Forests and the national greenhouse gas inventory of Germany. COST E21 Workshop. Contribution of forests and forestry to mitigate greenhouse effects. Joensuu (Finland). 28-30 Sep 2000

• Main Authors: Baritz R., Strich S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Presses Agronomiques de Gembloux 2000-01-01
• Series: Biotechnologie, Agronomie, Société et Environnement
• Subjects: germany; climatic-change; greenhouse-effect; forest-inventories; carbon; forests; carbon-dioxide; source-sink-relations; forest-management; forestry-production; land-use; data-analysis; data-processing; elements; europe; information-processing; information-science; nonmetals; oxides; plant-physiology; production; vegetation; western-europe
• Online Access: http://www.pressesagro.be/base/text/v4n4/267.pdf

Since 1995, experiences have been gathered with the calculation of National Greenhouse Gas Inventories in Germany. Because only marginal changes of the total forested area occur in Germany, relevant changes of the balance of greenhouse gases in the forest sector are related to forest management. It was found that the increment of wood by far exceeds the harvested timber volume. Therefore, forests in Germany currently represent a significant sink for carbon (8-9 Mt C per year). In the context of the Kyoto Protocol, area afforested, reforested and deforested (Afforestation Reforestation Deforestation under Intergovernemental Panel on Climate Change definitions) is small. In contrast to the high quality of data from national forest inventories, reporting of Afforestation Reforestation Deforestation areas involves high error due to lacks and inconsistencies in national land-use statistics.