Forest management directed at carbon sequestration could make a significant difference in global carbon sequestration over the near and medium terms.

Traditionally, forest management has involved managing woodlands for the production of a single output—timber. Yet forests have always also been a means of sequestering carbon.

In the past this ecosystem benefit went unnoticed and landowners were not compensated for this service. Forest managers would have ignored any carbon considerations in their management actions.

Suppose now, however, that annual payments were made for both the carbon sequestration and the timber extracted.

Under this arrangement, timber and carbon sequestration could be viewed as joint products, and the timberland owner would have two market outputs to consider.

As your forest matures, the timber stands become more valuable, as does the value of its carbon sequestration services.

Landowners must contract with an aggregated organization to have their lands included in a larger pool,

so that they can accumulate enough carbon units to be eligible to trade on the open market. 

Forests operate both as vehicles for capturing additional carbon and as carbon reservoirs.

A young forest, when growing rapidly, can sequester relatively large volumes of additional carbon roughly proportional to the forest’s growth in biomass.

An old-growth forest acts as a reservoir, holding large volumes of carbon even if it is not experiencing net growth.

Thus, a young forest will hold less carbon, but it is sequestering additional carbon over time.

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An old forest may not be capturing any additional new carbon, but can continue to hold large volumes of carbon as biomass over long periods of time.

Managed forests offer the opportunity for influencing forest growth rates and providing for full stocking, both of which allow for more carbon sequestration.  

To achieve this result, there must be a net increase in forests so that the total forest biomass increases—or that it decreases less than would be the case in the absence of such management.

Sometimes, no overall net forest growth needs to occur. Ideally, the net growth of the forest system is harvested sustainably by harvesting the trees in the oldest age class, unless negative to positive growth.

The age of the harvested class is defined as the harvest rotation age. Once mature, such a forest experiences no net increase (or decrease) in timber stock or harvest volumes over time.