A new way to make CO2 emission estimates from deforestation more reliable - a step forward for policy implementation?

There are limited studies that exist detailing the emissions arising from a certain land cover changes. So the IPCC shows in their "land-use change" category of SRES category desciptions, that all estimates of emissions from land-use change are calculated based on the obtainable deforestation and afforestation figures. Further, these are based on estimates from the expected carbon storage of a set area of forest. 
In 2012, Harris et al produced a baseline map of carbon emissions in tropical regions, using satellite imagery. Pairing deforested regions of interest with the carbon stock before clearing (using base map) can help with the evaluation of CO2 emissions and the reaching of conservation targets.



The map above is taken from the publication. "Distribution of annual carbon emissions from gross forest cover loss between 2000 and 2005 mapped at a spatial resolution of 18.5 km."

Despite the lowering of deforestation rates (highlighted in my first posts) in South America, it is still high to the extent of emitting 5-200 Gg of Carbon per year between 2000-05. Of course the higher end of this spectrum is only realistic for a few Amazonian regions but should still highlight the importance of tackling this problem. If deforestation effects on the local biodiversity and climate are not enough to power strict management policy implementation, maybe the visualisation of CO2 emissions is!