Forest Management and Carbon Sinks

Forests are large storehouses of carbon accumulated in the trees and soils of forests. In order to accumulate carbon, growing forests extract carbon dioxide, one of the principal greenhouse gases, from the atmosphere. However, this accumulation of carbon can be released back into the atmosphere if forests are harvested, attacked by insects, disease or decay or burn in fires. Forest management practices such as reforestation and reduction of losses due to fires, harvesting, insects, disease and decay, can help reduce the role of forests as a source of greenhouse gases. If forest management policies and practices can actually increase the rate at which carbon is absorbed in growing forests so that it is greater than the carbon released due to fires, harvest, decay, insects and disease, then forests can be a "sink" for carbon dioxide. Canada contains about 10% of the world's forests. It argued strongly that emissions reductions due to sound forest management should be permitted and encouraged under the Kyoto Protocol. As a result, the Kyoto Protocol contains a variety of rules to encourage and regulate how such reductions might be counted as part of a country's emissions reductions.

Benefits of forest management to reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are:

Many of the policies and practices needed for carbon management also serve other forest management objectives. These include more efficient and sustainable use of forests and reduced environmental impacts from forest harvesting
The cost per tonne of carbon absorbed may be significantly lower than the costs of other emissions reductions strategies
Reductions from forest management might be integrated with an emissions trading system that would provide economic incentives to more sustainable forest management practices
New economic opportunities could arise. These could include agro-forestry, cogeneration or manufacturing using wood wastes, and export of forest management expertise

Problems with the use of forest management to generate emissions reductions are:

Measurement and verification of reductions may be difficult or costly
There are natural limits to how much and how long carbon can be sequestered in forests
Carbon accumulation in forests can be a slow process and may not have a major impact in time to count towards Kyoto targets
Some natural forces leading to large releases of carbon such as fire, insects and disease which may be too difficult or costly to control. This may lead to unforeseen releases that will have to be made up by other more costly reduction strategies

As a result, use of forest sinks are not a total solution to reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

Saskatchewan Implications

Saskatchewan has considerable potential for using forest management as part of Canada's emissions reductions strategy.

Saskatchewan accounts for about 7% of Canada's total forested area, and about 10% of its timber-productive forested land.
There may be considerable potential for the development of agro-forestry in some regions of the province.
Saskatchewan is developing considerable expertise in sustainable forest management, community development and aboriginal involvement that would make introduction of the necessary management policies and practices easier.
Saskatchewan has established the Saskatchewan Forest Centre in Prince Albert.

Saskatchewan Initiatives

In November, 1999, SaskPower and Saskatchewan Environment entered into a pilot project to plant seedlings in the northern Saskatchewan forest and to establish Forest Carbon Reserves. In return SaskPower will receive credit for the carbon that these forests are holding, or sequestering, from the atmosphere.

The pilot project included extensive scientific review and research on ways to improve measurement of forests carbon uptake, helping to develop national standards for future programs of this type.

Links

Boreas Project

Canadian Forest Service

Prince Albert Model Forest

Saskatchewan Environment

Canadian Forest Service Climate Change Network

Natural Resources Canada: afforestation Policy Analysis

David Suzuki Foundation