State forest inventory data as a new information base for estimating carbon stocks and carbon removals by forests: the feasibility and prospects for use in national reporting under international agreements

Abstract

The study considers the feasibility and prospects for using the data of the first forest inventory cycle for obtaining more objective and reliable assessments of carbon stocks and carbon removals by forests. The advantages of using the State Forest Inventory (SFI) data were demonstrated and quantitatively corroborated in specific contexts such as (1) the region of coniferous and broadleaved forests of the European-Ural part of Russia (EUPR) by field measurements at 9 105 permanent sample plots (PSP); (2) Republic of Karelia by measurements at 779 PSP; (3) 28 forest regions of Russia by measurements at 47,816 PSP. The following results were obtained: (1) In EUPR, the carbon stock values in the living biomass exceeded the corresponding data of the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory by more than 50%, and by more than 80% in the Republic of Karelia; (2) In 28 forest regions of Russia, the volumes of woody detritus were congruent with the corresponding values of the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. However, the estimation error was about ±8%, thus being characterized by lower uncertainty due to using a representative sampling. Further research is needed for improving the calculation methods and making use of all the characteristics that are determined through SFI.