This summer, a team of leading researchers published a report in which they analyzed carbon sequestration in forests. The analysis is global and spans the last three decades. The picture they have presented is complex, and the situation in tropical, temperate, and boreal forests is different. A key finding is that the carbon sink in forests corresponds to almost half of the emissions from fossil fuels. This means that our forests have removed half of the fossil fuel-related emissions and slowed down climate change more than anything else.

However, there are a number of worrying discoveries but also some hopeful ones:

• From 2010 to 2020, forests removed 3.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually, which is 3% less per year than the period 1990 to 2000.
• A decrease in the global forest area by 5% from 1990 to 2020. This corresponds to the entire Amazon rainforest or more than four times the land area of Sweden. Most of the loss occurred in the tropics, while temperate forests increased and boreal forests remained stable.
• However, boreal forest sinks have decreased in Asian Russia due to forest fires, insect outbreaks, and logging, while European boreal forests have increased their carbon storage over 30 years due to better management and longer growing seasons.
• Tropical forests have lost over 30% of their carbon storage in the last 30 years. This negative trend is mainly caused by the expansion of palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia and drought in the Amazon, but reforestation efforts in tropical areas are now removing 1.64 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide annually, as much as Russia's emissions in 2022.

The main conclusion from this study is that if we do not conserve forests, they will not be a carbon sink and conserving forests through REDD projects ^* is an action as important as tree planting in removing carbon from the atmosphere.

There is often a tendency to break down systems into manageable pieces that are easier to understand: you care most about your company's emissions and the climate projects that your company finances. But if your company finances tree planting projects in a country where forest disappears faster than it is replanted, the net effect on the climate is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And that was not the intention.

It's time to stop sawing off the branch we're sitting on. The forest's ability to store carbon is an issue that has engaged us at ZeroMission ever since we started almost 20 years ago. We have forest projects that sequester carbon, both by preserving and replanting, that your company can also get involved in.

If you have any questions about agroforestry, REDD projects or how to think about carbon credits, please contact us at info@zeromission.se.

*REDD+ stands for Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.