Strategy for carbon management in China's forests

Enlarging forest carbon sink is both a new opportunity and challenge to China's forestry industry. In order to improve the capacity for forest carbon management to cope with carbon emission reduction in China,the current situation of forest carbon management was analyzed and the strategic measures were put forth based on a literature analysis. The results showed that carbon sink in China' s forests during the last three decades has been continuously increased,but the carbon density is rather low,the carbon leak is very serious,and there lacked of technology and practices of forest carbon management. Based on these,some strategic measures in China's forest carbon management were proposed:( 1) carbon sequestration. It includes enhancing carbon density per unit forest land( by selection and improvement of the carbon tree species,building reasonable forest community structure,proper tending,and estimating suitable rotation length),reducing carbon leakage( e. g.,carbon emission during forest regeneration and during forestry operations and wood product manufacture),and increasing forest area( e. g.,afforestation in degraded land and urban area,agroforestry);( 2) carbon conservation,that is,avoiding forest disasters,preserving natural forests,and increasing carbon sequestration in wood products;( 3) carbon substitution,i. e.,substituting wood products for energy intensive materials and developing bioenergic technology; and( 4) carbon management,including establishing the baseline and the dynamic surveying technical systems for estimating forest carbon sink,and building the mechanisms for carbon trading and the compensation system for forest ecological benefits. The results indicated that forest carbon management in China is still in its initial stage,and future efforts,such as in developing theory in carbon management,building monitoring system of forest carbon sink,and improving forest carbon trade market,could greatly enhance China's forest carbon sink capacity.