Earth Equity News

Northern Forest Account for Over Half of World's Forest Based Carbon Sinks. By John Lorinc, NYTimes, November 12, 2009. "A coalition of conservation groups are calling on international climate negotiators in Copenhagen next month to develop land-use policy incentives intended to encourage governments to protect natural carbon storehouses -- especially those in northern boreal forests and peatlands found in Canada, Scandinavia and Russia. 'The 208.1 billion tons of carbon estimated to be stored by forest and peatland ecosystems within Canada's Boreal Forest region is equivalent to 26 years worth of the world's carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning, as measured in 2006,' noted a report [The Carbon the World Forgot, PDF, 36 pp] released Wednesday by the Canadian Boreal Initiative. Undisturbed northern boreal forests, the report says, account for almost 60% of the world's forest-based carbon sinks. By contrast to rain forests, much of the boreal carbon is stored in underground root and soil systems, and will accumulate for thousands of years. Its extent has been underestimated, the authors say."