Giving Compass' Take:

• Researchers report the effect of losing intact tropical forests is more devastating on the climate than previously thought.

• The study’s approach better captured the true carbon impact of intact forest loss. How can funders help support more research like this? 

• Learn about this $90 million fund to address and support climate-smart forestry.

A new international study reveals that between 2000 and 2013, the clearance of intact tropical forests led to much higher levels of carbon being emitted into the atmosphere than first believed—resulting in a 626% increase in the calculated impact on climate.

This difference equated to two years of global land-use change emissions—and was previously unaccounted for due to a lack of full carbon accounting, says Sean Maxwell, a conservation scientist at the University of Queensland.

“Usually only ‘pulse’ emissions are considered—these are emissions released the instant intact forest is destroyed,” Maxwell says. “Our analysis considers all impacts such as the effects of selective logging, forgone carbon sequestration, expanding effects on the edges of forests, and species extinction.

“We were shocked to see that when considering all of the available factors, the net carbon impact was more than six times worse for the climate.”

Read the full article about the effects of climate change on tropical forests by Dominic Jarvis at Futurity.