One of the major drawbacks of land cover products is the lack of interoperability among them. Since their development was driven by different national or international initiatives, they were developed for different purposes and hold diverse technical characteristics. Thus, comparison among products and quality monitoring is necessary in assessing their usefulness. This paper provides a methodology to compare global land cover maps that allows for differences in legend definitions among products.

The rising discussion on carbon balance of tropical forests often does not consider the sequestration potential of secondary dry forests, which are becoming an increasing importance due to land use change and reforestation. We have developed an easy applicable tool for the estimation of biomass increment of tropical secondary forest stands on the base of tree ring analysis. The existence of annual rings was shown by a combination of anatomical examination and radiocarbon estimations.

Local and regional governments have developed climate action plans with significant implications for forests and wildlife. The effectiveness of climate mitigation through forest carbon sequestration depends on understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of land-cover and land-use change (LCLUC). Few studies project future LCLUC effects on forest carbon sequestration, and even fewer examine the resulting consequences for forest connectivity and wildlife habitat.