Africa’s forests, once powerful natural defenders against climate change, have begun releasing more carbon dioxide than they capture, according to a major new study.
The findings mark a dramatic shift from the continent’s long-standing role as a vital carbon sink and highlight the urgent need for stronger efforts to protect the world’s remaining forests.
The international research team, led by experts at the National Center for Earth Observation at the Universities of Leicester, Sheffield, and Edinburgh, published the results in Scientific Reports.
For decades, Africa’s forests—especially the lush tropical rainforests of Central and West Africa—have helped slow global warming by absorbing large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere.
But after 2010, scientists found this trend reversed. Between 2010 and 2017, the continent lost roughly 106 billion kilograms of forest biomass each year. To put this into perspective, that is equal to the weight of 106 million cars disappearing annually from Africa’s forests.
Researchers discovered this shift by using advanced satellite technology and machine learning. They combined data from NASA’s GEDI laser instrument and Japan’s ALOS radar satellites with thousands of ground measurements taken across the continent.
This created the most detailed, continent-wide map ever produced of changes in aboveground forest biomass. The high-resolution data allowed scientists to pinpoint where forests were shrinking and where they were growing.
The results revealed a clear pattern. Africa did gain some biomass in its savanna areas, where shrubs have been expanding.
But these gains were far too small to offset the dramatic losses in tropical moist broadleaf forests.
Countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and several West African nations experienced particularly severe declines due to deforestation, logging, and forest degradation.
In these regions, forests are being cut down faster than they can regrow, and in many places, the damage is becoming long-lasting.
Professor Heiko Balzter, senior author of the study, said the findings should be treated as a global warning.
If Africa’s forests are no longer removing carbon from the atmosphere, the rest of the world will need to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions even more quickly to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 2°C. He emphasized the importance of rapidly increasing climate finance to support forest conservation, particularly through initiatives such as the newly announced Tropical Forests Forever Facility, which aims to pay countries for keeping their forests intact.
The research also highlights the need for stronger governance and enforcement to prevent illegal logging, as well as the importance of large-scale restoration efforts like AFR100, which aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded African landscapes by 2030. Co-author Dr. Nezha Acil noted that these actions could help reverse the trend if implemented quickly and effectively.
Dr. Pedro Rodríguez-Veiga added that the findings should be a wake-up call for governments and the carbon market. If Africa’s forests continue to lose biomass, the global carbon balance will worsen, making it far harder to achieve climate goals.
The study reinforces that protecting forests is not just an environmental priority—it is central to the world’s climate future.
