Forest and rangeland vegetation stores significant amounts of carbon. Strategic vegetation management can improve the storage of carbon in vegetation, which helps mitigate changes in climate caused by rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide and methane from burning of fossil fuels. Globally, forests are a large carbon sink, uptaking about 7.6 gigatonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to about 15% of the CO2 emitted by humans (Friedlingstein et al., 2023, Harris et al., 2021).
Reducing fossil fuel emissions is critical to meet climate goals, but in the interim the carbon storage potential of forests is being used in many parts of the world as a “nature-based climate solution” (NbCS) (Anderegg et al., 2020). Current forest carbon stores can be increased via changes in forest management practices (such as longer harvest intervals), afforestation, and reforestation. Reducing deforestation rates can also contribute to forest carbon storage. Other ecosystem services are also provided by forest carbon projects, including increased water and air quality and habitat.
However, the potential of forests to sequester carbon is impacted by disturbances such as wildfire. Fire liberates carbon from vegetation and returns it to the atmosphere. Currently, forest carbon markets are seeking improved ways to estimate the risk to forest carbon so they can adequately insure carbon stored against loss from disturbance.
