Medios

Analysts and policymakers are looking at converting the wet savannas of Africa into farmlands. But a new study shows that this conversion will come at a high cost to the environment and will not meet the standards for renewable fuels.

CGIAR Climate's insight:

The researchers determined that each country should have an analysis of its own productivity, as well as any environmental impact involved before considering mass land conversions. The overall impact of the release of high levels of stored carbon from cultivated lands and the high cost in terms of lost species really has to be considered.

"One basic lesson is that Africa's wet savannas deserve more environmental respect than they get," said Phil Thornton, a co-author and senior researcher with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security.