1. Forest resources: past, present and future role of managed and unmanaged forests in the global carbon balance. 1.3. Dynamics of forest resources of the former Soviet Union with respect to the carbon budget
Shvidenko, A.; Nilsson, S.
Carbon dioxide mitigation in forestry and wood industry papers based on an international workshop: 43-62
1998
Document Number: 342680
During the period 1700-1910 the European part of the former Soviet Union (FSU) lost 67+or-3 million ha of closed forests, mainly by transfer to agricultural use. Forest coverage reached its lowest point between 1910 and 1930. Recent (1961-88) trends in the FSU forests reveal 2 basic features: (1) stable development or increase in aggregated indicators, e.g. increases of 10.3% in total forested areas and 7.2% in the growing stock (8.5 and 5.6%, respectively, for the main forest-forming species); and (2) qualitative impoverishment in those forest regions subject to intensive industrial harvest (Russian European North, East Siberia, and the southern part of the Far East). During the period 1978-93, many of the subregions of Russian Asia showed a depletion of their forest resources. Analysis of forest phytomass dynamics for the period 1961-88 by individual countries and regions of the FSU, based on data from the State Forest Account and phytomass inventory, showed that the carbon storage in forest vegetation increased by about 2.23 Pg, and the average carbon sequestration was 83 Tg annually. Attempts to compensate for systematic errors in the basic inventory data increased this latter amount to 176 Tg C/year. The increased sink was caused by increased growing stocks in the European FSU. Taking into account the accumulation of C in detritus, soil organic matter, and peatlands, it is estimated that the Forest Fund areas of the FSU (1254.2 million ha in 1988) constituted an average net sink of 230 Tg C/year during 1961-88.