Source: NCSU, 9/10/21


America has more than 800 million acres of forest and woods, and most of that land is privately owned. A new study finds that economic incentives for landowners to keep their land in productive forests could be a valuable policy tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The findings were drawn from an analysis of the role forestry and agriculture may play in reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers modeled greenhouse gas emissions from the two sectors under five different socio-economic scenarios, including a scenario of high economic growth and fossil fuel dependence, and a scenario focused on sustainability. The researchers also looked at the impact of paying a “carbon price” to incentivize landowners and farmers to store or reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The researchers found that investing in forest management and planting trees on land that wasn’t previously forested accounted for the largest share of greenhouse gas mitigation overall. However, strategies that lowered emissions from agriculture, like storing carbon in crop soils and capturing emissions from livestock systems, played an important role in periods of high economic growth.

“Forestry offered the best bang for your buck across all scenarios,” said the study’s lead author, Chris Wade, a graduate student in forestry and environmental resources at NC State and a research economist at RTI International. “Even in our baseline scenarios, where there’s no carbon emissions mitigation policy, the U.S. forestry sector is remaining a net sink of carbon through mid-century.”

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