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Tropical forests can handle the heat, up to a point
- May, 2020
Tropical forests face an uncertain future under climate change, but new research published in Science suggests they can continue to store large amounts of carbon in a warmer world, if countries limit greenhouse gas...
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Tropical forests’ carbon sink is already rapidly weakening
- March, 2020
The ability of the world’s tropical forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere is decreasing, according to a study tracking 300,000 trees over 30 years, published today in Nature. The global scientific collaboration, led by the...
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AfriTRON data contributes to FOS
- November, 2019
AfriTRON data contributes to the FOS, Forest Observation System, building a global reference dataset for remote sensing of forest biomass. See Schepaschenko et al (2019) The Forest Observation System, building a global reference dataset for...
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IPCC Tropical Forest Carbon Stocks
- June, 2019
AfriTRON data contributes to new IPCC default values for tropical forest carbon stocks. See: Suarez et al (2019) Estimating aboveground net biomass change for tropical and subtropical forests: Refinement of IPCC default rates using...
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AfriTRON data presented at 'Intact Forests in the 21st Century'
- July, 2018
AfriTRON data was presented at a three-day “Intact Forests in the 21st Century” international conference at Magdalene College, Oxford, organized by the Wildlife Conservation Society and University of Oxford. Oliver Phillips gave...
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Historic agreement signed to protect the world’s largest tropical peatland
- March, 2018
The third Global Peatlands Initiative conference took place in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. The audience included the Environment Ministers of Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia and the Head of UN Environment...
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DRC Peatland Assessment
- November, 2017
AfriTRON contributors Greta Dargie, Corneille Ewango and Simon Lewis conducted their first CongoPeat field campaign in the forested peatlands of the Democratic Republic of Congo, to assess their previously published map, and...
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ESA grant to extend Forest Observation System
- October, 2017
AfriTRON and RAINFOR co-ordinators Simon Lewis and Oliver Phillips have won a 40,000 Euros grant from the European Space Agency. The project, coordinated by International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), will extend the...
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International scientists ask Norwegian government not to fund the logging of Congo’s peatlands
- July, 2017
Open letter to Minister Helgesen from concerned scientists: The world’s most extensive tropical peatland complex is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Congo. The peat in the central Congo region stores...
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Capturing the El Nino Climate Anomaly
- June, 2017
The AfriTRON network finishes 100 re-censuses of plots across Liberia, Ghana, Gabon, Cameroon, Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo to capture the record-breaking temperatures and drought of the 2015-16 El Nino climate anomaly.
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Scientists discover world’s largest tropical peatland in remote Congo swamps
- January, 2017
A vast peatland in the Congo Basin has been mapped for the first time, revealing it to be the largest in the tropics. The new study found that the Cuvette Centrale peatlands in the central Congo Basin, which were unknown to exist five...
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the Global Forest Survey (FAO)
- May, 2015
In May Simon Lewis attended the First Preparatory Committee Meeting of the Global Forest Survey, a new initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Simon gave a presentation about both the AfriTRON and RAINFOR networks, key...
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AfriSAR preparation with AGEOS and European Space Agency
- April, 2015
In April, Simon Lewis attended a preparatory field visit with Gabon’s national space agency (AGEOS) and the European Space Agency (ESA), to prepare for the AfriSAR campaign. This will fly P-band radar and other instruments to assess...
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Update your participant details in ForestPlots.net
- March, 2015
The latest release of ForestPlots.net, available since yesterday, lets you review and update your contact details and institutional affiliations. If you have been involved in any AfriTRON field campaigns, it is important that...
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ForestPlots.net: new User Interface now live
- February, 2015
ForestPlots.net, the secure database used as a management tool by AfriTRON , has released a new user interface. Please follow the instructions to re-activate your user account: 1. On the page...
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ESA hold 1st BIOMASS Science Workshop
- January, 2015
Simon Lewis (AfriTRON) participated in the 1st BIOMASS Science Workshop , at the European Space Agency in Frascati, Italy, 27-30 January 2015. BIOMASS is a planned ESA mission for 2020, consisting of a P-band radar, for active...
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AfriTRON dataset release with DOI
- January, 2015
ForestPlots.net, the secure online database used to manage most of AfriTRON's long-term data, is now able to assign Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to datasets. DOIs provide a system for tracking where the data comes from, citing it...
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ForestPlots.net animation release: how we manage our data
- December, 2014
The secure online database ForestPlots.net is one of the main data management tools used by AfriTRON. An animation to showcase the database has now been released:
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Forest Stewardship Council General Assembly 2014
- September, 2014
Simon Lewis was invited to speak at the FSC General Assembly 2014 in Seville, Spain. The congress is held every 3 years, to continue to develop the world's most well-known timber and wood product sustainability...
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Breaking News: huge peatland discovered in remote part of Congo-Brazzaville
- May, 2014
Current field work in the Congo basin has uncovered a vast peatland. The size of the peat bog is estimated in the range of 100,000 - 200,000 square kilometers (40,000 - 80,000 sq miles), with the peat-layer reaching up to 7m...
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AfriTRON work presented at EGU 2014
- April, 2014
Many AfriTRON researchers attended the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna this month (27 April - 2 May 2014). Simon Lewis attended as invited speaker for the Congo basin forest carbon dynamics session. Further...
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Ecosystem services: Forests are more than sticks of carbon
- March, 2014
In Nature Correspondence today: "Valentin Bellassen and Sebastiaan Luyssaert suggest that forest managers should improve both carbon stocks and timber harvests to mitigate climate change...
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Climate Change and media representation
- February, 2014
Simon Lewis wrote a commentary piece in Nature on climate change, the recent UK floods and media misrepresentation: Scientist-versus-activist debates mislead the public: " the UK floods show the need to address the risks of climate...
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AETFAT 2014
- January, 2014
Aida Cuni Sanchez is in South Africa at the AETFAT 2014 conference to present her work on the changing carbon balance in central African forests.
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Special Journal Issue Theme : 'Change in African rainforests: past, present and future'
- September, 2013
The journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Biological Sciences releases a special theme issue today : Change in African rainforests: past, present and future Researchers from the AfriTRON consortium have...
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Deforestation rates slow in Africa's Congo Basin
- July, 2013
Satellite remote sensing images show deforestation rates in the Congo basin to have slowed by a third over the last decade. Read the Reuter's report and interview with Simon Lewis here. Source: Reuters Point...
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Above-ground biomass and structure of 260 African tropical forests.
- July, 2013
New paper on forest structure and carbon density for closed-canopy African tropical forests: Lewis et al. 2013. Above-ground biomass and structure of 260 African tropical forests. Phil Trans. B. This study represents a huge...
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International Conference: Climate Change, Deforestation and the Future of African Rainforests
- January, 2012
The University of Oxford (UK) hosted the 3 day international conference: Climate Change, Deforestation and the Future of African Rainforests. The aim of the meeting was to synthesise a scientific and authoritative summary of...
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Increasing carbon storage in intact African tropical forests
- February, 2009
The output of a major collaborative effort from the AfriTRON consortium has been accepted and now published by Nature: Increasing carbon storage in intact African tropical forests. The findings have received lots of media coverage....
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