Research from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency shows that forest fertilisation has bigger climate benefits than permanent protection of forests.
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency was commissioned by the Swedish government to analyse and present proposals for political instruments to increase the uptake of carbon dioxide in the forest.
Peichen Gong, professor at the Department of Forest Economics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, worked on the study Styrmedel för att öka kolsänkor i skogssektorn (Instruments for increasing carbon sinks in the forest sector), and compared different methods with the potential to increase carbon sinks in the forest.
Benefits of forest fertilisation
Methods that were compared include permanent deposits of forest, extended turnaround times for felling, and forest fertilisation. Gong explains in our interview that forest fertilisation is more efficient than permanent deposits and extended turnaround times to increase carbon sink and thus contribute to a mitigation of climate change in the short term.
Forest fertilisation has the potential to increase carbon dioxide storage by 200,000 tonnes – every year.
