Carbon sequestration in Danish forests
Abstract
The Danish national reports on land-use change and forestry has so far only considered C sequestration in existing forests and in afforestation areas on former arable land. The standing stock of wood in existing forests was 55.2 Mm3 in 1990, and the annual net increment for 1990–1999 (wood increment minus harvested wood) was around 600,000 m3 equivalent to 916 Gg CO2 per year. It is the strategy of the Danish Government to double the forested area over the next 80–100 years by encouraging afforestation of arable land. Afforestation activities started in 1990, and C sequestration in new forests increased from 4 Gg CO2 in 1991 to 57 Gg CO2 in 1998. Wood volumes were converted to Gg C by using conversion factors slightly modified from the 1996 revised IPCC Guidelines. The presentation will focus on the methods behind these estimates and give examples of current studies and research needs from a Danish point of view.