POSSIBILITIES FOR INCREASED CARBON SEQUESTRATION THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF RATIONAL FOREST MANAGEMENT IN RUSSIA

Huge areas of the Russian forests suffer from insufficient forest mana gement. A scenario has been developed for an improved management progr am that would be implemented over the next 40 years. Possible options have been aggregated into three interlinked groups: increase in forest productivity through improvement of the forest conditions and the str ucture of the Forest Fund, decrease of carbon release by mitigation of disturbance regimes, and improvement of landscape management. One pre requisite in developing this scenario was that the cost of sequesterin g one ton of carbon should not exceed US$3 (1992 dollar value). In thi s article a simple model is described to illustrate the following poss ibilities for increased carbon fixation by improved forest management: large-scale reforestation and afforestation, replacement of stands wi th low productivity and replacement of so called soft deciduous specie s and ''climax'' stands, and implementation of rational silviculture ( thinning). The results indicate a potential for an increase in carbon fixation in Russian forest ecosystems of 24.4 Pg over 100 years, after the first year that the actions discussed are implemented. The net si nk of carbon was determined to be 16.5 Pg in the ''low'' estimate and 42.5 Pg in the ''high'' estimate. There are, however, many uncertainti es in the data and there are difficulties in adequately modeling the p ossibilities for implementation under current conditions in Russia. In spite of these uncertainties, we conclude that there is great potenti al for economically justified increased carbon fixation through improv ed forest management in Russia.