Radiata Pine Plantations are Great Carbon Sinks

Radiata pine forests represent a major opportunity for sequestering carbon in New Zealand and Australia. Pine plantations capture carbon more effectively than any other major land use, and capture carbon at over twice the rate of native forests. An average New Zealand pine plantation will grow 16.5 cubic meters of wood per ha per year, which is equivalent to over 4 tonnes of carbon, or 15 tonnes of CO2. To put this in perspective, a large (10litres/100km) petrol-driven car traveling 100 km emits approximately 23 kg of CO2. The establishment of new plantations will greatly assist New Zealand in meeting its Kyoto commitments for reducing carbon levels, while also substituting for land uses (e.g. dairy and sheep farming) that are high emitters of greenhouse gases. In addition, use of our Production Varieties can increase the rate of sequestration by approximately 25%.

It is often stated that forests are not good climate change mitigation options because the carbon is released when they are harvested. Firstly, it must be recognized that in managed plantation forests, only a small proportion of the forest is cut at any one time. Plantation forests are managed for sustained yields the harvested volume is equal to or less than the total increment of the forest. Hence the total carbon stock in a forest is maintained despite ongoing harvesting. This clearly leads to a second point: if carbon is constantly being removed from the forest and the forest carbon stock remains constant, there must be a continuous input to the forest, which can only come from the atmosphere. The rate of carbon removal from the atmosphere is a function of the growth rate the forest, and this continues despite harvesting. Hence production forests are perpetual carbon sinks as defined by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.