Abstract
There is a possibility that the issues of climate change experienced across the globe will have a significant impact on the forest ecosystem. The situation is worse where the timber sales plants do have plants for carbon sequencing. If the companies operate without taking into consideration the levels of carbon in the atmosphere, there is a possibility that issues of climate change will not be successfully handled. Successful carbon sequencing can only be achieved where there is consideration of the changes in the climate changes, companies especially those in Timber sales will be in a position to implement carbon sequencing successfully. Capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere will only be successful in a situation where there is a precise examination of the tools available for adoption, the opportunity costs associated with choosing to store forests for carbon absorption and the analysis of the possible alternatives for implementing carbon sequestration. In the current situation, very few timber sales have identified approaches they need to use to reduce the effects of deforestation, but there is still a large number of forest owners who do not have any idea regarding carbon sequestration. Successful implementation of carbon required a management plan that helps landowners and foresters to account and assess the amount of carbon stored by trees in a particular region.
Introduction
There is an increasing concern about the increased concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Scientists suggest that increased carbon in the atmosphere originates from the burning of fossil fuels in energy production such as gas, fuel, and coal. There is also an increased of carbon emission from the transportation sector as cars and planes use fuels creating pollution to the environment. Since carbon is believed to be the source of climate change experienced in the world, there is an increasing concern at the state, regional, and the international level to find mechanisms for reducing the effects of reducing these emissions ( Sommer & Bossio, 2014) .
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Similarly, organizations especially the timber sales are increasingly developing strategies that help in addressing the problem. Policymakers suggest that companies can achieve the set objectives by either divining strategies capable of reducing the rate of carbon emissions or removing the amount of carbon present in the atmosphere. The objective of the paper is to examine the challenges faced by timber sales that need to implement carbon sequestration thus coming up with a strategic plan on how Neiman timber can address these difficulties for successful implementation of the carbon sequestration approach.
Problem statement
Despite the existing commitment by private and public firms to mitigate climate change by reducing or absorbing carbon present in the atmosphere, it is evident that most timber enterprises have not successfully implemented viable mechanisms for addressing this problem. This information indicates that though scholars have presented much about carbon cycles in forests, there is still much that needs to be studied. For instance, the existing theories about carbon absorption indicate that existing forests are absorbing more carbon than they can release thus making it difficult for timber companies to achieve the set objectives. Some organizations do not even recognize the importance of incorporating carbon to be part of their overall management plan. As a result, the effort for mitigating climate change through carbon sequential is not clear to many companies. Several timber plants such as Neiman do not understand the mechanisms for calculating the volume of carbon that is present in their forests and the opportunity costs for choosing to keep the trees to continue storing carbon. This information shows that a lot needs to be done to help companies in understanding the costs, preliminary workers and the viable mechanisms they can implement to reduce the effects of carbon accumulation in the atmosphere.
Literature Review
The existing literature has provided useful information regarding the extent to which organizations can apply viable mechanisms in addressing reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere which is responsible for the increased level of climate change witnessed in the world. For example, Barnes (2010) provides adequate information about the strategies that organizations need to apply to make carbon part of their overall management plan. In this article, Barnes limits the carbon sequestration rotation age of the forest and converting low productive forests to high productive ones. Barnes also gives insight regarding the procedures that people can calculate the amount of forest in the atmosphere and preliminary considerations that they need to follow when making decisions about their carbon-storing forests. This article provides an answer to one of the biggest worries regarding carbon sequestration in the timber sales.
Goetz et al., (2013) “Forest Management for timer and Carbon Sequestration in the presence of climate change: The case of Pinus Sylvestris” by Goe provides information regarding the reasons behind the increased demand to measure carbon in thus providing applicable mechanisms for measuring these carbon present in the forests. The information presented in this article is applicable in various timber sales companies such as Neiman. Companies can use this information to try to figure out tits applicability because the plan is set for tree farms but not for the wild forest.
In one of the articles, how much carbon have your trees stored? Case study for Alabama forest commission, there an expression of the methods that landowners and foresters can use to measure the amount of carbon stored in their forest. Though people may know the approaches that they need to use to maximize the rate at which their trees absorb carbon, many people and organizations do understand the mechanisms that they need to use to determine the capacity of carbon the plants can hold in the entire life. The suggestion is that there is a need for reducing the problem for the imbalance between the carbon in the atmosphere and that stored in the forest.
This article solves one of the key fundamental reasons for conducting the research. Several timber organizations find it difficult to implement carbon sequestration simply because they face challenges in estimating their trees ability to store carbon and the time the can take to effectively carbon available in the atmosphere. The effectiveness of implementing carbon-reducing strategies also depends on the ability of a landowner or foresters to directly measure the carbon equivalent in the in trees in specific sites. However, the approach can be accessed by examining the amounts of carbon emitted from sawmill companies and the effects they are likely to have on the environment.
It is surprising that the USDA Forest Service does not have adequate information related to carbon sequestration ( Wear & Greis, 2002) . As a result, the timber forest has not implemented any mechanism to ensure that there is a viable mechanism for reducing the effects of climate change resulting from carbon emission. The article presented a starting point for understanding the reasons as to why many timber companies and forest owners do not implement strategies for absorbing the carbon that is present in the atmosphere.
The source, “Carbon Sequestration: Managing forests in uncertain times” by Bellassen & Luyssaert, (2014) gives the effects of climate change on the level of carbon stored in forests. In this case, the interest is on understanding the various ways in which uncertainties such storm, drought, wildfires, and infestations have on forests and the possible effects they are likely to cause in carbon stored in trees. In situations where any of the events occur, there is a possibility that a large amount of carbon is lost to the atmosphere. This article gives an insight of the factors that need to be considered when evaluating the factors that determine the decisions considered when making decisions regarding the operation of whether to cut tree or live them to absorb more carbon. However, the article a shortcoming in that it does not provide adequate information on the applicable strategies for reducing these effects.
According to Birdsey et al., (2006), AcForest management options for Carbon sequestration: Consideration in the Eastern U.S gives information related to the management options for sequestration with regard the wood in the United States. The information provided in this article covers a variety of aspects such as the activities that timber and forest owners need to follow in an attempt of implementing carbon sequestration approach. At a point, the author acknowledges the importance of increasing the area under land by evaluating the benefits associated with avoiding deforestation especially in the eastern part of the United States. In this case, Birdsey analyses the effects of deforestation and increased agricultural activities on carbon stocks and uptake. This article appears to answer some of the questions in the research as they provide a comparison between the effects of forestation and deforestation on the level of carbon intake and stock thus providing a hint about the weakness and opportunities in implementing carbon sequestration in timber sales plants.
In the 2016 Greenhouse Gar Report, there is a presentation of critical tools that forest owners can use when assessing, measuring, and managing carbon cycles. In this case, there is recognition of the essential roles that forests both private, public, national forests play in balancing the ecosystem. The central idea is that without forests, it would be difficult to mitigate climate change experienced in the world. Forests and woods are becoming essential tools for taking and storing carbon emitted from factories especially in the industrial period of the increased rate for green gas emissions. The information is based on the implementation of the calculation tool toolbox used to assist in measuring the quantity of carbon that timber and forest owners can apply in measuring the amount of carbon stored in their wood and trees.
Similarly, there is an existing investigative study in the United States that helps timber sales with the adequate information required in carbon inventory, management, and reporting of carbon information in the forests. This information analyses various scientific discoveries that have contributed to identifying carbon calculation tools. One of the challenges that the paper has to address is the identification of tools that can be applied in providing an accurate assessment of the amount of carbon stored in the forests. The tools have used on many occasions especially on the US forest services. The information provided by the US scientists provide insight into the tools available for providing a successful contingency plan for implementing carbon sequestration in the timber industry.
Objective thesis and statement
The existing literature reveals that there are several ways through which carbon can be released without cutting the trees and disturbing soil. The primary objective of the research is to establish a single management plan that can be applied in more than one regions or one forest and suggest it for application in Neiman private forestry. Based on the literature review, the proposed research focuses on examining the different available management plans and assesses their effects on carbon sequestration. This idea originates from the fact that each of the forester and landowners has their approaches depending on the region and area of location. Since the goal of the research is to establish a management plan that can be used across all timber sales, there is a need for drawing from different alternatives to come up with a single approach.
Also, some firms have found it challenging to incorporate carbon sequestration in their management plan. As a result, there will focus on examining the spatial and temporal changes, and such scales may affect the choices that landowners may make in implementing carbon sequestration in their operations. This has to do with issues like opportunity cost for choosing to cut trees or leave them for carbon storage as well as the accounting tools to calculating the amount of carbon stored in their forests. Finally, there will be an establishment of a general plan that can be used international by landowners and foresters to implement carbon sequestration in their forest.
Preliminary Work by Neiman Timber
Neiman enterprise Inc. is a family based enterprise that deals with selling and application of timber and forestry related products. Though the company is a private organization, it has been committed to curbing the effects of climate change by embracing a carbon emission reduction strategy. In an attempt of achieving this objective, the enterprise actively participates in Sustainable forest initiative program where the focus is on maintaining and preserving forests for sectors dependent on timber and also public and private companies ( Neiman, 2011). The company commitments are not only dedicated to ensuring that the company experiences its long sustainability goals but also ensuring there is the availability of resources for future generations through the renewable energy approach. This information indicates that Neiman is committed to implementing carbon sequestration by avoiding excessive emissions from the company’s sawmills.
From this view, Neiman focuses on advancing renewable energy to produce value-added products that meet the demand in the market while taking into consideration the benefits that accrue to the environment by maintaining a healthy environment. Despite this commitment, the company’s large-scale operation makes it difficult to sustain renewable energy production, and it is calling for a need to implement a viable approach towards carbon sequestration. Neiman has four stable sawmills operating in different regions. For instance, there is the Devil Tower Forest located in the Hullet which focuses on producing products for window companies. As are since demand is too high, this branch consumes a lot of energy including fossil fuels thus making it difficult to implement effective carbon sequestration by using renewable sources of energy ( Neiman, 2011). There is also the Rushmore branch which produces pine boards and knotty pines. Though Neiman is committed to addressing reducing the amount of emitted to the atmospheres, it the plan appears to be ineffective because the pullet plant is the only renewable source of energy serving the four firms. The saw mill’s production ranges approximately 250 million boards indicating that there are a high rate energy consumption and carbon emission.
Neiman’s operations are committed to achieving green production by ensuring that it meets market demand considering the issue of sustainability. Based on this approach, people and organizations are focusing on acquiring construction materials from Neiman. In an attempt of maintaining this positive image by embracing carbon sequestration, Neiman focuses on training resource professionals and contractors on the techniques and applicable strategies for achieving sustainability in forests. They try the importance of forest sustainability to foresters and landowners with an objective of reducing the rate of deforestation and encourage afforestation. Through this approach, the public and private timber firms that meet Neiman enterprise understand the principles governing forest sustainability.
The company is committed to engaging in research and identifying new methods that need to be implemented in forestry management. This process involves activities such as bringing new species and protecting endangered ones to prevent the adverse effects that would result from an increased level of carbon accumulation. Since the company cannot achieve the set objective without external input, Neiman engages in discussion with forestry associations, public educators and scientific experts to continue making their carbon sequestration process effective. The primary objective of this approach is to ensure that the company continuously keeps on embracing a clean environment by reducing the number of carbon emissions ( Neiman, 2011). Despite these commitments, Neiman timber enterprise realizes that it is not achieving environment sustainability effectively and there is a need for implementing a more viable approach. They face challenges in identifying approaches. Neiman lacks a contingent plant that will be viable in calculating their forest’s ability to store carbon based on the lifespan of the tree. They, therefore, do not have an approach for determining the appropriate time for tree harvesting and the carbon they are likely to release to the atmosphere whenever they harvest some plants.
Proposal Research program
The opportunity cost for afforestation
Based on research, Neiman forest sustainability program can be strengthened by incorporating carbon sequestration approach in the company. Though the focus of the business to reduce carbon emission through the renewable energy application may reduce some level of carbon available in the atmosphere, it need be strengthened by new ideas about carbon sequestration ( Sommer & Bossio, 2014) . For instance, there is a need for accessing the opportunity costs associated with the conversion of a particular land that is currently used for agricultural activities to afforestation. Neiman is already committed to the implementation of assisting both private and public timber farms about the importance of ensuring sustainable development as they conduct their activities. In some cases, they target farmers who are increasingly clearing land for agricultural activities. For this approach to be effective, Neiman forest should implement the concept of opportunity costs with an objective of assessing the value of planting trees and the benefits for compromising the environment by clearing the trees.
Green tree model
Research has uncovered that the Neiman stands a chance for adopting the model of the Green tree which call for a need of enacting conservation payments to improve the benefits of afforestation projects. In this kind of a business model, Neiman will aim at ensuring that farmers receive all the payments from the Conservation Reserve Program together with future value for the for wood trees which should be harvested after ten years. This model indicates that through national campaigns, the public will be committed to ensuring that they put a particular piece of land that was used for agricultural purposes for tree planting. For the process to be effective, Neiman should compensate the farmers for the revenue they would receive by planting crops in the piece of land. The cost of planting should be shared between the company and the farmers. Neiman stands a high chance of implementing this strategy because they focus on attending climate conservation workshops and commit to educating the public about the benefits of forest sustainability.
Pricing
Neiman can apply the percentage of sale carbon price per ton as the appropriate pricing model. In this case, the focus will be on comparing the cost incurred in storing carbon and the benefits that accrue to the enterprise regarding attracting buyers. If the value for crediting carbon appears to be lower than the value of the people attracted to the business, it would be wise for Neiman to adopt mechanisms aiming at attracting aggregators into the scheme. This pricing model appears to be in line with the current practice of the business as it focuses on creating sustainability strategies that cater to the needs of the future generation. For instance, if the price for selling 1 unit of carbon is $0.5 and if it earns the company $10, the pricing point appears to be beneficial to the business.
Improved forest management
Neiman forest can apply the improved forest approach by adopting strategies that are capable of increasing the trees available for carbon storage. For example, the farmer may decide to extend the rotation age of the forest (Craig et al., 2017). This statement indicates that the trees stay a longer period than they were initially entitled to stay in a particular area of land. The primary objective of this increasing age rotation is to ensure that trees increase their capacity to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. This strategy will take between 5 to 10 years after the implementation of the carbon sequestration program. Alternatively, Neiman can seek to evaluate the productive capacity of trees in a particular piece of land and determine their productivity. Based on the information, landowners may choose to covert low productive plants to high productive ones. Either of the two strategies is applicable in Neiman because sustainability cannot be achieved with cutting of immature trees or keeping less productive products. The forest owners invest a lot in forest management and improvement plan making the approaches to be the best alternatives for Neiman. Forest improvement approach focuses on ensuring that the plants stored in the forest are beneficial to the landowner.
Measuring carbon in the forest
For effective control and assessment of the extent to which Neiman attempts to reduce the effects of climate change, there should be an establishment of mechanisms for measuring the carbon in the forest. The value of the carbon can be measured by assessing the volume of the forest. Neiman can follow the following six basic steps to ensure that they assess the correct value of carbon stored in their trees.
Inventory merchantable Round wood
This step requires the use of traditional inventory approaches to measuring the green tons of round wood biomass. The focus of this approach is usually on the pulpwood and saw timber. Here Neiman will be interested in measuring the main trend or the stem without the inclusion of bark. If the bark is included, the green tons should be multiplied by 0.9to an actual data about the green tones of the wood for each plant. The results obtained will be reported in units, but they can be converted to tons.
Estimate the total tree biomass
The results obtained in the first step may produce less biomass because biomass found on round wood is significantly less than that in the entire tree. When estimating the amount of carbon in a particular tree, it critical to consider the amount stored in the limbs and tree tops. The results obtained from step 1 can be multiplied by a converting factor to identify the total biomass of the entire crop.
Convert from green tons to dry tons
The green tons obtained from the previous steps should be converted to dry tons by multiplying with the applicable gravity factor for each of the softwood, hardwood, and average.
Covert carbon to carbon equivalent
The data obtained for the dry carbon need to be multiplied by 0.5 to measure the weight of the entire tree that has comparable sequestrated carbon.
The last step involves the conversion of the short tons results to metric tons. The data obtained from the application of the above scientific tools will be used for trading carbon which applies the metric tons ( Arnette, 2017) . Based on this information, Neiman will have a true value of the carbon stored in their trees thus providing a precise way for deciding regarding when to rotate the trees and the appropriate time to harvest.
Risks
Despite the set plans for Neiman timber, the anticipated benefits are not guaranteed beyond the importance of helping members to reduce carbon risks, Neiman must review the environmental impact of afforestation.
Economic befits to farmers are not clear. There may be unpredictable costs for planting forests. The real value of substituting the crops grown on a particular piece of land may exceed the benefits
Contingent Plans
Insurance plan potential whereby the timber company can seek to insure monetary losses resulting from risk of non-delivery or production of carbon credits in a finance carbon credit delivery environmental insurance companies.
References
Albanma forest commission repor. How much carbon have your trees stored? Carbon Sequestration. Retrived from:www.forestry.alabama.gov/HowMuchCarbonHaveYourTreesStored.aspx?bv=5&s=0
Arnette, A. N. (2017). Renewable energy and carbon capture and sequestration for a reduced carbon energy plan: An optimization model. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews , 70 , 254-265.
Barnes M., (2010). Management Plan Guidance supplement for Carbon Sequestration. Retrieved from: https://www.treefarmsystem.org/stuff/contentmgr/files/1/e87c10ae501b96584727faebed3bac5f/misc/management_plan_supplement_for_carbon_sequestration_final.pdf
Bellassen, V., & Luyssaert, S. (2014). Carbon sequestration: Managing forests in uncertain times. Nature News , 506 (7487), 153. Retrieved from: https://www.nature.com/news/carbon-sequestration-managing-forests-in-uncertain-times-1.14687
Craig, M. T., Jaramillo, P., Zhai, H., & Klima, K. (2017). The economic merits of flexible carbon capture and sequestration as a compliance strategy with the Clean Power Plan. Environmental science & technology , 51 (3), 1102-1109.
Goetz, R. U., Hritonenko, N., Mur, R., Xabadia, À., & Yatsenko, Y. (2013). Forest management for timber and carbon sequestration in the presence of climate change: The case of Pinus Sylvestris. Ecological Economics , 88 , 86-96.
Greenhouse Gas Report (2016). U.S Forest Service. Caring for the Land and Serving people. Retrieved from : https://www.fs.fed.us/managing-land/sc/carbon
Neiman, J. D. (2011). Vice President and CEO Neiman Enterprises, Inc. Testimony on “The Impact of the Mountain Pine Beetle Epidemic in the Black Hills” July 10, 2011.
R., Pregitzer, K., & Lucier, A. (2006). Forest carbon management in the United States. Journal of environmental quality , 35 (4), 1461-1469.
Sommer, R., & Bossio, D. (2014). Dynamics and climate change mitigation potential of soil organic carbon sequestration. Journal of environmental management , 144 , 83-87.
Sommer, R., & Bossio, D. (2014). Dynamics and climate change mitigation potential of soil organic carbon sequestration. Journal of environmental management , 144 , 83-87.
Wear, D. N., & Greis, J. G. (2002). Southern forest resource assessment-technical report. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-53. Asheville, NC: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 635 p. , 53 .
