Countries are redeveloping abandoned croplands at a rate that is jeopardising the land’s contributions to reducing CO2, a report published in the journal Science Advances said.
The new study, drawn from analysis of satellite imagery dating back to the 1980s, should help policymakers better evaluate how their land-use practices help or inhibit efforts to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations and restore ecosystems.
The researchers found that across 11 diverse sites around the world, 8.8 million hectares of cropland were abandoned for five years or more between 1987 and 2017.
When these areas are left alone, forests can regrow and ecosystems can reconstitute themselves. But they need to be left alone and by the end of that period, an average of 38 per cent of the land re-entered cultivation at each of the 11 sites.
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Leuser Mountain National Park in Aceh, Indonesia, is listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Anadolu Agency/Getty Images -

The Rio Platano biosphere reserve in La Mosquitia, Honduras, where the government has begun to evict people deforesting land declared a World Heritage by Unesco in 1980. AFP -

A couple has their photo taken close to the edge of the Grand Canyon in the southern US. AFP -

Visitors enjoy Mirror Lake in Yosemite National Park, California. Getty Images via AFP -

US park rangers hike in Glacier National Park, Montana. Getty Images via AFP -

The Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains were recently named a Unesco World Heritage Site. AFP -

Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia, the highest mountain on the island of Borneo, is located in Kinabalu National Park, a Unesco World Nature Heritage Site. Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images -

The Uvs Nuur Basin in Mongolia and Russia is the northernmost of the enclosed basins of Central Asia. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images -

The Three Sisters, an unusual rock formation, in the Jamison Valley, Australia. Corbis via Getty Images -
Freshwater lake in Morne Trois Pitons National Park, Dominica. Reuters
The authors concluded that more than half of abandoned cropland is put back into use within 30 years. The average amount of time lands were abandoned was 14.2 years.
That’s a problem because lands need decades or centuries of idleness to reach their potential for absorbing atmospheric CO2 and allowing endangered animals and plants to repopulate previously developed areas.
“To produce substantial environmental benefits, abandoned lands must stay abandoned long enough” to grow, the authors wrote.
“This is a very important paper,” said Leighton Reid, assistant professor of ecological restoration at Virginia Tech who was familiar with the study but not involved in it.
“Political leaders should take note here because many of them are narrowly focused on how many trees they can plant in the next few years.
“That number matters way less than the length of the time that those trees will persist as a forest.”
The sites under study stored an estimated 403 million tonnes of CO2 — or 35 per cent less than they might have taken up without re-cultivation.
Farmers leave cropland behind for many reasons, such as to pursue better economic opportunities in cities or because subsidies disappear, as they did when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. In other cases, new farming technology makes some areas less productive than they used to be.
The study identifies several sources of competition among potential uses for land.
The need to leave land alone, to restore biodiversity and absorb carbon into new forest may be more at odds with growing crops for energy production than is conventionally realised.
Crops cultivated for bioenergy tend to be poor for biodiversity. Bioenergy advocates see abandoned lands as ideal for crop growth but, the paper points out, lands apparently doing “nothing” are doing something quite important by rebuilding ecosystems.
The work follows a study in the same journal earlier this month that found that a large US investment in growing crops for use in energy production would run up against water stress that could affect a quarter of the country by 2100.
The specs: Aston Martin DB11 V8 vs Ferrari GTC4Lusso T
Price, base: Dh840,000; Dh120,000
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Power: 509hp @ 6,000rpm; 601hp @ 7,500rpm
Torque: 695Nm @ 2,000rpm; 760Nm @ 3,000rpm
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Valencia 3
Kevin Gameiro 21', 51'
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Saturday
Fiorentina v Torino (8pm)
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Parma v Napoli (2.30pm)
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Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
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Price: Dh239,312
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How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
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- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
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2. E-invoicing in the UAE
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3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
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5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
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Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
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RESULTS
Dubai Kahayla Classic – Group 1 (PA) $750,000 (Dirt) 2,000m
Winner: Deryan, Ioritz Mendizabal (jockey), Didier Guillemin (trainer).
Godolphin Mile – Group 2 (TB) $750,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Secret Ambition, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
Dubai Gold Cup – Group 2 (TB) $750,000 (Turf) 3,200m
Winner: Subjectivist, Joe Fanning, Mark Johnston
Al Quoz Sprint – Group 1 (TB) $1million (T) 1,200m
Winner: Extravagant Kid, Ryan Moore, Brendan Walsh
UAE Derby – Group 2 (TB) $750,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner: Rebel’s Romance, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
Dubai Golden Shaheen – Group 1 (TB) $1.5million (D) 1,200m
Winner: Zenden, Antonio Fresu, Carlos David
Dubai Turf – Group 1 (TB) $4million (T) 1,800m
Winner: Lord North, Frankie Dettori, John Gosden
Dubai Sheema Classic – Group 1 (TB) $5million (T) 2,410m
Winner: Mishriff, John Egan, John Gosden

