Kazimierz Rykowski

Abstract

Forests play a quadruple role in the processes of global change: (1) as a cause, i.e. a source of the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), predominantly in result of defore-station; (2) as a "victim" of global climatic change, due to the increased sensitivity of trees to pests and diseases; (3) as a beneficiary of global changes thanks to the "fertiliser effect"; (4) as a" remedy" for global changes thanks to their ability to sequester carbon. The role of forests depends thus on methods of management and the ways in which forest products are used. Proper forest management can improve carbon accumulation through forest stand reconstruction, tending of forests, introduction of second layer and understorey, increas-ing organic matter, resignation of clear-cutting, elimination of intensive soil preparation. The basic method of improving carbon balance in land ecosystems is change in land use, above all via afforestation. The paper discusses the effects of forestry operations dealing with carbon accumulation in the forest ecosystems.As equally important mechanism for improving carbon content in the atmosphere the author presents the repetitious recycling of timber production and its substitution in regard to materi-als and products requiring high amounts of energy input for manufacturing and utilisation (plastic, steel, aluminum, cement, bricks etc.) along with fossil sources of energy (timber combustion is neutral as far as emission of CO2 is concerned). Resignation from fossil energy sources, using the biomass energy and retention of carbon by the proper forestry management offers a chance to attain the planet Earth atmosphere according to the level existing before industrial revolution - within some 100 years to come. The Kyoto Protocol may help to improve the balance. The Protocol, actually a politico-economic inter-governmental agree-ment, is reviewed in the paper on the background of the Polish forest economy.

Keywords: forest management, climate change, carbon sequestration, wood utilisation

Kazimierz Rykowski, Forest Research Institute, Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection, Sekocin Las, 09-090 Raszyn, Poland

Abstract

Forests can contribute to increases in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases (deforestation, bad harvest), are affected by changes in climate (change of natural range of forest tree species) and at the same time offer a unique opportunity to help mitigate future climate change. Forests contribute to the fight against the greenhouse effect in three ways: (1) carbon sequestering; (2) CO2 avoidance through substitution by wood of energy-intensive materials such as plastics, aluminium, steal, cement and brick, (3) CO2 avoidance by using timber instead of fossil fuels for generating energy. The effect of utilization of wood is even greater than that of fixation. Carbon storage would be optimized in plantation forests (refore-station and afforestation), harvested at the time of maximum mean annual increment, when the lifetime of the products exceeds the rotation period. The rate of carbon absorption by trees and forests is a function of growth and age - the rate is higher when they are fast-growing and young. There are some possibilities to increase the carbon accumulation ability of our forests: reconstruction of stands into ones of more adequate species composition; tending of the forest and to the creating of an opportunity to obtain so-called "thinning-induced incre-ment"; the introduction of an understorey which could result in a increment in standing volume; the increase in the fraction of humus in forest soils which could be regulated by means of a preference for the forest regeneration model; resignation from clear-cutting and the afforesta-tion of abandoned agricultural land. The role of Polish forests in reducing global change is not so important as far as the proportional contribution to world forest cover is concerned (0,002%) but from the domestic point of view and in the light of the obligation under the Kyoto Protocol, forest, forestry and wood utilization present a high interest for our environmental policy and an important element in the national development strategy into the 21st century.

Keywords: carbon sequestration, wood utilization, forest management, climate change

Kazimierz Rykowski, Forest Research Institute, Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection, Sekocin Las, 09-090 Raszyn, Poland