Analysis of broad leaved forest carbon sinks changes and forest economics and management in China

The international community is paying more and more attention to the role of forests in CO2 absorption. This study aims the broad leaved forest carbon sinks in China, on the basis of research on coniferous forest carbon sinks in 1981 and 2014, the paper analyses the changes in broad leaved forest carbon sinks and the relations between the changes and the forest economics and management from 1981 to 2015 using the forest stock volume conversion method. The paper selects the common indexes of forest economics and management such as investment in forestry-fixed assets in silviculture and afforestation, the annual gross domestic product (GDP) values for the forestry sector, and management level improvement. The paper first of all establishes carbon sink estimates, and then analyses recent carbon sink trends of the dominant species of broad leaved forest which is based on six times inventories of China’s forest resources. The inventory data cover the four dominant broad-leaved species which are named as Oak, Betula, Populus, and others, such as Eucalyptus, Camphor, and Linden. The paper shows that a significant effect has been made by the forest carbon sinks of these species and investment in forestry-fixed assets in silviculture and afforestation, management level improvement etc. though with a lag of 4–7 years, and there raises a lot of discussions of various problems regarding forest carbon sinks and forest management and economic development. This study has important implications for forest resource management and climate change mitigation.