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Updated: Oct 16, 2025

Author Spotlight: On-Site Biochar Production for Woody Debris Incineration in Forestry
Published on: January 5, 2024
Altered growth conditions more than reforestation counteracted forest biomass carbon emissions 1990-2020
Julia Le Noë1,2, Karl-Heinz Erb3, Sarah Matej3
1Institute of Social Ecology (SEC), Department of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Wien, Austria. julia.lenoe@boku.ac.at.
Abstract:
Understanding the carbon (C) balance in global forest is key for climate-change mitigation. However, land use and environmental drivers affecting global forest C fluxes remain poorly quantified. Here we show, following a counterfactual modelling approach based on global Forest Resource Assessments, that in 1990-2020 deforestation is the main driver of forest C emissions, partly counteracted by increased forest growth rates under altered conditions: In the hypothetical absence of changes in forest (i) area, (ii) harvest or (iii) burnt area, global forest biomass would reverse from an actual cumulative net C source of c. 0.74 GtC to a net C sink of 26.9, 4.9 and 0.63 GtC, respectively. In contrast, (iv) without growth rate changes, cumulative emissions would be 7.4 GtC, i.e., 10 times higher. Because this sink function may be discontinued in the future due to climate-change, ending deforestation and lowering wood harvest emerge here as key climate-change mitigation strategies.
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