Will Russian forests save the planet?

As a part of thecountry's preparations to COP21 Russia-based Center of Forest Ecology and Productivity of Russian Academy of Science held a seminar "Forest climatic aspects of Russia's actions in the context of the preparation and subsequent implementation of the UN new arrangements (Paris Agreement)."

The main topic of the discussion was a brief overview of the Paris Agreement and the expected position of Russia on the forest management. The seminar also included presentations on the dynamics of the absorption and the emission of CO2 by Russian forests, the legislation related to forest management and examples of forest-climate projects in the country.

Speakers of the seminar A. Kokorin and D. Zamolodchikov, who will participate in the Paris Conference from the Russian side, in an interview with Climate Russia presented the main aspects of what they consider important to highlight during the COP21 and main issues of the forest management in Russia.

How do you think the position to include the boreal forests in the Paris Agreement is principal for COP21?

Alexey Kokorin (WWF Russia)

Paris Agreement should be universal for all forests, both tropical and boreal. For the developed countries or developing countries – the same. Also, the reporting system should be universal, without loopholes. And the rules should be the same.

Of course, ecosystems can be particularly considered. For example, in the boreal area we can expect a higher level of soil carbon monitoring, as I see it, than in the tropical.

The new concept of actions, which should be stipulated in the Paris Agreement, is unlikely to include classical emissions trading at the same level. It will include the climate finance and emissions reduction points, which can be transferred from one country to another on the basis of completed projects.

I do not think that these projects will be carried out only in tropical countries. Indeed, the climate funding will only be assigned to the developing countries. However, there cannot be both allowance of the climate financing and emissions reduction points. This means that if a company or a government wants to reduce or set off their emissions, it can be done in Russia using the mechanisms of the voluntary carbon market.

Dmitry Zamolodchikov (Center of Forest Ecology and Productivity of RAS)

First, I must say that the boreal forests and tropical forests are equally important in terms of the biosphere. Another point is that their GHG stocks and emissions are now fundamentally different. The boreal forests contain large carbon reserves. Therewith, the boreal area and carbon stocks are slightly increasing or stable. Also there is some absorption. We may not to worry about their fate in the biosphere scale.

At the same time in the tropical forests area continues to decline. Strictly speaking, the rainforests are a powerful source of carbon emissions due to the fact that they are constantly being cut down and GHGs they garnered during their lifetime, go into the atmosphere. Therefore, indeed, the past few years public attention was focused on tropical forests. But, nevertheless, the mechanisms of the boreal forests accounting also existed under the Kyoto Protocol.

At present, if we want to manage the processes of land use and environmental management globally, we need to use common approach to both boreal and tropical forests, stating reduction of emissions and absorption increase as the main goal.

What, in your opinion, the main cause of forest fires? Are they the result of the climate change?

Dmitry Zamolodchikov (Center of Forest Ecology and Productivity of RAS)

Forest fires is a complex process. It includes several factors. The first is the creation of a fire situation. These situations occur when there is heat and no rain for a long time.

The creation of fire conditions is a process, activated by the global warming, as it prolongs the fire season. However, it is a probability. For the risk of fire to occur, there should be a source of the fire.

In Russia, the main source of wildfires is anthropogenic - unextinguished fire, agriculture burn etc. In Buryatia there was really very warm, but there was a culprit of fire in each particular case. The issue of fire prevention is related to the improvement of human factors.

The situation has changed recently. Fires in the Central Region of 2010 attracted the state attention to this problem. They adopted a number of regulations, providing more efficient use of the available funds, investments for new equipment purchase. There are some improvements, but, in my opinion, they are not enough if there occurs an extreme situation and there will be a long heat.

According to some forecasts, Russia's forests will cease to absorb greenhouse gases in the same amount in 40 years. Is it really so? How can we stop it?

Dmitry Zamolodchikov (Center of Forest Ecology and Productivity of RAS)

Indeed, such forecasts exist. The fact is that the current high levels of forest carbon stocks are connected with the fact that the scope of deforestation in the early 90s has decreased three times. This led to the fact that they got older. They contain great amount of carbon and there is no place for some new carbon. But, as we said, wildfires are frequent in Russia, and they wash away the carbon. Therefore, fire prevention will keep carbon in forests and thus positively affect the absorption.

In addition, there are many other issues related to the forest management. For example, the intensive cultivation of forests at abandoned agricultural lands, their protection from outbreaks of injurious organisms, reforestation of inefficient forests, which have been planted within the last decade at old cut-over lands. There is a huge number of possibilities. And we should understand that these possibilities will be implemented with adequate resources.