Assessing the possible risks of including the reserved forests in national reporting under the UN Convention on climate change

An assessment of the risks of including the reserved forests in managed forest land for the Russian Federation National Inventory Report of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol is given. The principles and criteria for identifying the managed forests that applied in the preparation of national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories around the world and in Russia are reviewed. Long-term trends in carbon stocks, carbon absorption, carbon losses and carbon balance of reserved forest are presented. A comparative assessment of the annual carbon losses in the biomass of reserved forests caused by fire mortality with those in protective and exploitable forests named as managed forests has been made. Confirmed by calculations that, given the current level of fire emissions and the absence of losses from timber harvesting, inclusion of reserved forests in the National GHG Inventory will increase the estimate of carbon stock in forest biomass by 17%, annual absorption by 13%, and net carbon sequestration of forest biomass in total by 13%.