FAOSTAT domain Forests. Metadata release May 2021

Dataset Information:

Title Forests

Abstract The FAOSTAT domain Forests consists of CO2 emissions and removals corresponding to forest carbon stock changes (aboveground and belowground living biomass). Estimates are computed following the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National greenhouse gas Inventories (IPCC, 2006). Data from the Forest Resources Assessment 2020 (FAO, 2020) are used as input. Estimates are available by country, with global coverage, for the period 1990–2020.

Supplemental The FAOSTAT domain Forests disseminates information by country on activity data (hectares of forestland area) and CO2 emissions and removals (kilotonnes). Data are available for all countries and territories, for standard FAOSTAT regional aggregations, and for Annex I and non-Annex I country groups. This FAOSTAT domain also disseminates the activity data and the net CO2 emissions/removals reported by countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), under the category ‘Forest land’. Activity data are sourced from the most recently available GHG National Inventories (NGHGI) or from National Communications. Emission data are sourced directly from the UNFCCC data portal or from Biennial Update Reports (BURs). UNFCCC data are disseminated in FAOSTAT with permission, formalized via a FAO-UNFCCC Memorandum of Understanding. Unlike the UNFCCC reporting, the forestland area considered in this domain does not track separately the two- sub-components forest land remaining forest land (FL-FL) and newly converted forest land.

The IPCC (2019) Guidelines indicate the FAOSTAT database as a useful tool for NGHGI QA/QC processes and validation of both activity data and emissions estimates.

Creation Date 2012

Last Update 2021

Data Type Climate Change - Greenhouse Gases

Category Environment

Time Period 1990–2020

Periodicity Annual

Geographical Coverage

World. Data are available for 214 countries and territories (FAO TIER I)

Spatial Unit Country

Language Multilingual (EN, FR, ES)

Methodology and Quality Information:

Methods and processing

Overview

Net CO2 emissions/removals from Forests consist of net carbon stock change in living biomass (aboveground and belowground) associated with: i) Forestland, referring to changes occurred on forest land between reported years; and ii) Net forest conversion from Forest Land to other land uses. The FAOSTAT data are computed by applying the stock difference method to country-reported forest biomass and area via the FRA, following IPCC 2006 Vol. 4, Ch. 2 and 4.

The total net CO2 emissions/removals from forests (CSC) are estimated at country level, using the formula:

CSC (t) = - [B(t) – B(t-1)] *44/12*10-3

where:

CSC = Net CO2 emission/removal, in kt CO2 yr-1

FAOSTAT domain Forests. Metadata release May 2021

B(t) = carbon stock change in the living biomass (aboveground and belowground C pools) of forest land, at time t, expressed in units of million tonnes C yr-1;

Net forest conversion, representing area loss due to net conversion to other land uses, was computed separately for Naturally regenerating forest and Planted forest, for the period 1990–2020, to compute the following forest area components at year t:

NFC (t) = ∑𝑗 {B(t-i)/Aj(t-i) * Min[jA(t)-Aj(t-i),0]}

Finally, emissions and removals on forestland, FL, were computed as the residual between the overall carbon stock change and net forest conversion:

FL (t) = CSC (t) –NFC (t).

Dimensionless conversion factors used were: 44/12, to convert from carbon mass to CO2 emissions; and 10-3, to convert to kilotonnes. In all equations, data on area of forestland, A, and total (above and below ground) biomass carbon stock, B, were taken directly from the Global Forest Resource Assessment (FRA) of FAO, for the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2015 and 2020. See Tubiello et al. (2021) for more details.

Uncertainties in growing stock are estimated to be ±8 % for industrialized countries (Annex I) and ±30 % for non-industrialized countries (non-Annex I), uncertainties for the basic wood density are estimated to be in the range 10-40%, and uncertainties for areas ±10% (Federici et al., 2015). Further discussion on uncertainties and comparison with UNFCCC data is provided in Tubiello et al. (2021).

References

IPCC 2006. 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme, Eggleston H.S., Buendia L., Miwa K., Ngara T. and Tanabe K. (Eds), IGES, Hayama, Japan. Available at http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/index.html

Federici S., F.N. Tubiello, M. Salvatore, H. Jacobs, J. Schmidhuber 2015. New estimates of CO2 forest emissions and removals: 1990-2015. Forest Ecology and Management 352 (2015) 89-98. Available at http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4895e/i4895e09.pdf

IPCC 2019. 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas

Inventories. Available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/2019-refinement-to-the-2006-ipcc-

guidelines-for-national-greenhouse-gas-inventories/.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 2020. Greenhouse gas inventory data – Detailed data by party. Available at https://di.unfccc.int/detailed_data_by_party.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 2020. National inventory submissions, 2019. Available at https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/transparency-and-reporting/reporting-and-review-under-the-convention/greenhouse-gas-inventories-annex-i-parties/national-inventory-submissions-2019.FAO 2020. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, Desk Reference. Food and Agriculture of the United Nations, Rome. Available at http://www.fao.org/forestry/fra/fra2020/en/

FAOSTAT domain Forests. Metadata release May 2021

Tubiello, F. N., Conchedda, G., Wanner, N., Federici, S., Rossi, S., and Grassi, G. 2021. Carbon Emissions and Removals by Forests. New Estimates 1990–2020, 1–21, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2020-203.

Data Collection Method

Computed from input data of the FRA 2020

Completeness 100%

Useful links http://www.fao.org/food-agriculture-statistics/statistical-domains/environment/en/ http://www.fao.org/forestry/fra/fra2020/en/ http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/ https://unfccc.int

Distribution Information:

Owner FAO

Provider FAO

Source FAO

Copyright Policy FAOSTAT is part of the FAO corporate statistical databases in scope of the FAO Open Data Licensing Policy. Terms and conditions of FAOSTAT data policy are available at: http://www.fao.org/contact-us/terms/en/

Citation FAO, 2021. FAOSTATC Climate Change, Emissions, Fires. FAO, Rome Italy. Available at http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/GF

Acknowledgements The FAOSTAT Emissions database is developed and maintained by the FAO Statistics Division. It was originally produced with support to FAO from Norway and Germany

under Trust Funds GCP/GLO/286/GER and GCP/GLO/325/NOR. Support by UNFCCC in information sharing and facilitation of data access is also graciously acknowledged.