Some 55% of tropical forests are negatively affected by land use practices and deforestation worldwide. But the ability to penetrate the canopy to see what’s going on has been lacking until now.
Global Ecology’s Greg Asner’s group has developed new airborne methods to peer through the canopy to measure and map, in beautiful 3-D, the underlying vegetation, degradation and deforestation, and the amount of carbon stored and emitted in these forests.
The ability to reliably measure carbon locked up in tropical forests and emitted by land-use practices is a prerequisite for accurately monitoring carbon storage and emissions for the newly passed United Nations initiative on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD).
Watch the stunning video about this global project that will help conservationists and land-use managers to make better decisions for saving these vital resources.
*Source: Carnegie Institution for Science