Sub-Component 1.2: Forest Carbon Stocks: Measuring,Monitoring and Capacity-Building
The main objectives of this sub-component are to develop, test, and pilot systems for measuring and monitoring forest carbon stocks, and to build the capacity of State Forest Departments for measurement and monitoring of carbon stocks.
Baseline reports on forest carbon stocks of ESIP areas of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have been prepared and published. The baseline total carbon stocks for the year 2019 have been estimated to be 11,72,639.59 tonnes for the ESIP areas of Madhya Pradesh and 12,23,310.56 tonnes for the ESIP areas of Chhattisgarh. Forest areas under ESIP has potential to sequester more carbon as maximum trees are young, which can build biomass in the subsequent years and therefore store the carbon in biomass.
Forests play key role in mitigating climate change through sequestrating atmospheric carbon dioxide. An accurate measurement of carbon fluxes of forest ecosystems across regions is needed to understand the interaction between terrestrial carbon and the atmosphere. The carbon flux tower directly measures the carbon, water, and heat flux in forest and atmosphere across spatial and temporal variability. Carbon flux towers are employed to study carbon cycling of forest ecosystem and will be helpful in suggesting suitable strategies for sustainable management of forests by providing information on seasonal dynamics and inter-annual variation of net ecosystem exchange.
Two eddy covariance/ carbon flux towers with 42-meter height have been installed in the states of Madhya Pradesh (Khatpura Beat, Budhni Forest Range, Sehore Forest Division) and Chhattisgarh (Sonhat Beat, Raghunathnagar Forest Range, Balrampur Forest Division) for measuring the carbon fluxes of forests. The eddy covariance/ carbon flux towers are equipped with operational fast sensor Infrared gas analyzer with 3-D sonic anemometer which serves as components of eddy covariance flux tower. The other complementary meteorological sensors measuring air temperature and relative humidity, net radiation, photosynthetically active radiation, soil heat flux, soil moisture and temperature, wind speed and direction are also installed which helps in flux calculations and biogeochemical dynamics.
Eddy covariance technique provides the continuous measurement of the exchange rate of carbon dioxide across the interface between the atmosphere and vegetation by measuring the covariance between fluctuating vertical wind velocity and carbon dioxide mixing ratio. This technique directly measures the carbon, water, and heat flux in plant communities and atmosphere across a varied spectrum of times scales, ranging from half-hourly, daily to yearly scales sampling larger area. This is employed to study carbon cycling of the forest ecosystem and facilitate policy-oriented decisions and suggest strategies for sustainable forest management by providing information on seasonal dynamics and inter-annual variation of net ecosystem exchange.
Capacity of the State Forest Departments and Joint Forest Management Committees of Madhya Prdeash and Chhattisgarh on measurement of forest carbon stocks are being built under ESIP.