Benchmark maps of 33 years of secondary forest age for Brazil

Background:

The restoration and reforestation of 12 million hectares of forests by 2030 are amongst the leading mitigation strategies for reducing carbon emissions within the Brazilian Nationally Determined Contribution targets assumed under the Paris Agreement. Understanding the dynamics of forest cover, which steeply decreased between 1985 and 2018 throughout Brazil, is essential for estimating the global carbon balance and quantifying the provision of ecosystem services. Knowing the long-term increment, extent, and age of secondary forests is crucial; however, these variables are poorly quantified. Here we developed a 30-m spatial resolution dataset of the annual increment, extent, and age of secondary forests for Brazil over the 1986–2018 period. Land-use and land-cover maps from MapBiomas Project were used as input data for our algorithm, implemented in the Google Earth Engine platform. This dataset provides critical spatially explicit information for supporting carbon emissions reduction, biodiversity, and restoration policies, enabling environmental science applications, territorial planning, and subsidizing environmental law enforcement.

Associated Publication (method description):

Silva-Junior, C.H.L., Heinrich, V.H.A., Freire, A.T.G., Broggio, I.S., Rosan, T.M., Doblas, J., Anderson, L.O., Rousseau, G.X., Shimabukuro, Y.E., Silva, C.A., House, J.I., Aragão, L.E.O.C. Benchmark maps of 33 years of secondary forest age for Brazil. Scientific Data (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-00600-4

If you use the dataset, please cite the publications below:

• Silva-Junior, C.H.L., Heinrich, V.H.A., Freire, A.T.G., Broggio, I.S., Rosan, T.M., Doblas, J., Anderson, L.O., Rousseau, G.X., Shimabukuro, Y.E., Silva, C.A., House, J.I., Aragão, L.E.O.C. Benchmark maps of 33 years of secondary forest age for Brazil. Scientific Data (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-00600-4
• Heinrich, V.H., Dalagnol, R., Cassol, H.L., Rosan, T.M., Almeida, C.T., Silva-Junior, C.H.L., [...], Aragão, L.E.O.C. Large carbon sink potential of secondary forests in the Brazilian Amazon to mitigate climate change. Nature Communications (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22050-1
• Heinrich, V.H., Sitch, S., Rosan, T.M., Silva-Junior, C.H.L., Aragão, L.E.O.C. RE:Growth—A toolkit for analyzing secondary forest aboveground carbon dynamics in the Brazilian Amazon. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (2023). https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2023.1230734

Funder and Support:

• This mapping was funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development - CNPq, Brazil, through the project "YBYRÁ-BR: Space-Time Quantification of CO2 Emissions and Removals by Brazilian Forests", Process CNPq 401741/2023-0 (from v61)
• This mapping was supported by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel - CAPES, Brazil, Finance Code 001 (v2 to v5)

Dataset access

Tiles structure of the dataset:

The final data layers (v2) can be accessed from the Zenodo repository: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3928660

The final data layers (v2) can also be accessed through the Toolkit Download by administrative boundaries (states and municipalities), watersheds, biomes, and protected areas: https://code.earthengine.google.com/13bfcedb77ac7bac9ea1fb962b587a54?hideCode=true

Access to data asset in Google Earth Engine:

Data Asset Brazil

v61 (MapBiomas Collection 8) [1986-2022] [For all Native Vegetation of Brazil]

ID: users/ybyrabr/public/secondary_vegetation_age_collection8_v61
ID: users/ybyrabr/public/secondary_vegetation_extent_collection8_v61
ID: users/ybyrabr/public/secondary_vegetation_increment_collection8_v61
ID: users/ybyrabr/public/secondary_vegetation_loss_collection8_v61

v5 (MapBiomas Collection 7.1) [1986-2021] [For all Native Vegetation of Brazil]

ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_vegetation_age_collection71_v5
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_vegetation_extent_collection71_v5
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_vegetation_increment_collection71_v5
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_vegetation_loss_collection71_v5

Data asset Brazil v4 (MapBiomas Collection 6.0) [1986-2020] [Only for the "Forest Formation" Class]

ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_age_collection6_v4
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_extent_collection6_v4
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_increment_collection6_v4
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_loss_collection6_v4

Data asset Brazil v3 (MapBiomas Collection 5.0) [1986-2019] [Only for the "Forest Formation" Class]

ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_age_collection5_v3
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_extent_collection5_v3
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_increment_collection5_v3
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_loss_collection5_v3

Data asset Brazil v2 (MapBiomas Collection 4.1) [1986-2018] [Only for the "Forest Formation" Class]

ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_age_collection41_v2
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_extent_collection41_v2
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_increment_collection41_v2
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_loss_collection41_v2

Data Asset Amazonia

v2 (MapBiomas Collection 3.0) [1986-2020] [Only for the "Forest Formation" Class]

ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_age_amazonia_collection3_v2
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_extent_amazonia_collection3_v2
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_increment_amazonia_collection3_v2
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_loss_amazonia_collection3_v2

v1 (MapBiomas Collection 2.0) [1986-2018] [Only for the "Forest Formation" Class]

ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_age_amazonia_collection2_v1
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_extent_amazonia_collection2_v1
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_increment_amazonia_collection2_v1
ID: users/celsohlsj/public/secondary_forest_loss_amazonia_collection2_v1