2023-05-04T13:11:58.897445

2025-05-21T21:46:10.215365

30

30 m

Global

Annual

global

Harris et al. (2021). Global maps of 21st century forest carbon fluxes. Accessed on [date] from Global Forest Watch. 

Forest carbon removals

(2001-2024, 30m, Harris et al. 2021, Gibbs et al. 2025)

Harris, N.L., D.A. Gibbs, A. Baccini, R.A. Birdsey, S. de Bruin, M. Farina, L. Fatoyinbo, M.C. Hansen, M. Herold, R.A. Houghton, P.V. Potapov, D. Requena Suarez, R.M. Roman-Cuesta, S.S. Saatchi, C.M. Slay, S.A. Turubanova, A. Tyukavina. 2021. Global maps of twenty-first century forest carbon fluxes. Nature Climate Change. [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00976-6](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00976-6)<br><br>Gibbs, D. A., Rose, M., Grassi, G., Melo, J., Rossi, S., Heinrich, V., & Harris, N. L. 2025. Revised and updated geospatial monitoring of 21st century forest carbon fluxes. Earth System Science Data. [https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1217-2025](https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1217-2025)

[CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

English

This carbon removals layer is part of the forest carbon flux model described in [Harris et al. (2021)](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-00976-6). This paper introduces a geospatial monitoring framework for estimating global forest carbon fluxes which can assist a variety of actors and organizations with tracking greenhouse gas fluxes from forests and in decreasing emissions or increasing removals by forests. Forest carbon removals from the atmosphere (sequestration) by forest sinks represent the cumulative carbon captured (megagrams CO2/ha) by the growth of established and newly regrowing forests during the model period between 2001-2024. Removals include accumulation of carbon in both aboveground and belowground live tree biomass. Following IPCC Tier 1 assumptions for forests remaining forests, removals by dead wood, litter, and soil carbon pools are assumed to be zero. In each pixel, carbon removals are calculated following IPCC Guidelines for [national greenhouse gas inventories](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/2019-refinement-to-the-2006-ipcc-guidelines-for-national-greenhouse-gas-inventories/) where forests existed in 2000 or were established between 2000 and 2020 according to [Potapov et al. (2022)](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsen.2022.856903/full). Atmospheric carbon removed in each pixel is based on maps of forest type (e.g., mangrove, plantation), ecozone (e.g., humid Neotropics), forest age (e.g., primary, old secondary), and number of years of carbon removal. This layer reflects the cumulative removals during the model period (2001-2024) and must be divided by 24 to obtain an annual average during the model duration; removal rates cannot be assigned to individual years of the model. All input layers were resampled to a common resolution of 0.00025 x 0.00025 degrees each to match [Hansen et al. (2013)](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1244693).<br><br>We have made several updates to the model since its [original release](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00976-6). For documentation through the current version, please refer to [this blog](https://www.globalforestwatch.org/blog/data-and-tools/whats-new-carbon-flux-monitoring/). For a more detailed description of the changes included through the 2023 tree cover loss launch (released spring 2024) and a comparison of the model's fluxes with those from the Global Carbon Budget and national greenhouse gas inventories, please refer to [Gibbs et al. (2025)](https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1217-2025).<br><br>Removals are available for download in two different area units over the model duration: 1) megagrams of CO2 removed/ha, and 2) megagrams of CO2 removed/pixel. The first is appropriate for visualizing (mapping) removals because it represents the density of removals per hectare. The second is appropriate for calculating the removals in an area of interest (AOI) because the values of the pixels in the AOI can be summed to obtain the total removals for that area. The values in the latter were calculated by adjusting the removals per hectare by the size of each pixel, which varies by latitude. When estimating removals occurring over a defined number of years between 2001 and 2024 to compare to emissions, divide total carbon removals by the model duration and then multiply by the number of years in the period of interest. Both datasets only include pixels within forests, as defined in the methods of Harris et al. (2021) and updated with tree cover gain through 2020.<br><br>Download data from [here](https://data.globalforestwatch.org/datasets/forest-carbon-removals).

Displays forest carbon removals by forest sinks

- Data are the product of modeling and thus have an inherent degree of error and uncertainty. Users are strongly encouraged to read and fully comprehend the metadata and other available documentation prior to data use. - Values are applicable to forest areas (canopy cover >30 percent and >5 m height or areas with tree cover gain). See Harris et al. (2021) for further information on the forest definition used in the analysis. - Carbon removals reflect the total removals over the model period of 2001-2024, not an annual time series from which a trend can be derived. Thus, values must be divided by 24 to calculate average annual removals. - Uncertainty is higher in gross removals than emissions, particularly driven by uncertainty in removal factors. - Carbon removals reflect a gross estimate, i.e., carbon emissions from previous or subsequent loss of tree cover are not included. Instead, gross carbon emissions are accounted for in the companion forest carbon emissions layer. - Removals data contain temporal inconsistencies because tree cover gain represents a cumulative total from 2000-2020, rather than annual gains as estimated through 2024. - Forest carbon removals reflect those occurring only within forest ecosystems and do not reflect carbon stock increases in the harvested wood products (HWP) pool. - Large jumps in removals along some boundaries are due to the use of ecozone-specific removal factors. The changes in removals occur at ecozone boundaries, where different removal factors are applied on each side. - This dataset has been updated since its original publication. See Overview for more information.

Forest Change

https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/17/1217/2025/

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