Abstract
The impacts of alternative forest management scenarios and harvest intensities on climate change mitigation potential of forest biomass production, utilization and economic profitability of biomass production were studied in three boreal sub-regions in Finland over a 40-year period. Ecosystem modelling and life cycle assessment tools were used to calculate the mitigation potential in substituting fossil materials and energy, expressed as the net CO2 exchange. Currently recommended management targeting to timber production acted as a baseline management. Alternative management included maintaining 20% higher or lower stocking in forests and final felling made at lower breast height diameter than used in the baseline. In alternative management scenarios, logging residues and logging residues with coarse roots and stumps were harvested in final felling in addition to timber. The net CO2 exchange in the southern and eastern sub-regions was higher compared to the western one due to higher net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) over the study period. Maintaining higher stocking with earlier final felling and intensified biomass harvest appeared to be the best option to increase both climate benefits and economic returns. Trade-offs between the highest net CO2 exchange and economic profitability of biomass production existed. The use of alternative displacement factors largely affected the mitigation potential of forest biomass.
Highlights
The Paris agreement on climate change aims to limit the global mean temperature increase below2 ◦ C relative to the pre-industrial level [1]
The principal aim of this study is to investigate the impacts of alternative forest management scenarios and harvest intensities on climate change mitigation potential of forest biomass production and utilization in managed southern and middle boreal forests in Finland over a 40-year period (2016–2055)
Ecosystem modelling with National Forest Inventory data and life cycle assessment tool were used to calculate the mitigation potential when forest biomass replaced fossil materials and energy, expressed as the net CO2 exchange
Summary
2 ◦ C relative to the pre-industrial level [1] This would require a substantial reduction in CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the coming decades [2]. One of the pathways towards the reduction in CO2 is forest-based climate change mitigation including sequestering and storing of carbon and use of harvested biomass in substituting fossil-intensive materials and fossil fuels [2–4]. The European Union (EU) policy of climate change mitigation is to raise the share of renewable energy to 27% and 55% of the total energy consumption by 2030 and 2050, respectively [5,6]. Use of forest biomass for substituting fossil-intensive materials is highlighted in climate change mitigation policies in these countries [10]. The major share of forest-derived renewable energy is from industrial by-products (wood chips, bark, sawdust and black liquor) [11,12]. To increase the output of Finnish bioeconomy, the level of biomass harvests is aimed to be increased by 10–30 million m3 in the near future [14]
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