Recent data show that Peru stores nearly seven billion metric tons of carbon stocks, mostly in its Amazon rainforest. According to a new research by the Carnegie Institute for Science (CIS), that’s more than US annual carbon emissions for 2013 which were calculated at 5.38 billion tons. Peru, home to the second-largest area of Amazon rainforest after Brazil, will be the host for December’s UN climate change summit. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has revealed that the country is to date the most accurately carbon-mapped country in history, thanks to high-resolution mapping which provides a hectare-by-hectare look at its carbon reserves. Experts outline that the research by CIS’s allows Peru to know precisely how much carbon it is storing in its rainforest and where that carbon is being kept out of the atmosphere: in this way, the country can negotiate a fair price for its reserves on the global carbon market, experts say. The study has revealed that nearly a billion metric tons of above-ground carbon stocks in Peru are at imminent risk of emission into the atmosphere due to land uses such as fossil fuel oil exploration, cattle ranching, oil palm plantations and gold mining. According to researchers, there may be up to 30 million hectares of potential new protected forest areas that may be able to store close to three billion metric tons of carbon. Experts stress that this fact represents a good signal, adding that the majority of already protected carbon stocks exist only in 10 parks and reserves, and just four of these are fully enforced. Transitioning partially protected preserves to fully protected ones could represent a good instrument in order to help to counterbalance a great deal of the carbon, expected to be lost due to land use in the near future, experts suggest. The research team created a map of carbon density throughout the 128 million hectare (320 million acre) country at a resolution of one hectare (2.5 acres), using advanced three-dimensional forest mapping data integrated with satellite imaging data. Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Peru’s environment minister, whose ministry supported the Carnegie Institution in creating the map, has argued that this new map provides the evidence needed to start negotiating in the carbon market on a bigger scale. Moreover, Peru’s environment minister has stressed that the government is studying carbon stocks in the soil, doing a forest inventory. Additionally, the government has established an important forest investment program. These initiatives will better prepare the country to face changes in land use, the minister said. Data show that Peru’s Amazon covers more than 60% of the country, measuring 69 million hectares. However, deforestation, agriculture and land-use change account for 61% of Peru’s carbon emissions, studies reveal. In this context, experts indicate that tropical forests convert more carbon from the atmosphere into biomass than any other terrestrial ecosystem on Earth. On the other hand, recent reports reveal that tropical deforestation and forest degradation account for about 10% of the world’s carbon emissions annually. The gLAWcal Team EPSEI project Monday, 24 November 2014 (Source: The Guardian)