Bridging the Gap between the Estimates of Forest Management Emissions from the National GHG Inventories and Integrated Assessment Models via Model–Data Fusion

Abstract

Current criteria to define managed forests are inconsistent among countries’ reports of GHG emissions to UNFCCC. Integrated assessment models used for assessing countries’ mitigation pathways employ a proxy for managed forests that differ from the countries’ criteria. This is one of the reasons for the gap of 5.5 GtCO2 year−1 between the modelled and reported global land-use GHG emissions. Using multiple data, we developed a map of managed forests (0.5 × 0.5 deg), consistent with official GHG inventories. We applied the map in the G4M model for masking a managed forest area and estimating the GHG emissions from that area.

Keywords

• managed forest map
• forest model
• forest management emissions
• GHG inventory