Forest potential in the climate policy framework remains underutilised and undermobilised. The relative uncertainty surrounding the assessment of carbon content in soils and trees is one problem. The introduction of strategies for encouraging climate friendly efforts of landowners and other users of wood-based products, another. And how forest carbon is accounted, and thus incentivised or not, in national, regional and international frameworks, a third one.
FORCLIMIT analyses national strategies emerging around the 2015 Paris Agreement and how they incentivise the role of forests and forest-based resources in the climate policy framework.
It studies national level incentive systems to encourage carbon friendly actions of forest owners and consumers of harvested wood products. It considers new possibilities for the accurate estimation of soil and tree carbon, from the national all the way down to the landowner level. And it investigates potential mitigation scenarios, analysing response curves to economic and policy incentives; and examines how international and regional climate change mitigation strategies can be better linked to subnational incentive systems.
The goal is to promote methodologies that provide a more accurate accounting of forest carbon, and permit the greater mobilisation of forests and forest-based resources in national, regional and international climate policy frameworks.
To find inventive ways to mobilise the forest potential in the climate policy framework, FORCLIMIT has analysed different policy frameworks found internationally. In contrast to some other countries and regions in the world, we found that the European Union set important restrictions on the potential for forests and forest-based resources to play a more significant role in climate change mitigation strategies of Member States.
The economic and policy strategies for motivating landowners to undertake efforts for mitigation in forests were analysed. We investigated forest owners’ responses to climate-smart forestry measures. Furthermore, from a pure climate perspective, we argue that achieving a high sustainable forest growth and corresponding extraction of wood from the forests represents an optimal climate strategy.
In FORCLIMIT, we have developed methods for accurate estimation of soil and tree carbon in forests, from the national to the stand level. We have improved the modeling of soil carbon and developed methods for consistent estimation of soil carbon at landscape, property and stand levels utilising airborne laser scanning data.
*At the time of the proposal. Please consider this data as an accurate estimate; it may vary during the project’s lifespan.
Total costs include in kind contribution by grant holders and can therefore be higher than the total requested funding.