#001 Forests & Forest Carbon
Climate Risks & Carbon Sinks Newsletter
By Ajay Goyal, Founder & CEO @ ForestSAT.space
Facts on Forests
The world has a total forest area of 4.06 billion hectares (ha), which is 31 percent of the total land area. This area is equivalent to 0.52 ha per person – although forests are not distributed equally among the world’s people or geographically.
The tropical domain has the largest proportion of the world’s forests (45 percent), followed by the boreal, temperate and subtropical domains. More than half (54 percent) of the world’s forests is in only five countries – the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America and China. (Global Forest Watch )
- Forests currently cover 31% of the global land area. Between 2010 and 2020, global forest area fell by 1.2%, with declines concentrated in Africa and South America. However, within this global trend, and since 1990, Asia, Europe, and Oceania saw net increases in forest area: the forest area of this group of regions increased by 1.1% between 2010 and 2020. Further, according to the FRA 2020, “The rate of net forest loss decreased substantially over the period 1990–2020 due to a reduction in deforestation in some countries, plus increases in forest area in others through afforestation and the natural expansion of forests.
- the National Climate Assessment reports, the amount of carbon taken up by U.S. land is dominated by forests, which have annually absorbed 7% to 24% of fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the U.S. over the past two decades.
- Forest Guild notes, forests and forest products capture and store about 10 percent of all annual U.S. carbon emissions and could capture and store additional amounts by increasing excellent forestry practices.
- Forest management actions are often necessary to maintain or enhance the forest carbon sink, which offsets about 15 percent of total U.S. fossil fuel emissions annually.
- According to the US Forest Service, America’s forests sequester 866 million tons of carbon a year, which is roughly 16% of the US annual emissions (depending on the year).
- Fires are now causing an additional 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of tree cover loss per year than they did in 2001, according to a newly released Global Forest Watch analysis that examined fires that burn all or most of a forest’s living overstory trees.
- The majority of all fire-caused tree cover loss in the past 20 years (nearly 70%) occurred in boreal regions. Although fires are naturally occurring there, they are now increasing at an annual rate of 3% and burning with greater frequency and severity and over larger areas than historically recorded.
Resources
Forest Carbon- an essential natural solution to climate change. (The Forest Carbon)
Forest Carbon – Conservation in a changing climate (Climate Change)
Forest Carbon Management (Forest Carbon)
U.S. Forest Carbon Data: In Brief (Forest Carbon Emission and sink)
The Global Forest Goal Report Forest Goal Report
Carbon Cycle Climate change adapting impact and reducing emissions
introduction to how forest store carbon
Forest fires are getting worse, 20 years of data confirm
Forest Fires Getting worse according to new 20 years analysis
Impacts of disasters on forests, in particular forest fires
Background Paper prepared for the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat
Fires Forest and Futures Report by WWF A crisis ranging out of control
World Health Organization- Wildfire Wildfires
Nature and Net Zero World Economic Forum-WEF Nature and NET Zero
How to save the world’s forests with carbon credits WEF Forest with Carbon Credits
Analysis of the Efficiency of Forest Carbon Sinks and Its Influencing Factors
Forest Sink Evidence from China
Forest carbon sink neutralized by pervasive growth-lifespan trade-offs
Forest carbon sink neutralized
The Forest Resource Assessment
Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020
Analysis On The Method Of Highway Carbon Sink Forest
Analysis On The Method Of Highway Carbon Sink Fores
Forest Conservation Project- Report of the Second Phase Strategic Research IGES
What are nature based solutions to climate change? Nature Based Solutions
Forest Regeneration Measures Forest Regeration
Regeneration Measures Regeneration
Forest Regeneration survey survey
Forest Conservation Projects IGES
Thematic Brief Nature based solutions
Understanding the value and limits of Nature based solutions Nbs to climate change and other global challenges
Carbon-Credit-Carbon-Offset-Fundamentals MINTZ Report
News and Reports
UK’s old trees critical to climate change fight, says BBC News
Forest fire threatens global carbon sinks and population centres under rising atmospheric water demand (Report)
Why the Congo plays a critical role in saving the world’s biodiversity
These 8 countries have already achieved net-zero emissions
EU signals importance of carbon dioxide removals with new draft regulation, its plans for establishing a Carbon Removal Certification Framework (“CRCF”)
Human Carbon Footprint: Can seed balls save forests in Kenya? Ingenious way in kenya to save trees.
The overlooked benefits of real Christmas trees (Future Planet)
Seven reasons to be cheerful about the Amazon in 2023 – and three to be terrified (Analysis)
Low Carbon Timber® – European best practice in climate-friendly chains
Turning desert into forest: Olympic Committee plants 70,000 trees in Africa’s Sahel region
Organizations/ Bodies
Food and Aggriculture Organization of the United Nation
A frame for all life on earth – UNEP
At WRI, we believe there’s a better way. A better future is possible
EFI European Forest Instuitute – JRC Report 2021-2022
US Forest Service Significant Documents
Canada’s forests, including information on the forest sector, wildland fires, harvesting as well as carbon emissions and removals.
Australian Forestry- Response to the detection
World Economic Forum New EU deforestation law
UNFCCC REDD+ – UN Climate Change
Reports
Forest Carbon
Forests take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make energy through photosynthesis. Trees then use this energy to maintain themselves and grow. Through this process, trees capture carbon in the form of wood and other organic matter, such as leaves. In fact, one half of a tree’s weight consists of stored carbon.ods.org
Forest growth provides and important carbon sink. As the National Climate Assessment reports, the amount of carbon taken up by U.S. land is dominated by forests, which have annually absorbed 7% to 24% of fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the U.S. over the past two decades. The efficient management of forests for carbon sequestration is closely related to sustainable and ecological forestry practices that use nature as a model.
As the Forest Guild notes, forests and forest products capture and store about 10 percent of all annual U.S. carbon emissions and could capture and store additional amounts by increasing excellent forestry practices. Carbon management on existing forests can include practices that increase forest growth, such as fertilization, irrigation, switching to fast-growing planting stock, shorter rotations, and weed, disease, and insect control.
Forest Carbon Measurement
Methods and Uncertainty by grida.no
At least two methods can be used to quantify changes in carbon stocks from these practices: existing forest growth yield tables and forest inventories that measure standing and incremental aboveground stem volume. The second method can be done as accurately as one wants, though with increasing costs. The first method is less accurate but would be good enough in some cases, at least in the initial phases, and could later be checked by more accurate inventories to secure adequate precision for verification.
Tree biomass growth (and correspondingly carbon accumulation) processes are well known. Soil carbon accumulation generally is less certain.
Mortality caused by wind, fire, pest, rot, or insect damages can lead to a loss of carbon pools for all of these activities. Most yield tables include estimates of natural plus mortality rates (for example, mortality is estimated to be 0.4 percent of living trees per year in Norway). Regarding accidental mortality, fewer estimates exist. Thorsen and Helles (1998) estimate the probability of total damage caused by strong winds for a Picea abies stand in Denmark to be about 1.5-3.0 percent per year if the stand were thinned no more than a year previously (the probability declines strongly with time after thinning). Climate changes may increase the risks of tree loss-for example, by more frequent winds or increased insect attacks.
The accuracy of national forest inventories varies considerably. Hobbelstad (1999) reports that the present national inventory of Norway gives estimates of total standing volume and annual yield for the country as a whole at an accuracy of 1.6 percent as standard deviation. This level of accuracy is based on 8000 permanent sample plots, of which 20 percent are measured each year. At a regional level, the standard deviation is 3.2 percent (the country is divided into four regions). Countries such as Sweden and Finland have the same accuracy in their forest inventories.
In addition to national inventories, Norway conducts a county inventory, which covers one-third of the counties every 5 years. This inventory provides a county-level accuracy that corresponds to a standard deviation of 3-4 percent (Norway is composed of 20 counties). The costs for the national inventory and county inventory are about US$0.17 ha-1 yr-1, covering a total productive forest area of about 7.5 Mha.
Time Scale and Monitoring
The accumulation time for aboveground and below-ground biomass ranges from 5 years (for the shortest rotation times in tropical plantations) to 150 years or more on low-potential sites in boreal forests. The tree biomass carbon accumulation process is not difficult to quantify and predict, particularly where well-developed forest growth and yield models exist. Allometric studies provide factors that can be used to estimate total biomass (aboveground and below-ground) from the timber yield tables (Marklund, 1988; Birdsey, 1996). Soil carbon accumulation processes are generally less confidently predicted, but increasingly there are research results to guide these estimates.
The duration of the carbon biomass stored in forests or forest products depends on factors such as the following:
- Forest rotation length (or harvest intensity over time for selection felling systems)
- Thinning intervals and intensity
- Decaying time of timber not used (roots, branches, stumps, logging residues)
- Average lifetime of end use of wood and decay time of end-use product after its use.
Verifiability
In principle, all of these activities can be verified, at varying accuracy and costs. The capacity varies between countries, and combinations of methods might be applied. To estimate the carbon impact from enrichment planting, for example, one would measure a control plot and take the difference as the estimated impact of the activity. Where several activities are combined, land-based measures will probably be required. These estimates can be made from yield models (if available), historical inventory data for similar stands, or a combination of these methods.
Transparency
The assumptions and methodologies associated with this activity can be explained clearly to facilitate replication and assessment of carbon impacts. The scientific and technical methods are open to review and are replicable over time.
Permanence
Carbon will be stored in a forest as long as the forest is not harvested or damaged by natural events. Where the harvested timber is used for bioenergy or forest industry production, for example, the degree of permanency will depend on the end use of the timber extracted and the carbon substitution impact of these products.
Forest Carbon Management
https://forestadaptation.org/focus/forest-carbon-management
Forest management actions are often necessary to maintain or enhance the forest carbon sink, which offsets about 15 percent of total U.S. fossil fuel emissions annually.
Management actions can be designed to enhance sequestration rates or to maintain or increase existing forest carbon stocks by preventing carbon losses.
These management actions also can support other desired co-benefits for resource management objectives, such as timber supply, wildlife habitat, or water quality.
Carbon Cycle
The “carbon cycle” refers to the constant movement of carbon from the land and water through the atmosphere and living organisms. This cycle is fundamental to life on Earth.
Forests are a vital part of the carbon cycle, both storing and releasing this essential element in a dynamic process of growth, decay, disturbance and renewal. At a global scale, forests help maintain Earth’s carbon balance.
Over the past four decades, forests have moderated climate change by absorbing about one-quarter of the carbon emitted by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and the changing of land uses. Carbon uptake by forests reduces the rate at which carbon accumulates in the atmosphere and thus reduces the rate at which climate change occurs.
How well forests will continue to remove the proportion of carbon now being emitted by human activities will affect the future rate of carbon increase in the atmosphere.
The “carbon cycle” refers to the constant movement of carbon from the land and water through the atmosphere and living organisms. This cycle is fundamental to life on Earth.
Forests are a vital part of the carbon cycle, both storing and releasing this essential element in a dynamic process of growth, decay, disturbance and renewal. At a global scale, forests help maintain Earth’s carbon balance.
Over the past four decades, forests have moderated climate change by absorbing about one-quarter of the carbon emitted by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and the changing of land uses. Carbon uptake by forests reduces the rate at which carbon accumulates in the atmosphere and thus reduces the rate at which climate change occurs.
**The End **
