Introduction

Abstract

Whereas the Chapters in Part II presented a “top-down” view of the role of forests in the context of global C cycling, the articles in Part III look at the global consequences from the viewpoint of forest management and harvesting. Here, the contribution made by forest products to carbon storage is considered explicitly, and the consequences of forest management for these products on ecosystem C storage are examined. Several models and simulation results are reported that provide estimates of the carbon stored in regional forests and wood products today and potential changes in the foreseeable future. The importance of considering fossil energy displacement (through both direct and indirect substitution) when assessing the C offset benefits of using forests and wood products to mitigate fossil-fuel emissions was a recurrent theme in the working group discussions and appears in a number of the Chapters. Another key issue addressed by Part III is the need for comprehensive methods to assess forest C budgets and to subject them to rigorous comparison.