Nature 624 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode info:eu-repo/semantics/article Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system1. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests2,3,4,5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced6 and satellite-derived approaches2,7,8 to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151–363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea2,3,9 that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets. Mo, Lidong Zohner, Constantin M. Reich, Peter B. Liang, Jingjing de Miguel, Sergio Nabuurs, Gert-Jan Renner, Susanne S. van den Hoogen, Johan Araza, Arnan Herold, Martin Mirzagholi, Leila Ma, Haozhi Averill, Colin Phillips, Oliver L. Gamarra, Javier G. P. Hordijk, Iris Routh, Devin Abegg, Meinrad Adou Yao, Yves C. Alberti, Giorgio Almeyda Zambrano, Angelica M. Vilchez Alvarado, Braulio Alvarez-Dávila, Esteban Alvarez-Loayza, Patricia Alves, Luciana F. Amaral, Iêda Ammer, Christian Antón-Fernández, Clara Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro Arroyo, Luzmila Avitabile, Valerio Aymard, Gerardo A. Baker, Timothy R. Bałazy, Radomir Banki, Olaf Barroso, Jorcely G. Bastian, Meredith L. Bastin, Jean-Francois Birigazzi, Luca Birnbaum, Philippe Bitariho, Robert Boeckx, Pascal Bongers, Frans Bouriaud, Olivier Brancalion, Pedro H. S. Brandl, Susanne Brearley, Francis Q. Brienen, Roel Broadbent, Eben N. Bruelheide, Helge Bussotti, Filippo Cazzolla Gatti, Roberto César, Ricardo G. Cesljar, Goran Chazdon, Robin L. Chen, Han Y. H. Chisholm, Chelsea Cho, Hyunkook Cienciala, Emil Clark, Connie Clark, David Colletta, Gabriel D. Coomes, David A. Cornejo Valverde, Fernando Corral-Rivas, José J. Crim, Philip M. Cumming, Jonathan R. Dayanandan, Selvadurai de Gasper, André L. Decuyper, Mathieu Derroire, Géraldine DeVries, Ben , Ilija Djordjevic Dourdain, Aurélie Laurier Engone Obiang, Nestor Enquist, Brian J. Eyre, Teresa J. Belarmain Fandohan, Adandé Fayle, Tom M. Feldpausch, Ted R. Ferreira, Leandro V. Finér, Leena Fischer, Markus Fletcher, Christine Frizzera, Lorenzo Gianelle, Damiano Glick, Henry B. Harris, David J. Hector, Andrew Hemp, Andreas Hengeveld, Geerten Hérault, Bruno Herbohn, John L. Hillers, Annika Honorio Coronado, Eurídice N. Hui, Cang Ibanez, Thomas Imai, Nobuo Jagodziński, Andrzej M. Jaroszewicz, Bogdan Kvist Johannsen, Vivian Joly, Carlos A. Jucker, Tommaso Jung, Ilbin Karminov, Viktor Kartawinata, Kuswata Kearsley, Elizabeth Kenfack, David Kennard, Deborah K. Kepfer-Rojas, Sebastian Keppel, Gunnar Latif Khan, Mohammed Killeen, Timothy J. Seok Kim, Hyun Kitayama, Kanehiro Köhl, Michael Korjus, Henn Kraxner, Florian Kucher, Dmitry Laarmann, Diana Lang, Mait Lu, Huicui Lukina, Natalia V. Maitner, Brian S. Malhi, Yadvinder Marcon, Eric Schwantes Marimon, Beatriz Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur Marshall, Andrew R. Martin, Emanuel H. Meave, Jorge A. Melo-Cruz, Omar Mendoza, Casimiro Mendoza-Polo, Irina Miscicki, Stanislaw Merow, Cory Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel Moreno, Vanessa S. Mukul, Sharif A. Mundhenk, Philip Guadalupe Nava-Miranda, María Neill, David Neldner, Victor J. Nevenic, Radovan V. Ngugi, Michael R. Niklaus, Pascal A. Oleksyn, Jacek Ontikov, Petr Ortiz-Malavasi, Edgar Pan, Yude Paquette, Alain Parada-Gutierrez, Alexander Parfenova, Elena I. Park, Minjee Parren, Marc Parthasarathy, Narayanaswamy Peri, Pablo L. Pfautsch, Sebastian Picard, Nicolas Piedade, Maria Teresa F. Piotto, Daniel Pitman, Nigel C. A. Dalberg Poulsen, Axel Poulsen, John R. Pretzsch, Hans Ramirez Arevalo, Freddy Restrepo-Correa, Zorayda Rodeghiero, Mirco Rolim, Samir G. Roopsind, Anand Rovero, Francesco Rutishauser, Ervan Saikia, Purabi Salas-Eljatib, Christian Saner, Philippe Schall, Peter Schelhaas, Mart-Jan Schepaschenko, Dmitry Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael Schmid, Bernhard Schöngart, Jochen Searle, Eric B. Seben, Vladimír Serra-Diaz, Josep M. Sheil, Douglas Shvidenko, Anatoly Z. Silva-Espejo, Javier E. Silveira, Marcos Singh, James Sist, Plinio Slik, Ferry Sonké, Bonaventure Souza, Alexandre F. Stereńczak, Krzysztof J. Svenning, Jens-Christian Svoboda, Miroslav Swanepoel, Ben Targhetta, Natalia Tchebakova, Nadja ter Steege, Hans Thomas, Raquel Tikhonova, Elena Umunay, Peter M. Usoltsev, Vladimir A. Valencia, Renato Valladares, Fernando van der Plas, Fons Van Do, Tran van Nuland, Michael E. Vasquez, Rodolfo M. Verbeeck, Hans Viana, Helder Vibrans, Alexander C. Vieira, Simone von Gadow, Klaus Wang, Hua-Feng Watson, James V. Werner, Gijsbert D. A. Wiser, Susan K. Wittmann, Florian Woell, Hannsjoerg Wortel, Verginia Zagt, Roderik Zawiła-Niedźwiecki, Tomasz Zhang, Chunyu Zhao, Xiuhai Zhou, Mo Zhu, Zhi-Xin Zo-Bi, Irie C. Gann, George D. Crowther, Thomas W. application/pdf 4325041 bytes Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential https://unilib.phaidrabg.rs/o:3759 doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06723-z eng 2023 Nature