Global tree cover and biomass carbon on agricultural land: the contribution of agroforestry to global and national carbon budgets
This paper by Nature Research assesses the role of trees on agricultural land and their significance for carbon sequestration at a global level, along with recent change trends. Agroforestry systems and tree cover on agricultural land make an important contribution to climate change mitigation, but are not systematically accounted for in either global carbon budgets or national carbon accounting. Remote sensing data show that in 2010, 43% of all agricultural land globally had at least 10% tree cover and that this has increased by 2% over the previous ten years. Between 2000 and 2010 tree cover increased by 3.7%, resulting in an increase of 4.6% of biomass carbon. Regional and country-level variation in stocks and trends were mapped and tabulated globally. All results datasets from this analysis of carbon biomass on agricultural land are available online. Brazil, Indonesia, China and India had the largest increases in biomass carbon stored on agricultural land, while Argentina, Myanmar, and Sierra Leone had the largest decreases.