Finland’s forests work as massive carbon sink

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The capacity of Finland’s forests to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has doubled in just under 20 years.
      According to the Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA), Finland’s forests absorb 42 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, which is well over half of Finnish carbon dioxide emissions, which were 70 million tonnes in 2008.
      Growth of trees has increased the ability of Finland’s forests to absorb carbon, even though construction of buildings and transport infrastructure has slightly encroached on forests.
     
Finnish forests contain about 2.2 billion cubic metres of wood, and about 100 million a year is added through natural growth. The growth rate means that 70 million cubic metres of wood could be felled each year without leading to a net loss.
      Last year, with the recession cutting into demand, felling amounted to just 40 million cubic metres of wood.
     
When new growth constantly exceeds what is extracted, forests turn into a carbon sink. METLA says that the amount of carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere by Finnish forests has doubled in the past 20 years.
      Also increasing the carbon sink effect is the trend of turning agricultural land back into forest. In the past 20 years, 149,000 hectares of arable land have been planted with trees. However, 226,000 hectares of forest land has been reclaimed for construction of buildings and roads. The increase in carbon dioxide emissions caused by the destruction of forests is nearly three million tonnes a year.
     
In addition to estimates for felling for raw material for the wood and paper industries, METLA has calculated that 13 million cubic metres of wood could be extracted for use as an energy source.
      The institute calculates that the harvesting of energy wood would not have any significant impact on sustainable felling of wood for raw materials. Energy wood mainly involves branches, treetops, stumps, and parts of the trunk that are not suitable for cooking into pulp.
     
In its scenario, METLA assumes that the wood processing industry will buy all of the wood that is available.
      In years such as 2009, when wood extraction from forests is low, energy wood would be available from the thinning of young forests. Thinning young forests could bring in up to 10 million cubic metres of energy wood.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Wood energy bill to be linked with new nuclear plant authorisation (6.4.2010)

See also:
  Felling activities could leave Finland with a climate bill of hundreds of millions of euros (20.10.2009)

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