Abstract
The increasing demand for innovative forest management strategies to adapt to and mitigate climate change and benefit forest production, the so-called Climate-Smart Forestry, calls for a tool to monitor and evaluate their implementation and their effects on forest development over time. The pan-European set of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management is considered one of the most important tools for assessing many aspects of forest management and sustainability. This study offers an analytical approach to selecting a subset of indicators to support the implementation of Climate-Smart Forestry. Based on a literature review and the analytical hierarchical approach, 10 indicators were selected to assess, in particular, mitigation and adaptation. These indicators were used to assess the state of the Climate-Smart Forestry trend in Europe from 1990 to 2015 using data from the reports on the State of Europe’s Forests. Forest damage, tree species composition, and carbon stock were the most important indicators. Though the trend was overall positive with regard to adaptation and mitigation, its evaluation was partly hindered by the lack of data. We advocate for increased efforts to harmonize international reporting and for further integrating the goals of Climate-Smart Forestry into national- and European-level forest policy making.
Highlights
Forests and the forest sector play a significant role in climate change mitigation
The emission balance for living biomass stock, roots of harvested trees in soil, harvested wood products (HWP) and material and energy substitution effects were estimated for Baseline scenario (BS) and CSF scenario (CSFS) (Fig. 4)
In the Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) scenario the increase in area actively managed by choosing higher basal areas to trigger cuttings while leaving a share of large retention trees, improves forest growth during 2050–2065 (Fig. 4a)
Summary
Within the European Union (EU), the current annual mitigation effect amounts to 569 Mt CO2/yr through capture of CO2 in forests and wood products, as well as through material and energy substitution. These net removals represent 13% of the total EU greenhouse gas emissions. Based on a broad set of measures that consider the forest sector as a significant part of the solution to climate change, the study estimated that the 28 EU Member States could achieve an additional combined mitigation impact of 448 Mt CO2/yr by 2050. CSF is more than just storing carbon in forest ecosystems, as it includes adaptation to climate change and strives to achieve possible synergies with other forest functions (e.g. ecosystem services and biodiversity)
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