Blowing B.C.’s carbon bank

Uncounted greenhouse gas emissions from provincial forests are now almost as high as BC’s official emissions

In December 2011, the international community meets in Durban, South Africa for the next important United Nations climate change summit. With greenhouse gas emissions continuing to increase, there is little time left to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere before global warming produces catastrophic consequences. If global warming passes dangerous tipping points, forest ecosystems in different parts of the world will be at uncontrollable risk of die-off, fires, pests and other forms of breakdown with further release of carbon storage. Efforts to reduce CO2 emissions from all sources require urgent action.

One of the few areas where progress appears possible in the short term are efforts to reduce emissions from forest loss and destructive logging practices. Countries that harbour large forested areas must swiftly implement land use policies that maintain and increase carbon storage capacity and protect species habitat that is under increasing pressure due to climate change. British Columbia can and must be a leader in this undertaking.

Globally, deforestation contributes approximately 20 per cent to greenhouse gas emissions. B.C.’s temperate rainforests are among the ecosystems with the highest carbon storage per hectare on the planet and they continue to sequester carbon. Fires and pests, which can cause huge releases of carbon dioxide in other forest types, are rare in coastal forests. Clear-cutting temperate old-growth rainforests causes massive loss of carbon storage and the ability to recover the carbon stores is limited for hundreds of years.

Yet despite massive and increasing emissions from B.C.’s forests these are not counted as part of our official emissions and buried as “memo items” in the provincial greenhouse gas emissions reports. Recent provincial data shows that net emissions from forestlands were 63 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2009, more than double the 2008 net emissions. Counting these emissions would almost double the official provincial greenhouse gas emissions of 2009 (67 million tonnes).

Until a decade ago, B.C.’s forests were a carbon sink and sequestered approximately half of the official provincial emissions. With the outbreak of the Mountain Pine Beetle infestation our forest turned from sink to source. However, a closer look at provincial data shows how destructive logging practices contribute to huge carbon losses. The 2010 provincial report showed that net emissions from forest lands were mainly caused by logging (55 million tonnes, with only a small portion stored in wood products for a longer period of time).

The report also distinguished between emissions from the Pacific Maritime and other ecozones of BC. The data showed that approximately half of the emissions were released in the Pacific Maritime Ecozone, where emissions are mainly caused due to logging and not significantly influenced by the Mountain Pine Beetle outbreak or forest fires.

Now that's carbon storage! Photo: Jens Wieting

As the best carbon bank of the province and with only a small portion of temperate rainforests intact, protecting and restoring species habitat becomes increasingly urgent. Sierra Club BC analysis shows how logging of old-growth rainforest ecosystems has seriously compromised species habitat and carbon storage capacity. More than two million hectares of rainforest ecosystems on B.C.’s coast, mostly on Vancouver Island and on the South Coast, have less than 30 per cent old growth remaining and are considered to be at high risk of species extinction. Vancouver Island alone has lost more than one million hectares of productive old growth rainforest, representing the loss of approximately 100 million tonnes of carbon storage.

Counting emissions is a logical first step to policy reform and action plans to reduce emissions while protecting species habitat at the same time. Through increased conservation and improved forest management, including selective logging, longer rotations, reduction of wood waste and elimination of slash burning, as well as measures to reduce the risks of fire and pests wherever possible, a coherent provincial forest global warming policy must ensure that provincial forest lands become a carbon sink again and no longer contribute to B.C.’s overall emissions as a significant carbon source.

For rare coastal rainforest ecosystems remaining old-growth forest must urgently be protected from logging and older second growth stands set aside to restore species habitat and other ecological functions. Forest management in relatively intact areas, such as the Great Bear Rainforest and Clayoquot Sound, must follow the precautionary approach to avoid degradation of healthy ecosystems.

B.C. forestry in the era of global warming has much potential to provide jobs in a diverse low-carbon economy, provided that conservation is prioritized and management practices are improved through new regulations and incentives to reduce emissions and protect species habitat. Government support for improved forest management practices - combined with promotion of value-added products and a phase out of raw log exports - can generate new jobs while reducing industrial development pressures.

It is time that we learn to value forests, our best ally in the fight against global warming.

This article was first published in the Friends of Clayoquot Sound newsletter.