Natural Elements, NRCan's Monthly Newsletter

Canada and Russia Collaborate in Applying Forest Management Tool to Reduce Carbon Emissions

Forest Scene.

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is collaborating with the Russian Federal Forest Agency to adapt a carbon budget modelling tool for use with Russian forest species. The tool will allow managers and analysts to explore the consequences of forest management activities on the delicate balance between the carbon released into the atmosphere and the amounts stored in the trees, litter and soil.

Carbon budget modelling involves taking different scenarios and projecting their effects into the future to identify the best forest management practices for decreasing carbon dioxide emission sources and increasing carbon sinks. Trees can serve both sides of the carbon balance equation. They can become sources of carbon dioxide emissions, depending on how they are harvested or affected by fires or insects, or they can act as carbon sinks as they absorb carbon dioxide through their leaves as the result of photosynthesis.

For these reasons, forests can have a significant effect on the amounts of carbon that are released into or drawn from the atmosphere. The direction and magnitude of these flows to and from forest reservoirs depend on numerous factors — the type and age of trees, climate disturbances, the shifting dynamics between biomass and dead organic matter, natural events such as forest fires or insect outbreaks — of which forest management practices are perhaps the easiest to control.

Scientists from the Canada Forest Service and the Russian Forest Agency meet in Victoria to discuss the CBM-CFS3. From left to right, Eric Neilson, Werner Kurz, Wasily Grabovsky, Scott Morken and Dmitri Zamolodchikov.

The Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) gives forest managers and policy makers the ability to quantify and better understand carbon stocks and flows, and it provides the opportunity to explore the implications of different forest-related policies on carbon balances.

Although developed for use in Canada, the CBM-CFS3 is attracting much interest from other countries, especially those with similar climates and species of forest cover. Currently, the Canada Forest Service (CFS) and the Russian Federal Forest Agency are adapting the management tool to assess and project the carbon budget for Russia’s total forest inventory — which accounts for 30 percent of the world’s forests.

NRCan’s carbon accounting team recently hosted two Russian scientists as part of an ongoing collaborative project to develop the CBM-CFS3 for Russia. The team conducted preliminary analyses for nearly 700 million hectares of forest land, and they also worked on the development of a Russian language interface for the CMB-CFS3 as an early step towards transferring the technology.

With the vast amount of forests in Canada and Russia, improved management is a highly valuable area for potential climate change mitigation. “This is especially important for Canada and Russia, given that, together, our forests account for 40 percent of the world’s total forests,” says Werner Kurz, an NRCan research scientist involved in the development of the CBM-CFS3.

And the value of this approach is increased by the significant role that forests play in the total absorption of carbon emissions globally.

“In the last two decades, forests have absorbed about 25 percent of the world’s carbon emissions from human activities,” says Werner. “Another 25 percent is absorbed by the oceans, and the remaining 50 percent remains in the atmosphere. Given the significant role of forests in global carbon balances, understanding their dynamics and potential future contribution is very important. The question of whether or not forests will continue to work as carbon sinks will have a big impact on the level of mitigation efforts required by society and other sectors to meet future targets at which greenhouse gas concentrations are stabilized.”

The CBM-CFS3 is the right tool at the right time. It meets the reporting requirements of all the major international agreements — The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Montreal Process — that call upon countries to monitor and report on their carbon stocks and their stock changes. Canada and Russia will continue their ongoing cooperation in developing the CBM-CFS3 in the upcoming year.

The CBM-CFS3 is developed and supported by NRCan’s CFS and the Canadian Model Forest Network.

More information about the CBM-CFS3 and its design, functions and applications can be found in the scientific journal Ecological Modelling and on the CFS Web site, which has a specialized section on Forest Carbon Accounting.