Net carbon stocks change in biomass from wood removal of tropical forests in Sarawak, Malaysia

Abstract

This study aims at estimating the carbon emission from biomass carbon stock change in tropical forests of Sarawak, Malaysia, within the years 2005–2014 as a consequence of wood harvesting. Emission inventory has been developed in the study, based on Tier 1 methodology of 2006 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). To the best of our knowledge, this paper is among the first papers to utilize 2006 IPCC Guidelines for computing change in biomass carbon stocks. From the results obtained, it was found that overall carbon emission was a net gain for Sarawak. During the period of 2005–2014 net gain in biomass carbon stocks was observed with values ranging from 28.76 Mt C or 105.44 CO2 equivalent to 39.03 Mt C or 143.11 CO2 equivalent. Whereas emission from wood removal has started to decrease since 2008 from 6.28 Mt C to 2013 at 4.64 Mt C due to lesser wood removed resulting from global economic crisis. Rapid changes in areas of tropical forests was and varying evaluation method were identified to be the major problem. High uncertainty of data currently in existence for this tropic region highlights the need for additional field investigations in the effort of evaluating future biomass carbon stock.