title: Determination of deforestation rates of the world's humid tropical forests.
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.
authors.affiliation: Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit, Joint Research Centre, TP 440, 21020 Ispra, Italy. frederic.achard@jrc.it
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Achard
authors.forename: Hugh D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Eva
authors.forename: Hans-Jürgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Stibig
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mayaux
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gallego
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: Jean-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Malingreau
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D000383:Agriculture; D001210:Asia, Southeastern; D018533:Biomass; D002244:Carbon; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D006813:Humidity; D007194:India; D007843:Latin America; D008377:Maps as Topic; D018531:Spacecraft; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development; D014329:Tropical Climate
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon