FOREST MANAGEMENT AND CARBON STORAGE - AN ANALYSIS OF 12 KEY FOREST NATIONS

Forests of the world sequester and conserve more C than all other terr estrial ecosystems and account for 90% of the annual C flux between th e atmosphere and the Earth's land surface. Preliminary estimates indic ate that forest and agroforest management practices throughout the wor ld can enhance the capability of forests to sequester C and reduce acc umulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Yet of the 3600 x 10( 6) ha of forests in the world today, only about 10% (350 x 10(6) ha) a re actively managed. The impetus to expand lands managed for forestry or agroforestry purposes lies primarily with nations having forest res ources. In late 1990, an assessment was initiated to evaluate the biol ogical potential and initial site costs of managed forest and agrofore st systems to sequester C. Within the assessment, 12 key forested nati ons were the focus of a special analysis: Argentina, Australia, Brazil , Canada, China, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, forme r USSR, and USA. These nations contain 59% of the world's natural fore sts and are representative of the world's boreal, temperate, and tropi cal forest biomes. Assessment results indicate that though the world's forests are contained in 138 nations, a subset of key nations, such a s the 12 selected for this analysis, can significantly contribute to t he global capability to sequester C through managed tree crops. Collec tively, the 12 nations are estimated to have the potential to store 25 .7 Pg C, once expanded levels of practices such as reforestation, affo restation, natural regeneration and agroforestry are implemented and m aintained. Initial site costs based upon establishment costs for manag ement practices are less than US$33/Mg C.