Mapped aboveground carbon stocks to advance forest conservation and recovery in Malaysian Borneo

What this paper found

High-resolution aboveground carbon density mapping across the entire state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, combining airborne LiDAR with field plot data. The resulting maps directly informed conservation priorities and restoration investment across degraded and intact forest landscapes.

How this informs belian.earth’s work

Biomass maps are inputs to baseline science. Chris led the field component of this paper, and one of the things that made it work was a methodological choice that is still unusual in the field. Plot networks for biomass mapping are traditionally located at random points. Here, the draft biomass map from the first model pass was used to select specific plot locations across the carbon-density spectrum, at both high-carbon and low-carbon ends, to validate the model where validation is hardest. More efficient per plot measured, and a better map at the end. That is how belian.earth still approaches site-level biomass estimation.

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