INDIAN FORESTS AS CO₂ SINKS - A First Order Assessment
K. Chatterjee

As part of the implementation process of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Earth Summit, June, 1992), all signatories  have to prepare an inventory of sources and sinks of greenhouse gases.

We have initiated a research programme to assess the present and predicted sink capacity of our forests  and CO₂ emissions from development activities.  This will help design appropriate response strategies.  Initially the programme focuses on evolving a methodology for a first-order assessment of the sink capacity of India’s forest.

Forest Cover in India
“The State of Forests” reports brought out by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) in India have been studies to calculate the change in forest cover.

A net deforestation of 1,34,700 hectares has occurred between 1987-1991.  The present forest cover is 19.5 percent of the total geographical area.  Scrub land has also diminished during the period due to over-grazing and conversion for other uses including agriculture.  Non-forest  area has increased during the period mainly due to the increase in population.
 

Sequestration Capacity of Indian Forests
A first-order  assessment of the CO₂  sequestration capacity  of Indian forests till the year 2000 has been computed by taking the growth rate of Indian forests as reported  in the 1987 State of Forest Report.  The recorded annual production of stem wood in the country during the last 10 years has varied from 26 million cum. to 32 million cum.  The average annual production of stem wood in the country works out at 30 million cum.  The unrecorded annual production in the form fuel wood is estimated at 22 million cum.  Thus the average annual wood production is 52 million cum.

The sequestration capacity has been computed in two ways: by volume of biomass and by total forest area.

The total volume of wood production is converted into total biomass by assuming a mean wood density 0.52 t/m³.  The ration of total biomass to usable stem biomass was assumed by the German Bundestag to be 1.6 for closed forests and 3 for open forest.  In this present analysis an average figure of 2.3 has bee assumed.  One cum. of stem wood is therefore equivalent to 2.3m³ of total bimoass.

One cum. of biomass (stem, roots, branches, etc.) absorbs 0.26 tonnes of carbon (tc).  Since the annual production of biomass from the Indian forests is 52 million cum, the total annual CO₂ sequestration capacity of our forests works out to be approximately 31 million tc (mtc).

However, if we assume the carbon sequestration figure given by R.A. Sedjo (Forest to offset the Greenhouse Effect. Journal of Forestry, 1989, 87.7: 12-15.)  for tropical forests as 6.24 tc/ha/yr and adopt the same for the total Indian forest cover of 64 mha (1991), the sequestration capacity of Indian forests is very encouraging.

The total annual sequestration capacity of Indian forest works out to be 399 mtc (1479 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions) which is practically 10 times more than the sequestration capacity computed by taking the total volume of biomass (31 mtc).

The total CO₂ emissions from the fossil fuels recorded in 1989-90 is 152.9 mtc whereas the sequestration capacity of our forests 31 mtc.  For 2000 A.D., the predicted emission is 815 mtc.  Assuming that the present forest cover remains unchanged, the sequestration capacity of our forests is obviously suboptimal.

Considering that dense forest cover not only provides a natural carbon sink but also preserves biological diversity, urgent steps are required to speed up afforestation.

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