Forests in at least ten World Heritage sites have become net sources of carbon, due to pressure from human activity and climate change, according to a new report released on Thursday,?by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization?().?

The?agency¡¯s new analysis,??, shows that instead of helping mitigate global warming, some of the world¡¯s most treasured forests are in fact adding to?overall?CO2 emissions.????

The first-ever scientific assessment of greenhouse?gas emissions in?forests?on the??World Heritage?list,??that?since the turn of the?millennium,?some forests such as the Yosemite National Park in the United States, and the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve in Honduras, have released more carbon that they sequestered?due to wildfires, deforestation and global heating.??

Alarming?

Given that?the?sites are highly prized and protected, the?fact that 10 of the 257 forests surveyed are showing a carbon surplus, between?2001 and 2020 due to?human activity,?is alarming, said UNESCO.?

According to UNESCO¡¯s findings, at some sites the clearance of land for?agriculture caused emissions to be greater than sequestration.?The increasing scale and severity of wildfires, often linked to severe periods of drought,?was?also a predominant factor?in several cases. Other?extreme weather phenomena, such as hurricanes,?contributed at certain sites.??

For Tales Carvalho Resende, co-author of the report, the?date provides?¡°evidence of the severity of this climate emergency¡¯.??

Forests¡¯ vital role??

The?news is not all bad.?The?same research also reveals?that?overall,?the network of 257?forests in World Heritage sites,?played?a vital role in?mitigating climate change, by?absorbing 190 million tons of CO2?from the atmosphere every?year.?That¡¯s roughly half of the United Kingdom¡¯s annual CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.??

World Heritage forests, whose?combined?area of 69 million hectares is?roughly twice?the size of Germany, are?biodiversity-rich ecosystems.??

In?addition to absorbing CO2?from the atmosphere?they also?store substantial amounts of carbon.?

According to the report,?carbon sequestration?by these forests over long periods has led to total carbon storage of?approximately 13?billion tons,?which is more than the carbon in Kuwait¡¯s proven oil reserves.??

Drawing the most detailed picture to date of the vital role that forests in World Heritage sites play in mitigating climate change, the report shows that?strong and sustained protection of those sites and surrounding landscapes can contribute to effective solutions for climate change mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity.??

Better decision-making?

By?combining?satellite-derived data?with monitoring information at the site level,?researchers?at UNESCO,?the?World Resources Institute (WRI) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),?were able to estimate the gross and net carbon?absorbed and?emitted by?UNESCO?World?Heritage forests?between 2001 and 2020 and determine the causes of some emissions.??

This analysis of iconic sites showed?that combining satellite data with on the-ground-information can?improve local decision-making and?strengthen?accountability, thereby helping forests, climate and people.??

Recommendations?

According to?UNESCO, in the coming years, ongoing sequestration and carbon?sinks?are likely to be affected at a growing number of sites worldwide,?as a result of?increasingly fragmented and degraded landscapes, and more frequent and intense climate-related events.?

To address the problem, the?report?urges?increased and?sustained protection of UNESCO World Heritage?sites and their?surrounding landscapes?to ensure their forests can continue to act as strong carbon sinks and stores for future generations.??

To achieve this, the report recommends?a?more urgent response?to climate-related events, as well as maintaining and strengthening ecological connectivity through improved landscape management.???

For example, in Indonesia, government agencies have been using near real-time fire alarm?systems to significantly reduce their average?response time.?

10 World Heritage Forests that are emitting more carbon than they absorb
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  • Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, Indonesia

  • Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, Honduras

  • Yosemite National Park, United States

  • Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, Canada & United States

  • Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains, South Africa

  • Kinabalu Park, Malaysia

  • Uvs Nuur Basin, Russia & Mongolia

  • Grand Canyon National Park, United States

  • Greater Blue Mountains Area, Australia

  • Morne Trois Pitons National Park, Dominica