Forests as carbon sinks
- Woods Hole Research Center, Woods Hole, MA (United States)
When the nations of the world signed and later ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), they accepted the difficult challenge of stabilizing the composition of the atmosphere with respect to the greenhouse gases (GHGs). Success will require a reduction in both use of fossil fuels and rates of deforestation. Forests have a large enough influence on the atmosphere that one of the options for stabilizing the concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere includes the use of forests as a carbon sink through reforestation of large areas. We identify in this paper the potential and the limitations of such projects. We discuss the implications of four approaches in management of forests globally: (i) continued deforestation, (ii) halting deforestation, (iii) net reforestation including agroforestry, and (iv) substituting the use of wood fuels for fossil fuels.
- Research Organization:
- Woods Hole Research Center, MA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 543187
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9401138--Summ.; ON: DE97006825
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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