How did Canada decide whether to include forest management in its Kyoto accounting?
Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service (CFS), in cooperation with resource management agencies in all provinces and territories (except Nunavut, which has almost no forest), conducted a detailed analysis to determine whether Canada’s managed forest was likely to be a sink or source from 2008 to 2012, the commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol. Such projections are difficult because it is impossible to determine today what area will be burned or subject to insect infestations in the future, yet these factors greatly affect whether the managed forest will be a sink or source. As a result, the CFS and its partners decided to use an analytical technique that assigns probabilities to the likelihood of future disturbances by wildfires and major forest insects, based in part on historical fire and insect patterns. They also factored in how forest management activities such as harvesting, planting, and salvage logging after natural disturbances would affect the forest carbon ba
