Tropical forests store 40-50 per cent of terrestrial vegetation carbon1. However, spatial variations in aboveground live tree biomass carbon (AGC) stocks remain poorly understood, in particular in tropical montane forests2. Owing to climatic and soil changes with increasing elevation3, AGC stocks are lower in tropical montane forests compared with lowland forests2. Here we assemble and analyse a dataset of structurally intact old-growth forests (AfriMont) spanning 44 montane sites in 12 African countries. We find that montane sites in the AfriMont plot network have a mean AGC stock of 149.4 megagrams of carbon per hectare (95% confidence interval 137.1-164.2), which is comparable to lowland forests in the African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network4 and about 70 per cent and 32 per cent higher than averages from plot networks in montane2,5,6 and lowland7 forests in the Neotropics, respectively. Notably, our results are two-thirds higher than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change default values for these forests in Africa8. We find that the low stem density and high abundance of large trees of African lowland forests4 is mirrored in the montane forests sampled. This carbon store is endangered: we estimate that 0.8 million hectares of old-growth African montane forest have been lost since 2000. We provide country-specific montane forest AGC stock estimates modelled from our plot network to help to guide forest conservation and reforestation interventions. Our findings highlight the need for conserving these biodiverse9,10 and carbon-rich ecosystems.

African Wildlife Foundation Biodiversity Conservation and Landscape Management Program Simien Mountains National Park Debark Ethiopia

AMAP Lab Université de Montpellier IRD CNRS INRAE CIRAD Montpellier France

Applied Biology and Ecology Research Unit University of Dschang Dschang Cameroon

Biodiversity and Landscape Unit Gembloux Agro Bio Tech Université de Liege Liège Belgium

Biodiversity Foundation for Africa East Dean UK

Biology Department Université Officielle de Bukavu Bukavu Democratic Republic of the Congo

Biology Department University of Rwanda Kigali Rwanda

Bioversity International Yaoundé Cameroon

Center for Development Research University of Bonn Bonn Germany

Center for International Forestry Research Bogor Indonesia

Climate Change Specialist Group Species Survival Commission International Union for Conservation of Nature Gland Switzerland

College of African Wildlife Management Mweka Tanzania

College of Development Studies Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa Ethiopia

College of Natural and Computational Science Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Computational and Applied Vegetation Ecology Faculty of Bioscience Engineering Ghent University Ghent Belgium

Conservation and Landscape Ecology University of Freiburg Freiburg Germany

Conservation Science Group Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Cambridge UK

Dendrochronology Laboratory World Agroforestry Centre Nairobi Kenya

Département de Eaux et Forêts Institut Supérieur d'Agroforesterie et de Gestion de l'Environnement de Kahuzi Biega Kalehe Democratic Republic of the Congo

Department of Anthropology George Washington University Washington DC USA

Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Gothenburg Gothenburg Sweden

Department of Biological Sciences Florida International University Miami FL USA

Department of Biology University of Burundi Bujumbura Burundi

Department of Biology University of Florence Sesto Fiorentino Italy

Department of Ecology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Department of Ecology Université de Kisangani Kisangani Democratic Republic of the Congo

Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability Colorado State University Fort Collins CO USA

Department of Environment and Geography University of York York UK

Department of Environment Laboratory of Wood Technology Ghent University Ghent Belgium

Department of Forest Ecology Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences University of Dundee Dundee UK

Department of Geography National University of Singapore Singapore Singapore

Department of Geography University College London London UK

Department of Geosciences and Geography University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland

Department of Horticultural Sciences Faculty of Applied Sciences Cape Peninsula University of Technology Bellville South Africa

Department of International Environmental and Development Studies Norwegian University of Life Sciences Ås Norway

Department of Natural Resource Management College of Agriculture and Natural Resource Wolkite University Wolkite Ethiopia

Department of Natural Resources Karatina University Karatina Kenya

Department of Natural Sciences Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester UK

Department of Plant Biology Faculty of Sciences University of Yaoundé 1 Yaoundé Cameroon

Department of Plant Systematics University of Bayreuth Bayreuth Germany

Department of Zoology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Division of Vertebrate Zoology Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History New Haven CT USA

Eco2librium LLC Boise ID USA

Environmental Change Institute School of Geography and the Environment University of Oxford Oxford UK

European Commission Joint Research Centre Ispra Italy

Faculté de Gestion de Ressources Naturelles Renouvelables Université de Kisangani Kisangani Democratic Republic of the Congo

Faculty of Forestry University of British Columbia Vancouver British Columbia Canada

Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia České Budějovice Czech Republic

Flamingo Land Ltd Malton UK

Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group Wageningen University Wageningen The Netherlands

Forestry Development Authority of the Government of Liberia Monrovia Liberia

Geography Environment and Geomatics University of Guelph Guelph Ontario Canada

Helmholtz Center Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences Section 1 4 Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics Potsdam Germany

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig Germany

Independent Botanist Harare Zimbabwe

Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research Faculty of Science University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland

Institute for Geography Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen Nuremberg Germany

Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Science Třeboň Czech Republic

Institute of Forestry and Conservation University of Toronto Toronto Ontario Canada

Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation Mbarara University of Science and Technology Mbarara Uganda

Institute of Vertebrate Biology Czech Academy of Sciences Brno Czech Republic

International Centre of Biodiversity and Primate Conservation Dali University Dali China

International Gorilla Conservation Programme Musanze Rwanda

Inventory and Monitoring Program National Park Service Fredericksburg VA USA

Isotope Bioscience Laboratory Ghent University Ghent Belgium

Key Biodiversity Areas Secretariat BirdLife International Cambridge UK

Kunming Institute of Botany Kunming China

Laboratory of Geo Information Science and Remote Sensing Wageningen University Wageningen The Netherlands

Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity University of York York UK

Missouri Botanical Garden St Louis MO USA

Mountains of the Moon University Fort Portal Uganda

National Agricultural Research Organisation Mbarara Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute Mbarara Uganda

Nigerian Montane Forest Project Yelwa Village Nigeria

Plant Systematic and Ecology Laboratory Higher Teachers' Training College University of Yaoundé 1 Yaoundé Cameroon

Rothamsted Research Harpenden UK

School of Biological Sciences University of Southampton Southampton UK

School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Yale University New Haven CT USA

School of Geography University of Leeds Leeds UK

School of GeoSciences University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK

School of Life Sciences University of KwaZulu Natal Pietermaritzburg South Africa

School of Life Sciences University of Lincoln Lincoln UK

School of Natural Sciences University of Bangor Bangor UK

Service of Wood Biology Royal Museum for Central Africa Tervuren Belgium

Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation Northwest University Xi'an China

Smithsonian Institution Forest Global Earth Observatory Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Washington DC USA

State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying Mapping and Remote Sensing Wuhan University Wuhan China

Tropical Biodiversity Section Museo delle Scienze Trento Italy

Tropical Forests and People Research Centre University of the Sunshine Coast Sippy Downs Queensland Australia

Tropical Plant Exploration Group Mundemba Cameroon

UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Edinburgh UK

UK Research and Innovation London UK

UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Center Cambridge UK

Université du Cinquantenaire Lwiro Département de sciences de l'environnement Kabare Democratic Republic of the Congo

Université Libre de Bruxelles Brussels Belgium

University of Canterbury Canterbury New Zealand

University of Ghent Ghent Belgium

University of Jos Jos Nigeria

University of Liberia Monrovia Liberia

Water and Land Resources Center Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa Ethiopia

World Agroforestry Nairobi Kenya

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Nature. 2021 Aug;596(7873):488-490. doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02266-3. PubMed

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