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Forests and carbon storage
Tasmania’s State forests are removing carbon from the atmosphere at an average rate of 720,000 tonnes a year over the next fifty years.
According to an independent report commissioned by Forestry Tasmania, State forests are currently storing around 326 million tonnes of carbon.
By 2050, the amount will increase by some 31 million tonnes to 357 million tonnes.
That equates to an average of around 720,000 tonnes a year, or the equivalent to the carbon emitted each year by 585,365 cars – three times as many cars that are currently registered in Tasmania.
Each year, Tasmania’s forests are absorbing the equivalent of - 24% of the entire state’s carbon emissions.
The reason for this is simple. Young growing forests remove carbon from the atmosphere at a greater rate than mature forests. For example, a native regrowth tree typically absorbs 60 percent of its expected total carbon in the first 50 years.
Through photosynthesis, trees store carbon and release oxygen into the atmosphere. Forest soils also store carbon as organic matter. In this way, sustainably managed forests become vast carbon sinks.
Trees use the sequestered carbon to grow leaves, branches, stems, bark and roots. About half of the weight of a tree is water. About half of the dry weight of wood is carbon.
Summary :
This report builds on substantial work undertaken by Forestry Tasmania staff in identifying the major components of carbon pools in FT's commercial and non-commercial estate, as well as forest production and life cycle assessments. This report checks this work, makes minor modifications, identifies any gaps fills these gaps and benchmarks the results with broader global, national and state estimates of forest related carbon pools.
Attached File :
Forestry Tasmania's Carbon Sequestration Position Report [PDF] [488KB]
