Prof Sally Archibald, a Future Ecosystems for Africa (FEFA) programme co-principal Investigator (PI), and Dr Yolandi Ernst, a Global Change Institute (GCI) researcher, co-authored a groundbreaking paper on assessing Africa’s carbon budget over nine years (from 2010 to 2019). The paper found that in only nine years between 2010 and 2019, Africa has turned from a net carbon sink to a net carbon source.

Some of the major factors covered by the paper that contribute to this finding include the burning of fossil fuel, methane emissions from livestock, soil carbon losses, and nitrous oxide emissions due to land-use change. Prof Sally Archibald noted the alignment of this work on carbon budgeting with the current work of the FEFA programme by saying, “Protecting, managing, and restoring the landscapes that are helping to take up the excess CO2 is an important part of the solution – but there are challenges with making carbon storage the main conservation goal. It can conflict with biodiversity and water provision. The Future Ecosystems for Africa Programme is working with scientists, policymakers, and carbon projects across the continent to navigate this and identify opportunities to store carbon in natural ecosystems that do not damage the ecology.” The work was also partly funded by the Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation (OGRC), the main funder of the FEFA programme.

For more information, click here to read the full media release of the paper. Further, visit the FEFA website here for the latest programme publications.