Biomass carbon storage and its sequestration potential of afforestation under natural forest protection program in China

Based on the data from China’s Seventh Forest Inventory for the period of 2004–2008, area and stand volume of different types and age-classes of plantation were used to establish the relationship between biomass density and age of planted forests in different regions of the country. Combined with the plantation area in the first-stage of the Natural Forest Protection (NFP) program (1998–2010), this study calculated the biomass carbon storage of the afforestation in the first-stage of the program. On this basis, the carbon sequestration potential of these forests was estimated for the second stage of the program (2011–2020). Biomass carbon storage of plantation established in the first stage of the program was 33.67 Tg C, which was majority accounted by protection forests (30.26 Tg C). There was a significant difference among carbon storage in different regions, which depended on the relationship of biomass carbon density, forest age and plantation area. Under the natural growth, the carbon storage was forecasted to increase annually from 2011 to 2020, reaching 96.03 Tg C at the end of the second-stage of the program in 2020. The annual growth of the carbon storage was forecasted to be 6.24 Tg C/yr, which suggested that NFP program has a significant potential for enhancing carbon sequestration in plantation forests under its domain.