In Australia, a pervasive response to increasing atmospheric greenhouse gasses and the exchange of these gasses between the atmosphere and forests has been to focus on storing carbon (C) in forested landscapes. However, the amount of C stored and able to be stored in the landscape, which is often called carbon carrying capacity, is commonly over-estimated and over-emphasised. This occurs, in part, due to a focus on the continent’s most C-rich forests when discussing landscape C storage or carbon carrying capacity, and by failing to account for wildfires that will prevent all forests from becoming old and C-rich. These effects on forest age-class structure and thus C-stocks, in the Australian landscape currently tend to be overlooked at the policy level. Underemphasised is the widely recognised role of wood products in greenhouse gas mitigation, both as a C-stock and by providing society with low emission products. Improving atmospheric outcomes will only be achieved if variation in landscape C stocks is accurately described and the full role of forests in greenhouse gas mitigation including the role of wood products is explored and reflected in policy.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	forest management, carbon, carbon storage, grenhouse gas, wood product
Research Division:	Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences
Research Group:	Forestry sciences
Research Field:	Forestry management and environment
Objective Division:	Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards
Objective Group:	Mitigation of climate change
Objective Field:	Climate change mitigation strategies
UTAS Author:	Moroni, MT (Dr Martin Moroni)
ID Code:	116519
Year Published:	2012
Web of Science® Times Cited:	9
Deposited By:	Plant Science
Deposited On:	2017-05-11
Last Modified:	2017-09-04
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