There are three main forest biomes on earth: Tropical, Temperate and Boreal forests. Table below shows each biomes’ area, total carbon stored, carbon storage density, as well as allocation of carbon between vegetation and soil.
Even on just raw numbers, boreal forests are the most important: they contain almost twice the carbon than that of tropical and temperate forests put together. Naturally, size is not the only determining factor, and for a complete view, we analysed each biome through Aurora Forealis’ Seven S’s methodology:
- Opportunity related criteria: Size, Subtype
- Solution related criteria; Solvable, Smart, Scalable
- Foundation related criteria: Suitable, Specific
Tropical forests. In terms of size of opportunity, tropical forests clearly fulfil the criteria. However, the subtype of the problem is not viticulture or even nature related, but economic and societal. This is economics-led deforestation: converting vast areas of “unproductive” forest land into agriculture and animal husbandry, and leads to serious doubts whether it is solvable by outside actors. Furthermore, it is unlikely that any single solution is scalable as each country and region has very different set of constraints. Finally, what quickly became obvious that due to the nature of the problems, there were no suitable nor specific solutions that would make sense for a medium sized foundation like Aurora Forealis.
Temperate forests. In contrast to tropical and boreal forests, the overall opportunity size in temperate forests is relatively small – they account only for 7% of forest carbon. Furthermore, in contrast to large, continuous tropical and boreal biomes, temperate forests are diverse and regionally localized. In term of problem’s subtype, they are generally environmental, and whilst many of these problems are solvable, they are not scalable. In particular, it was hard to find any smart, cost-efficient ways for Aurora Forealis to create meaningful carbon capture programs (Smart, Suitable, Specific)
Boreal forests. Size, contrary to what one would expect, boreal forests create the largest carbon related opportunity among all biomes. With over 1024 billion tons, boreal forests are already by far the largest carbon store with over 60% of the total. They also have the highest capacity for carbon absorption, 408 tons / hectare. This is because despite short growing season, the cold and wet environment creates almost a perfect storage conditions which reduces biomass decay and thus CO2 release.
In addition to the vast opportunity, the problem subtype is favourable: in contrast to the more difficult problems of tropical and temperate biomes, boreal issues are informational and physical relating to silviculture and forestry practices. Or more specifically either relative lack of them (Russia, Canada) or ready improvements in them (across the region).
These problems thus solvable – and to large extent they have already been solved. Through years the Nordic countries have developed highly advanced “best practices” in forestry, including national forest mappings, digital databases at stand level, deep research in growth models, legal and regulatory framework balancing environment and industry, commercial knowhow in pulp & paper, sawmill, and logging industries, etc. Therefore, whilst there are opportunities in improving best practices, the main opportunity is just in collating, disseminating, and getting the current best practices implemented across the region.
From value (smart) perspective, boreal carbon is also probably one of the best opportunities in CO2 capture: They create a truly large-scale opportunity, with clear additionality and high cost efficiency – often below USD 10 per ton. Furthermore, in those numerous cases where the resulting cellulose, hemi-cellulose or timber fibers can be productively utilized, the cost of captured carbon is often even negative. Improved forestry practices also leave more primary forests for preservation, and can protect against disturbances (forest fire, insect damage) and thus create avoided emissions.
Among all nature-based carbon capture opportunities, boreal opportunity is also the most scalable. All six countries are advanced economies, have strong central governments, and can enforce their laws and regulations. Therefore, once developed and tested, any adaptation of best practices is highly scalable through legislation, regulation and guidance.
The boreal opportunity is also quite suitable for a small R&D oriented foundation as by far the best opportunity lies in collating existing best practices and getting them scaled through governments and local forestry institutions. From our discussion with various national representatives, it was also apparent that there would be a highly receptive audience for this – in all countries: forests and their health are universally liked. Finally, and somewhat surprisingly, it also turned out that there are very few foundations focusing on boreal region, making the effort even more worthwhile.
Finally, there were very specific opportunities for foundation to work on – these are outlined in the section Boreal Carbon.