Abstract |
The assessment produced productivity and cost data for forest and agroforestry management practices in 94 nations. That is, out of a total of 140 nations in the world with forest resources, about two-thirds are represented in the database at present. The total forest and woodland area of the 94 nations is about 3.8 billion ha or approximately 93% of the world's total. In terms of mean carbon storage (MCS in t/ha) by categories of promising forest practices across latitudinal zones, several trends are seen. As expected, due to warmer and longer growing seasons towards the tropics, carbon sequestration in living biomass generally increases from the boreal, to the temperate, to the tropical latitudes. Silviculture has the lowest median values in tC/ha for all three latitudinal zones: boreal, 10; temperate, 26; and tropical, 34. While enhancing productivity in existing forest stands and plantations, silviculture does not directly contribute to increasing forest land area, an important attribute for significant contributions toward increasing global forest carbon sequestration. |