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Carbon balance of forest stands, wood products and their utilization in South Korea

  • Special Feature: Original Article
  • Climate Change - Mitigation, Impacts and Adaptation in the Forestry Sector
  • Published:
Journal of Forest Research

Abstract

Forests provide wood products and feedstock for bioenergy and bio-based products that can mitigate climate change by reducing carbon emissions. In order to assess the effects of forest products on reducing carbon emissions, we analyzed the carbon balance for individual carbon pools across the forest supply chain over a long period of time. We simulated particular forest supply chain activities pertaining to even-aged management of pine stands in South Korea to demonstrate our methods. Two different rotation scenarios (i.e., 40 and 70 years) were assessed over the 280-year time horizon in terms of temporal changes in carbon stock in each carbon pool along the supply chain, carbon transfer between carbon pools, substitution effects, and delayed carbon release by wood products. We found that the average carbon stock level was higher for the 70-year rotation scenario, but the total amount of gain in carbon was higher for the 40-year rotation at the end of the time horizon. This study confirms that forest products and energy feedstock can both reduce carbon emissions and increase carbon storage. However, the complexity of carbon accounting along the supply chain warrants a thorough evaluation from diverse perspectives when it is used to assess forest carbon management options.

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Acknowledgments

This study was carried out with the support of the R&D Program for Forestry Technology (project no. S211315L020110) of the Korea Forest Service.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Hee Han & Woodam Chung

  2. Department of Forest Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-921, Republic of Korea

    Joosang Chung

  3. Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-921, Republic of Korea

    Joosang Chung

Authors
  1. Hee Han
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  2. Woodam Chung
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  3. Joosang Chung
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Woodam Chung.

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This article has been submitted for the special feature entitled “Climate change mitigation and adaptation in the forestry sector”.

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Han, H., Chung, W. & Chung, J. Carbon balance of forest stands, wood products and their utilization in South Korea. J For Res 21, 199–210 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-016-0529-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-016-0529-2

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