How are Canada’s forest carbon sinks and sources determined?
Almost 20 years ago, scientists with Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service (CFS) began developing a sophisticated model of Canada’s forest carbon budget. The Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) is a computer simulation model that incorporates the latest scientific understanding of the factors that affect forest carbon. It contains the best available information on forests and tree growth from resource management agencies in all of Canada’s provinces and territories (except Nunavut, which has almost no forest). Each year the CFS Carbon Accounting Team improves the model and incorporates new information to provide the latest estimates for reporting by Environment Canada in its annual greenhouse gas National Inventory Report.
