Giving Compass' Take:
- Researchers at the University of Leeds present an interactive map they created to demonstrate the link between deforestation and tropical temperature increases.
- How can donors and funders support conservation nonprofits in applying the results of this research to further investigate how deforestation impacts public health and food systems?
- Learn more about key climate justice issues and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on climate justice in your area.
What is Giving Compass?
We connect donors to learning resources and ways to support community-led solutions. Learn more about us.
Deforestation is leading to temperature increases of up to 5°C in some tropical regions, according to data revealed in a new interactive map created by researchers at the University of Leeds.
The online tool has been designed to highlight the important role forests play in moderating local climates and will allow governments, conservation charities and those working in agriculture to investigate what impact different levels of deforestation could have on health, food production and productivity.
We hope that by understanding how forests moderate temperatures at the local scale, policymakers may give greater priority to forest protection and reducing deforestation.
It follows recent research by Dr Carly Reddington and Professor Dominick Spracklen from Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment which showed that deforestation in tropical countries could contribute to increased deaths from heat exposure in nearby populations. The study, which analysed areas across Central and South America, Africa and South-East Asia, found that local climate heating caused by tropical deforestation has exposed over 300 million people to increased temperatures and is associated with 28,000 heat-related deaths each year.
"This local heating not only has important implications for human health, but also for water security, agriculture, and climate resilience – especially for vulnerable communities across the tropics”, said Dr Reddington
Tropical deforestation contributes to rising temperatures through the loss of trees that would naturally regulate the climate through shade, moisture release via evapotranspiration, and carbon dioxide absorption. Without these cooling mechanisms, heat accumulates more rapidly at the surface, atmospheric moisture declines, and greenhouse gas concentrations increase.
The interactive map shows the temperature increase due to deforestation per region, district, or province. For example, deforestation in the state of Rondônia in the southern Amazon in Brazil would cause a local warming of 2.1°C. It would cause even stronger warming of more than 3°C in parts of Southeast Asia and Africa, and in the Katavi Region in Tanzania, deforestation could cause warming of more than 5°C.
Read the full article about deforestation and tropical temperature increases at University of Leeds.