Forest@ (Jan 2007)
Variation of forest surface and carbon fixation in mountain areas of the Regione Veneto (Italy) and the application of the Kyoto protocol
Abstract
The Parties that have signed the Kyoto Protocol must reduce global emissions of Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) during the First Commitment Period (2008 - 2012) by at least 5% with respect to 1990. This share is 6.5% for Italy. The Kyoto Protocol lays down some measures for reducing GHG emissions, which include actions in agriculture and forestry. it will thus be possible to take emissions and absorptions resulting from land use changes into account in the National Balances. Given the widespread forests in Italy, it is very important to have an assessment of the aptitude of this sector to act as a carbon sink. In this study we analysed the variation of forestland cover in a mountain area of the Veneto Region (NE Italy). The analysis was done by comparing aerial photos taken in 1991 with orthophotos reported to 2003, by photointerpretation of points with casual distribution on sample areas, according to a stratified sampling. We estimated a statistically relevant increment of about 0.095% of forest land only up to 1500 m compared to the estimated forest cover for 1990 (about 42 ha), underlining how this low increase is mainly due to forest management. The second step was to estimate the fixed carbon in the areas where forests increased. This was achieved by collecting biometrical data in the field, and then using allometric functions. The annual carbon sink was estimated as 0.69 Mg ha-1 year-1. Comparing these results with previous studies done in the pre-alpine region we estimate the annual increment of the forest area in the whole Veneto region to be about 409.94 ha and that the total carbon sink is about 282.86 Mg C year-1. A method for estimating carbon sink in afforestation/reforestation areas is proposed that could also be applied to other sites in Italy.
