absorb so much CO2

Before this study, the CO2 absorption capacity of the African forests had been measured sporadically and incompletely.The research just published, however, focuses on a large amount of data collected over years in 14 different areas, in particular in West Africa, between the Ivory Coast and Nigeria.Evidence suggests that African forests, particularly those of Ghana, are the most effective in capturing CO2.

This feature could be due to thearidity which slows down the biomass decomposition process.Furthermore, especially in the transition zones between savannah and tropical areas, the trees seasonally lose only part of their leaves (in jargon they are said to be semi-deciduous).These two factors mean that, once captured, CO2 remains stored for longer.In short, African forests play a vital role in the carbon cycle, that natural biogechemical cycle which, through rocks, the ocean and the biosphere, manages to regulate the quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Deforestation in Africa:the data and the causes

In light of these discoveries, CMCC itself invites us to take it very seriously deforestation in African forests.An environmental problem that, often, in journalistic reporting and in common perception, slips into the background compared to deforestation and fires in the Amazon.The latest data from the platform Global forest watch, referring to 2023, raise a sigh of relief for the slowdown in deforestation in Brazil and Colombia, but also demonstrate how the objective of stop deforestation by 2030 is still out of reach.In the ranking of the states with the greatest loss of primary tropical forest, in second place there is an African state (although excluded from the scope of this study), the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On the continent, deforestation is an environmental problem that is linked to very specific economic and political factors.In fact, she is often the daughter of land grabbing, the massive acquisition of land by private individuals who transform it into monocultures, snatching it from the communities that inhabited it and collecting the proceeds.