Combating Climate Change: What Will China’s Forestry Industry Do?

Abstract

Climate change is significantly affecting our planet (Kerr 2007). Global agreements and sustained action to mitigate climate change are urgently needed (King 2004). It is well known that forests play a large role in the global carbon cycle, and thus may be of prime importance in efforts to curb climate change. Carbon storage in existing forests, carbon emissions from deforestation, and carbon sequestration through afforestation and reforestation are important issues for land use policy makers. In 2000 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that the global carbon stock present in terrestrial ecosystems is about 2,477 Gt, of which 1,146 Gt or 46.3% is stored in forests (Watson et al. 2000). However, the terrestrial global carbon stock is constantly decreasing due to large-scale deforestation at a rate which cannot be offset by current afforestation and reforestation rates (Watson et al. 2000). Therefore, higher afforestation and reforestation rates and a lower deforestation rate must be achieved. As a responsible developing country which has the largest area of artificial forest in the world, China’s afforestation and reforestation activities have, to an extent, offset the negative impacts of deforestation in the world (FAO 2005). In China, between 1980 and 2005, approximately 3.06 billion tons of CO2 was sequestered by afforestation activities, 1.62 tons of CO2 was sequestered by forest management, and CO2 emissions were reduced by 0.43 ton due to a decrease in deforestation (Commission of Development and Reform, China Government 2007).