A 22 year satellite study of Burkina Faso's Bontioli Natural Reserve shows that dry savanna landscapes store more carbon than they appear to, and that clearing land for farming is releasing that carbon. Wooded savanna cover shrank from a third of the reserve to an eighth, while cropland expanded from under 10% to over a third, causing stored carbon to drop by nearly half. The study also found a surprising pattern: warmer, wetter conditions reduced plant growth, the opposite of what researchers expected. Climate projections to 2070 point to further carbon losses under both low and high emissions pathways. The findings give land managers a way to identify which areas are losing carbon fastest and target restoration efforts accordingly.
