Forests have significant potential to mitigate climate change. Canada has 30% of the world's boreal forests. The ratification of the Kyoto Protocol commoditized carbon (C) on an international scale. To achieve Canada's emission reduction targets and mitigate climate change, the potential of forest C offset projects and forest C trading is being evaluated. Carbon trading and forest C management have economic and policy implications and potential trade-offs in other forest management objectives. We discuss how forest C management and trading can contribute to global efforts for atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions reduction through either utilization and/or conservation strategies.Key words: Canada, boreal forest, carbon management, carbon trading, climate change mitigation, forest carbon, forest conservation, forest management
RĂSUMĂLes forĂȘts sont tout Ă fait capables d'attĂ©nuer les changements climatiques. Le Canada dĂ©tient 30% des forĂȘts borĂ©ales de la planĂšte. La ratification du Protocole de Kyoto a transformĂ© le carbone (C) en un produit de base se transigeant partout dans le monde. Le potentiel des projets de crĂ©dits de C forestier et d' Ă©change de C forestier destinĂ©s Ă permettre au Canada d'atteindre ses objectifs de rĂ©duction des Ă©missions et d'attĂ©nuation des changements climatiques, fait l' objet d'une Ă©valua-tion. Les Ă©changes de C et la gestion du C forestier entraĂźnent des rĂ©percussions Ă©conomiques et politiques ainsi que des interactions potentielles avec d'autres objectifs d'amĂ©nagement forestier. Nous discutons comment la gestion du C forestier et ses Ă©changes peuvent contribuer aux efforts globaux de rĂ©duction des gaz Ă effet de serre dans l'atmosphĂšre en fonction de stratĂ©gies d'utilisation ou de conservation. Canada-wide, the forestland component of the LULUCF sector was a net sink of 77.5 Mt in 1990 (forest LULUCF removals greater than forest LULUCF emissions) but a source during 2002 to 2007 (emissions greater than removals). The recent trend of forests in the LULUCF sector being a source is due to natural disturbances, accentuated in recent years by the large-scale mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) outbreak in British Columbia and Alberta (Kurz et al. 2008), but also attributable to forest fires and wood removed from forests by harvest.The inclusion of removals by the LULUCF sector recognizes that biological C sinks store C absorbed by plants and that human activity (i.e., forestry and agriculture practices) can affect the size of these sinks. However, while the KP recognises the importance of forests as C sinks (Binkley et al. 2002), the potential to claim forests as a climate change mitigation measure, instead of efforts for reductions at emission sources (e.g., coal-fired electricity generation), was so contentious that comprehensive forestry-based mitigation activities were capped and limited in the early stages of KP negotiations (Purdon 2009). In addition, default KP accounting rules treat C in harvested wood as being completely released into the atmospher...