Table 6. Boreal forest biome – total area and carbon stocks by country
The effect of northern forests can be seen in seasonal atmospheric fluctuations: during the northern summer period (May-October) the CO2 level drops by about 7 ppm.
Size. Contrary to what one would expect, boreal forests create the largest carbon related opportunity among all the forest biomes. With over 1024 billion tons, boreal forests are 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. 1
Boreal forests are also the world’s single largest continuous biome, covering over 1200 million hectares of land. From a climate perspective its importance is even higher if we also consider the bordering/overlapping tundra biome. Its frozen permafrost contains over 1700 billion tons of carbon (twice of ALL carbon in atmosphere), and this arctic region is warming four times faster than the rest of the world.
In terms of countries, Russia accounts for great majority of both the boreal and tundra region and is the biggest opportunity from climate carbon perspective. 2 [2] If we account only taiga, Russia holds 430 billion tons of carbon – almost half of ALL carbon in atmosphere. If permafrost is included, it contains 1480 billion tons – twice of ALL carbon in the atmosphere. A loss of less than 6% of this will wipe out the entire remaining global carbon budget.
Subtype. In addition to the vast opportunity, the problem type is also quite favorable: in contrast to the more difficult problems of tropical and temperate biomes, boreal issues are informational and physical. As we learned through discussions with foresters and forestry research institutes the problems relate to silviculture and forestry practices – or more specifically either relative lack of them (Russia, Canada) or ready improvements in them (across the region).
Solutions in boreal are also helped by homogeneity in its environments and fauna, fact that there are only six countries to consider (Russia, Canda, U.S. Alaska, Norway, Sweden and Finland), and almost all the problems across the region are the same: be it the disturbances (mainly forest fires, to smaller extent insects), or the need for better silviculture and forestry practices (harvesting, replanting, fire prevention, fertilization etc.).
Solvable. The problems in the boreal region are also 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 also opportunities for improving these best practices, the main opportunity is in collating, disseminating, and getting the current best practices implemented across the region, particularly in Russia.
Smart. From a value of money perspective, boreal carbon is probably one of the best opportunities in CO2 capture: When the wood fibers are used in industry the cost of capturing carbon is negative. Furthermore, improved forestry practices in commercial forests leave more primary forests for preservation, and again quite cheap carbon capture. Improved forestry practices will also protect against disturbances (forest fire, insect damage) and thus create avoided emissions.
Scalable. Among all nature-based carbon capture opportunities, boreal opportunity is 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.
Suitable. 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 (Woodwell Climate Research Center, CPAWS, few others), making the effort even more worthwhile.
Specific. Finally, there was a specific opportunity for foundation to work on, an approach described below.