Forest vintages and carbon sequestration

Abstract

In the current paper we examine the role of forest carbon sequestration benefits in optimal forest management. When carbon benefits are considered not only the forested area is relevant, but also the flow of carbon between land and the atmosphere through the carbon cycle. To account for all these impacts a multi-vintage forest setting is used, following Salo and Tahvonen (2004). The model is extended to three different carbon accounting methods to measure the benefits form carbon sequestration: carbon flow regime, tonne-year crediting and average storage. In the case of the carbon flow regime, the impact on the optimal management and allocation of land will depend upon the amount of carbon released when the forest is harvested. Under the other two accounting systems optimal steady state forest area will be increased, and in cases where optimal management imply cyclical harvesting, considering carbon benefits will always increase cycles dimension.