Potential Analysis of Mediterranean Forestry for Offsetting GHG Emissions at Regional Level: Evidence from Valencia, Spain

Abstract

Forest management is an untapped tool, yet to realize its full potential to fight against climate change. The capability of forests to act as carbon sinks makes them a key resource to reduce CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. However, carbon which has been fixed can be suddenly emitted again as a consequence of disturbances such as pests or wildfires. Mediterranean plant phenology, climatic conditions, and the accumulation of fuel biomass due to abandonment of traditional forest uses generate a scenario prone to large wildfires and consequently large greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. The abandonment could be offset by considering the economic value of forest ecosystem services, principally carbon fixation. Nevertheless, currently existing forest carbon markets consider only anthropogenic fixation based on a business as usual scenario without disturbances that cannot be applied to Mediterranean forest reality. Thus, a methodology to monetize carbon fixed has been developed and applied. A range between 55.5 and 250 million € produced by the monetization of 16.5 million potential carbon credits has been obtained based on anthropogenic avoided emissions produced over a 10 year-period. Thereby, the potential for offsetting emissions of the pilot region was between 1.2% and 5.6% of total diffuse GHG emissions. Consequently, sustainable forest management represents an important opportunity to combat climate change, taking advantage of the margin of improvement that the Mediterranean forests currently have to avoid GHG emissions through forest fire prevention silviculture.

Diagnosing the Institutional Forces Impacting Australia’s Aerial Firefighting Capability

“…Climate change is leading to a growing number of increasingly dangerous wildfires [1]. To protect the carbon sinks represented by forests that are under threat from wildfires [5] and to maintain the efficacy of solar power sources [6], which may often be located in or near hot and dry locations, more needs to be known about the systems and organizations relied on to manage these wildfires.…”

“…Forests are carbon sinks that assist with sustainability efforts, but the carbon can be suddenly emitted during wildfires [5]. There is also a growing recognition that wildfires may also hamper other efforts toward sustainability, such as by impacting the efficacy of solar panels as far as 1000 km away from the wildfires [6].…”

Forest Management Communities’ Participation in Bioenergy Production Initiatives: A Case Study for Galicia (Spain)

“…Although each case study has its own characteristics, different legal frameworks, and ecosystems, they all have in common the need to find an alternative to the use of fossil fuels and to increase the energy independence of the communities. In the Spanish context, there are specific analyses, among others, for the Basque Country [26,27], Catalonia [28,29], or Valencia [30,31]. Thus, energy analyses have been implemented for both Atlantic and Mediterranean forests.…”

Fire Flocks: Participating Farmers’ Perceptions after Five Years of Development

“…The partial return of livestock to traditional bush and forest grazing, as opposed to only farmed feed, prevents carbon emissions during the entire intensive production life cycle, while liberating enormous amounts of land for crops of direct human consumption (or other land uses) [21]. Thirdly, silvopastoralism's contribution to the generation of fire-resistant forest masses or, at least, reduced wildfire propagation and risk, is critical in avoiding the sudden release of large amounts of greenhouse gases captured and sequestered by vegetation [22,23], and thereby impedes the negative feedback loop between heatwaves, wildfires, and global warming intensification [24,25].…”