Modelling forest carbon stock changes as affected by harvest and natural disturbances. I. Comparison with countries’ estimates for forest management

• Published in: Carbon balance and management 2016-05, Vol.11 (1), p.5-5, Article 5
• Main Authors: Pilli, Roberto, Grassi, Giacomo, Kurz, Werner A., Viñas, Raúl Abad, Guerrero, Nuria Hue
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon Budget Model; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecosystems; Environment; Environmental Management; European countries; Forest management; Forestry; Greenhouse gas inventories; Harvest; Net CO2 emissions
• ISSN: 1750-0680; 1750-0680
• DOI: 10.1186/s13021-016-0047-8

Background According to the post-2012 rules under the Kyoto protocol, developed countries that are signatories to the protocol have to estimate and report the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals from forest management (FM), with the option to exclude the emissions associated to natural disturbances, following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines. To increase confidence in GHG estimates, the IPCC recommends performing verification activities, i.e. comparing country data with independent estimates. However, countries currently conduct relatively few verification efforts. The aim of this study is to implement a consistent methodological approach using the Carbon Budget Model (CBM) to estimate the net CO 2 emissions from FM in 26 European Union (EU) countries for the period 2000–2012, including the impacts of natural disturbances. We validated our results against a totally independent case study and then we compared the CBM results with the data reported by countries in their 2014 Greenhouse Gas Inventories (GHGIs) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Results The match between the CBM results and the GHGIs was good in nine countries (i.e. the average of our results is within ±25 % compared to the GHGI and the correlation between CBM and GHGI is significant at P