November 30, 2025 | 10:45 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A recent study has revealed how the forests in Africa, once viewed as a solution to the climate crisis, have now transformed into a source of carbon emissions. For years, the dense African forests have been envisioned as a crucial and reliable component of maintaining the balance of our planet. The green landscape in this region was previously hailed as the lungs of the future Earth.
However, the forests, which used to play a pivotal role in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere, are now releasing more carbon than they sequester. This alteration signifies that the continent has overall shifted from being a carbon sink to a carbon source.
Researchers tracked these alterations by analyzing the above-ground biomass across the continent. Citing a review from an Earth report on Sunday, November 30, 2025, researchers utilized various advanced tools such as LiDAR satellite data and radar combined with field surveys.
The data demonstrates that Africa actually experienced an increase in biomass before 2010. However, subsequent to that year, biomass loss began to increase sharply. The most significant decline was observed in the dense tropical moist broadleaf forests, which are giant carbon reservoirs, in regions like Congo, Madagascar, and West Africa.
The Impacts of Land Use Change
This alteration in function has been driven by several factors, with land clearance for agriculture, urban expansion, and the increasing global demand for tropical wood accelerating the pace of deforestation.
Concurrently, many households in Africa still heavily rely on firewood as the primary source of daily energy, adding sustained pressure on forest ecosystems.
Moreover, climate factors worsen the damage, especially through incidents of fires often associated with drought and agricultural practices. Although there has been a slight increase in carbon from the expansion of shrubland in savannas, this additional biomass is insufficient to offset the amount of carbon lost from the dense broadleaf forests.
Professor Heiko Balzter from the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) referred to this alteration in the function of African forests as a warning for global climate policy. He stated that "if African forests no longer act as carbon sinks, the entire world will need to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions to stay within the 2-degree Celsius target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement."
To address the damages that have occurred, stronger forest governance and strict law enforcement against illegal logging are needed. Large-scale restoration programs are also considered crucial, such as the AFR100 initiative aimed at restoring 100 million hectares of African landscapes by 2030. This recovery will necessitate long-term commitment and robust financial support from governments and international partners.
Furthermore, reliable monitoring systems and long-term climate funding are essential to address this issue. Scientific evidence is clear, and time is running out. The collective next steps will determine whether these forests can recover or continue to decline.
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