Carbon implications of forest restitution in post-socialist Romania

Abstract

The collapse of socialism in 1989 triggered a phase of institutional restructuring in Centraland Eastern Europe. Several countries chose to privatize forests or to return them topre-socialist owners. Here, we assess the implications of forest restitution on the terrestrialcarbon balance. New forest owners have strong incentives to immediately clearcut theirforests, resulting in increased terrestrial emissions. On the other hand, logging generallydecreased after 1989 and forests are expanding on unused or abandoned farmland, both ofwhich may offset increased logging on restituted forests. We mapped changes in forest coverfor the entire country of Romania using Landsat satellite images from 1990 to 2010. We useour satellite estimates, together with historic data on logging rates and changes inforest cover, to parameterize a carbon book-keeping model for estimating theterrestrial carbon flux (above and below ground) as a consequence of land use changeand forest harvest. High logging rates during socialism resulted in substantialterrestrial carbon emissions and Romania was a net carbon source until the 1980s.After the collapse of the Soviet Union forest harvest rates decreased dramatically,but since restitution laws were implemented they have increased by 60% (from15 122 ± 5397 ha y − 1 in 2000 to23 884 ± 11 510 ha y − 1 in 2010),but still remain lower than prior to 1989. Romania currently remains a terrestrial carbon sink, offsetting7.6% ± 2.5% of anthropogenic carbon emissions. A further increase in logging could result in netemissions from terrestrial ecosystems during the coming decades. However, forestexpansion on degraded land and abandoned farmland offers great potential for carbonsequestration.