The Research on Evaluation and Management of China Forest Carbon Sinks from the Perspective of Economics

Abstract

According to the latest forest resources inventory data, this paper establishes a physical and monetary accounts of forest carbon sinks, and an exploratory balance sheet for those from 2008 to 2013 in China, on the basis of national economic accounting theory and the latest System of National Accounts of United Nations. The results show that forest carbon stocks in physics have increased from 2008 to 2013, the average annual growth rate is about 2.51%. Due to the decline of carbon sinks market price and the carbon sequestration in open forestland, the value of forest carbon stocks in monetary has decreased, by 0.37% per year. The built exploratory balance sheet of carbon sinks also shows that forest carbon assets are net outflows, which value 10.762 billion RMB yuan from 2008 to 2013. Based on the accounting results, the paper finally evaluates the economic significance of China's forest carbon sinks and gives some corresponding policy suggestions on its management. In addition, the paper points out that there are some errors in the balance sheet because of the statistical standards, classification and other reasons. The error rate is about 4.35%, less than 5% of statistical requirements, which indicate that establishing forest carbon sinks accounts are possible, and accounting of values of forest carbon sinks according to the existing data is necessary in China.