Combinations of ground-based observations, atmospheric carbon
budgets, and satellite measurements indicate with high confidence that
forests are currently a net sink for carbon at the global scale. It is
estimated that intact and regrowing forests currently contain 860 ± 70
PgC and sequestered 4.0 ± 0.7 PgC yr–1 globally between 2000 and
2007 (WGI AR5 Chapter 6; Canadell et al., 2007; Pan et al., 2011; Le
Quéré et al., 2012). The carbon taken up by intact and regrowing forests
was counterbalanced by a release due to land use change of 2.8 ± 0.4