Reporting carbon fluxes from unmanaged forest

The scientific community has made great progress in quantifying and understanding terrestrial flows of greenhouse gases over the last 20 years. This provides policy-makers with a basis for rethinking the approach of separating managed and unmanaged land.

Unmanaged land is not included in current country reports on greenhouse gas emissions for the Paris Agreement. Only forests that countries declare to be managed, i.e. under their responsibility (i.e. ≈55% of the world's forests), are reported on. IPCC Working Group III has taken a step towards including both managed and unmanaged land in the Sixth Assessment Report, in order to better track progress towards global climate goals.

Researchers from LSCE and their partners stress that it is time for countries to take all land into account, whether managed or not. The necessary data and methods are available. They suggest that countries include in their reports the best estimates of emissions and removals from unmanaged land, based on Earth observation and modeling.

Estimates of greenhouse gas fluxes from unmanaged land could be included voluntarily in country reports for information purposes.

Subsequently, they could be taken into account in official accounting for climate targets

This would encourage the inclusion of carbon-rich, unmanaged forests that are vulnerable to climate change and human activities. Industrialized countries could provide support and expertise to developing countries in the field of forest carbon analysis.

Reporting carbon fluxes from unmanaged forest, Communications Earth & Environment

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-01005-y

https://www.cea.fr/drf/Pages/Actualites/En-direct-des-labos/2023/lutte-contre-le-changement-climatique-il-est-temps-de-connaitre-limpact-exact-des-forets.aspx

A. Mazaud, 2023-10-15 10:03:00