More than one quarter of Africa’s tree cover is found outside areas previously classified as forest

Reiner, Florian | Brandt, Martin S. | Tong, Xiaoye | Skole, David L. | Kariryaa, Ankit | Ciais, Philippe | Davies, Andrew B. | Hiernaux, Pierre H.Y. | Chave, Jérôme | Mugabowindekwe, Maurice | Igel, Christian | Oehmcke, Stefan | Gieseke, Fabian Cristian | Li, Sizhuo | Liu, Siyu | Saatchi, Sassan S. | Boucher, Peter Brehm | Singh, Jenia | Taugourdeau, Simon | Dendoncker, Morgane | Song, Xiaopeng | Mertz, Ole | Tucker, Compton James | Fensholt, R. | University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH) | Michigan State University [East Lansing] ; Michigan State University System | Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] (LSCE) ; Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)) ; Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) | Harvard University | Pastoralisme Conseil (PastoC) | Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Université de Toulouse (UT) | Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster = University of Münster (WWU) | SOUtenabilité et RésilienCE (SOURCE) ; Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [Ile-de-France]) | California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) | Systèmes d'élevage méditerranéens et tropicaux (UMR SELMET) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut Agro Montpellier ; Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro) | Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) | University of Maryland [College Park] (UMD) ; University System of Maryland | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) | ANR-10-LABX-0041, ANR-10-LABX-25-01; National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA: 80NSSC21K0315; Villum Fonden; Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, H2020: 947757; European Research Council, ERC; Danmarks Grundforskningsfond, DNRF; Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, CNES; Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond, DFF: 9064-00049B | We thank Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) satellite data Level 2 programme for providing parts of the very high-resolution satellite imagery for the study. This work was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement no. 947757 TOFDRY). R.F., C.I., and A.K. acknowledge support from Villum Fonden through the project Deep Learning and Remote Sensing for Unlocking Global Ecosystem Resource Dynamics (DeReEco). A.D., P.B., and J.S. acknowledge support from Karingani Holdings for funding the LiDAR data collection and processing for Mozambique. C.I. acknowledges support by the Pioneer Centre for AI, DNRF grant number P1. J.C. acknowledges grants from Investissements d’Avenir (CEBA, ref. ANR-10-LABX-25-01; TULIP, ref. ANR-10-LABX-0041), ESA CCI-Biomass and CNES. D.S. acknowledges support by NASA, grant no. 80NSSC21K0315 from the Land Cover and Land Use Change Program. M.M. was supported by a DFF Sapere Aude grant (no. 9064-00049B). | We thank Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) satellite data Level 2 programme for providing parts of the very high-resolution satellite imagery for the study. This work was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement no. 947757 TOFDRY). R.F., C.I., and A.K. acknowledge support from Villum Fonden through the project Deep Learning and Remote Sensing for Unlocking Global Ecosystem Resource Dynamics (DeReEco). A.D., P.B., and J.S. acknowledge support from Karingani Holdings for funding the LiDAR data collection and processing for Mozambique. C.I. acknowledges support by the Pioneer Centre for AI, DNRF grant number P1. J.C. acknowledges grants from Investissements d’Avenir (CEBA, ref. ANR-10-LABX-25-01; TULIP, ref. ANR-10-LABX-0041), ESA CCI-Biomass and CNES. D.S. acknowledges support by NASA, grant no. 80NSSC21K0315 from the Land Cover and Land Use Change Program. M.M. was supported by a DFF Sapere Aude grant (no. 9064-00049B). | ANR-10-LABX-0041,TULIP,Towards a Unified theory of biotic Interactions: the roLe of environmental(2010)