Forest Resource Management and Its Climate-Change Mitigation Policies in Taiwan

Wen-Tien Tsai

doi:10.3390/cli9010003

Abstract

Based on high carbon emissions in recent years (i.e., about 11 metric tons in 2018) per capita in terms of carbon dioxide equivalents, Taiwan has actively development greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction action plans. One of the action plans has been to promote afforestation and reforestation in non-forested lands for carbon sequestration. Thus, this paper aims to address the forest resources in Taiwan by using the latest national survey, reporting on an interactive analysis of forest carbon sequestration, GHG emissions, and climate-change mitigation policies. In this regard, the methodology is based on the official websites of forest resources, GHG emissions, and carbon sequestration from the yearbooks, national statistics, and regulations relevant to the mitigation policies in the forestry sector. It is found that Taiwan’s forest area is estimated to be 2.197 million hectares, which corresponds to a total forest stock volume of about 502.0 million cubic meters. During the period of 1990–2018, the change in total carbon sequestration did not vary much (with the exception of 2009), decreasing from 23.4 million metric tons in 1990 to 21.4 million metric tons in 2018. Compared to the total carbon dioxide emissions (i.e., 102.4 million metric tons in 1990 and 282.8 million metric tons in 2018), the contribution to GHG mitigation in the forestry sector shows a declining trend. However, biomass (i.e., wood) carbon sequestration indicates a slight increase from 20.4 million metric tons in 2010 to 20.7 million metric tons in 2018 due to the afforestation policy. Obviously, regulatory policies, based on the Forestry Act and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction & Management Act in 2015, play a vital role in mitigating GHG emissions in Taiwan. The discussion on the regulations is further addressed to highlight climate-change mitigation policies in Taiwan’s forestry sector.

Highlights

Over the past three decades, there has been continuing concern about global warming, which is triggered by the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) from anthropogenic activities, including the energy, industrial processes, agriculture, and waste management sectors
According to the 4th National Forest Resource Investigation [20], performed by the Forestry Bureau and completed in 2014, Taiwan’s forest area is estimated to be 2.197 million hectares, which corresponds to forest coverage of 60.71% and 0.093 hectare per capita
It was revealed that over 21 million metric tons of total carbon sequestration in Taiwan comes from the forestry sector based on a forest area of about 2.2 million hectares

Summary

Introduction

Over the past three decades, there has been continuing concern about global warming, which is triggered by the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) from anthropogenic activities, including the energy, industrial processes, agriculture, and waste management sectors. To mitigate atmospheric concentrations of GHG that result in global warming and climate change, the pursuit of natural climate solutions has become a major focus of climate policy [2]. In this regard, land (or forests) and ocean ecosystems play a major role in sequestrating atmospheric carbon. In other words, substituting wood-based products for energy-intensive materials such as brick, aluminum, or steel may reduce significant emissions of GHG from the use of fossil fuels. There is a continuing debate concerning woody bioenergy and the benefits of climate mitigation [9]

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion