Projects

From the perspective of Finland’s and the EU’s climate goals, it is important that agriculture becomes more climate efficient. The aim of climate-smart agriculture is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration while simultaneously improving agricultural sustainability and productivity.

In Finland, scenario calculations have been used to set carbon sink targets for forests and support decision-making in the forest sector by estimating the carbon sink potential of forests, either through maintaining past levels of wood use and felling or by estimating the maximum sustainable logging level in terms of wood production. However, the scenario calculations lack an analysis of different options, including lower logging levels than in the past.

The Panel’s previous studies have not examined the impacts of conserving biodiversity on the targeting of felling and the carbon sinks in managed forest land. At the provided level of logging, strict conservation will lead to pressure for felling being targeted in a smaller forest area than before, which may be assumed to reduce the carbon sink. On the other hand, the protected areas act as carbon sinks, which will reinforce the sink. The selection of conservation areas will also have an effect: If some of the areas for conservation are established on forest land where felling has been performed, the costs will be lowered and the young forest may offer a better starting point for climate change adaptation.