Valuation of forest carbon sinks in China within the framework of the system of national accounts

Abstract

To better promote forest resource management and strengthen the development of forest carbon sink marketization, this paper studied the accounting of forest carbon sinks from 2003 to 2008 based on a system of national accounts (SNA) and data from the latest forest resources inventory in China. The study calculated the value of forest carbon stocks at a total of RMB 817.13 × 109 yuan in 2003 and RMB 839.93 × 109 yuan in 2008, with an average annual increase of 0.55 % from an increase in physical carbon sinks. The total value of forest carbon sinks in 2003 and 2008 was RMB 26.73 × 109 yuan and RMB 29.77 × 109 yuan, respectively, with an average annual growth of 2.18 %. From 2003 to 2008, both stock and flow value of forest carbon sinks increased, but the total net flow value of carbon sinks decreased. The growth rate for the environmentally adjusted Gross Domestic Product (eaGDP) for China’s forest carbon sinks was 17.23 %, outstripping the average growth rate of 9.5 % for the GDP during the same period. The study also indicates that China’s forest carbon sinks affects the GDP in the range of 0.25–0.26 %, and its economic potential is not relatively huge.