Carbon storage of forest vegetation under the Natural Forest Protection Program in Northeast China

Abstract

The Natural Forest Protection Program ( NFPP ) , which aims at protecting ecological resources and achieving sustainable forest management, has been implemented for 10 years in Northeast China. Under the program forest ecosystems in the region have been divided into three management areas-Key conservation, General conservation and Commercial forest. Each of these three types of forest land is subject to different management measures ( protecting or logging ) .Estimating carbon storage of forest vegetation in these areas is important both for understanding the capacity of forests in the Northeast region for carbon sequestration and as an aid to assessing the effectiveness of the NFPP in meeting its goals. To address this important need, this study selected five major forest types in the Northeast forest region-larch forest, birch forest, coniferous mixed forest, broadleaved mixed forest, coniferous and broadleaved mixed forest. Each forest type was divided into four age classes-young, mid鄄aged, premature and over mature forest. Tree biomass was calculated through

Long-Term Impacts of China’s New Commercial Harvest Exclusion Policy on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in the Temperate Forests of Northeast China

“…The program adopted the Classified Forest Management (H) policy that divided forests into two types: those that are completely protected, and those for commercial harvest, to ensure the supply of wood while improving carbon storage and biodiversity [17]. Recent studies showed that the program promoted natural forest resource rehabilitation and recovery [18][19][20]. China was committed to increasing the national forest area by 40 million hectares and increasing forest growing stock by 1.3 billion cubic meters by 2020, in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol [9].…”