Carbon Budget of the Forest Industry of the Russian Federation: 1928-2012

A model was built for estimating the carbon stocks and fluxes generated by the production and consumption of forest products on the territory of the Russian Federation. The paper starts with the validation of a fiber flow scheme for 1990 using various Russian statistics. Forecasts a re made for 10 economic activities, which are important for the consumption of different forest products. The projection of fiber consumption (as roundwood equivalent) is based on assumptions of technological change in both production and final consumption. Consumption-induced fiber flows are traced back to the forest. A new decomposition function in introduced to allow for discrete approximations of nonlinear decomposition. Ten by five carbon pools are considered, which vary in their decomposition pattern. The mode was designed to allow full integration with models covering the rest of the carbon system. Results are provided on a regional basis for all 89 subjects of the Russian Federation. Due to the economic slump of the Russian forest sector, the accumulated sum of yearly deviations from 1990 fluxes are estimated to be some 1.3 billion tons carbon by 2012.

VIEW CONTENT