Fri, Mar 14, 2025 page3

• Ministry unveils forest carbon sink regulations

  GREEN CARBON: While nature-based carbon sinks cannot substitute for deep decarbonization, they can absorb carbon dioxide and partially offset emissions

  • By Esme Yeh / Staff reporter
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  The Ministry of Environment on Tuesday announced four ways for the forestry industry to generate greenhouse gas emission reduction credits based on the type of forest.

  Forest carbon sinks, or green carbon, refers to carbon dioxide transferred from the atmosphere and stored in timber, roots or forest products, the ministry said.

  Such nature-based carbon sinks have been listed as one of the 12 critical strategies to meet net zero emissions by 2050, it said.

  

  A forest in Hsinchu County is pictured on Feb. 4.

  Photo: Liao Hsueh-ju, Taipei Times

  While nature-based carbon sinks cannot substitute for deep decarbonization, which requires industries to work toward zero emissions, they can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and partially offset carbon emissions from industries where decarbonization is particularly difficult, the ministry said.

  To help companies in the forestry industry earn emission credits, the ministry compiled four practical approaches that had been approved from the end of last year to this month.

  For afforestation on non-forest land, the afforestation cannot result in agricultural activities being relocated and must have an adjoining area of more than 0.5 hectares, the ministry said.

  To apply for a project to boost carbon sinks for forest land with poor carbon sequestration capacity, the land must be covered by wood, exclusive of brushwood and bamboo groves, over the past 20 years and have had no commercial logging, it said.

  Selection cutting would be the only logging operation allowed for forest land with poor carbon sequestration capacity to increase the growing stock of the forest at the initial stage of the project, but the forest products yielded would not be counted as part of carbon storage, the ministry said.

  If the land has already been covered by a legitimate forest as required by law, it can apply for a emissions credit project to increase the carbon sequestration rate, as well as include its forest products such as logs or lumber as carbon sinks, it said.

  However, short-life-cycle products, such as paper products or wood chips, cannot be counted as part of carbon storage, it added.

  For bamboo forests, bamboo products like rods can be counted as green carbon if the land has been used to grow bamboo groves in an area of more than 0.1 hectares over the past five years, the ministry said.

  Bamboo sprouts or products with a life of fewer than five years, such as bamboo shoots, bamboo chopsticks or bamboo products for agricultural use, cannot be included as part of the carbon sink, it said.

  The rules for bamboo forests are different from other types of forest due to its special growing conditions, environment and purposes, it added.

  Greenhouse gas emissions reduction credits would not be granted just because a company has applied to grow a forest on its land, the ministry said.

  Applicants must prove they have made an effort to meet the requirements of voluntary emissions reduction, while carbon emissions from the transportation of saplings and timber, planting, mowing or logging would also be included in the calculation, it said.
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