Assessing the Effects of Different Harvesting Practices on the Forestry Sector’s Climate Benefits Potential: A Stand Level Theoretical Study in an Eastern Canadian Boreal Forest

Abstract

The contribution of the forest sector to climate change mitigation needs to rely on optimal strategies that include forest management, wood supply, wood product disposal, and replacement of GHG-intensive materials and energy sources. Our study aimed to assess the impact of alternative forest management practices applied at the stand scale on the capacity of the forest sector to reduce its radiative forcing, using the boreal forests of eastern Canada as a case study. We simulated management of a balsam fir–white birch stand over a sixty-year period and determined the sectorial carbon and radiative forcing budget for a reference scenario (no harvest) and for nineteen clearcut and partial cut alternatives. The results suggest that logging may not significantly reduce carbon emissions compared to a preservation practice and does not yield any climate benefits in terms of radiative forcing. In a context for which the substitution effect of wood products on markets is expected to be limited, the mitigation potential of a scenario is mostly driven by the capacity of the forest ecosystem carbon sink to compensate for the substantial CO2 and CH4 emissions from wood product decay in landfills. The improved assessment of carbon emission temporality, incorporation of ecosystem carbon dynamics, and improved consideration of substitution and the decay of wood products are essential in the development of any forest management strategy. Neglecting these elements can lead to misconceptions and prevent informed mitigation decisions.