The West African states want to become less dependent on rice imports and are promoting regional cultivation. In the journal Environmental Research Letters, scientists led by CCR board member Prof. Dr. Harald Kunstmann have now published a study that examines the semi-arid savannah forests of West Africa as potential methane sinks for offsetting methane emissions from rice cultivation.

Rice cultivation is of great importance for global food security. By expanding regional rice cultivation, West Africa wants to become less dependent on rice imports. However, due to the associated emissions of the greenhouse gas methane, reduction and compensation options are being sought, such as natural forest reserves as natural methane sinks. In the study presented here, Samuel Guug and colleagues investigated for the first time the dynamic interaction between methane emissions from rain-fed rice cultivation and their potential reduction through methane uptake in the forests of the semi-arid savannah region of West Africa. What makes the study unique is that the methane emissions were quantified using the technically complex eddy covariance method. In the data-poor region of West Africa, this is one of the first direct measurements of methane emissions.

The result: the savannah forest in the nature reserve acted primarily as a methane sink during the rainy season, with a negative global warming potential of ?47 g CO2 equivalents. The researchers conclude that approximately four times more forest area is needed compared to the rice cultivation area to offset the methane emissions produced there.

Read more about this in our Publications and Research section.