Forest carbon budget management in Russia and its spatial heterogeneity

A.I. Pyzhev, SFU

For citing: A.I. Pyzhev. Spatial heterogeneity of forest carbon budget management in Russia [video] // IEF RAS site. - 17 November 2021. - Conference "Problems of forecasting socio-economic and scientific-technological development in the context of global climate change". - URL: https:// ecfor.ru/publication/lesnoj-sektor-i-strategiya-razvitiya/ (requested: 12.01.2022).

The rest of the presentations from the conference: https://ecfor.ru/publication/lesnoj-s...

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Absorbing capacity of Russian forests
00:01:57 Problem statement and methodology
00:07:01 Effectiveness of forest carbon budget by region
00:10:14 Conclusions

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The Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEF RAS) specializes in fundamental, applied and exploratory scientific research in the field of analysis and forecasting of the socio-economic prospects of Russia and its regions, and the development of recommendations and proposals with a goal to improve the quality of economic policy in Russia.

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Notes:


Research idea

● Achieving the goal of zero greenhouse gas emissions requires policies aimed at both reducing anthropogenic emissions and increasing the absorption of carbon by natural ecosystems, primarily forests!
● Forests are the main natural carbon sinks, absorbing 1.1 ± 0.8 Pg of carbon per year (Pan et al. 2011), which is comparable to the total annual greenhouse gas emissions in the EU-28.
● Reducing deforestation and changing the age structure of forest stands can make a significant contribution to mitigating the effects of global climate change.
● The spatial dimension is critical in managing forest carbon budgets.

Brief description of the carbon-absorbing potential of Russian forests

● Russian forests are located on an area of ​​815 million hectares (1/5 of the world's forested area).
● In 2019, according to the GHG inventory data, the LULUCF sector provided net absorption of 534.8 thousand tons of CO2-equivalent.
● The distribution of the absorptive capacity of forests is extremely uneven throughout the country and depends on:
● ● ● area of ​​forests, their age and species composition;
● ● ● intensity of logging;
● ● ● frequency and area of ​​forest disturbances (fires, outbreaks of insect pests, etc.);

Conclusions

● Russian regions demonstrated varying forest carbon management efficiencies and low relative average efficiencies, especially in Geographic Siberia, the eastern and most forested region of the country.
● Since carbon management in forests is still outside the scope of current forest policy in Russia, the relative effectiveness of carbon management in forests is mainly a consequence of the natural dynamics of ecosystems and the side effects of traditional forest management.