title: Boreal forests can have a remarkable role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions locally: Land use-related and anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and sinks at the municipal level.
abstract: Ecosystem services have become an important concept in policy-making. Carbon (C) sequestration into ecosystems is a significant ecosystem service, whereas C losses can be considered as an ecosystem disservice. Municipalities are in a position to make decisions that affect local emissions and therefore are important when considering greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. Integrated estimations of fluxes at a regional level help local authorities to develop land use policies for minimising GHG emissions and maximising C sinks. In this study, the Finnish national GHG accounting system is modified and applied at the municipal level by combining emissions and sinks from agricultural land, forest areas, water bodies and mires (land use-related GHG emissions) with emissions from activities such as energy production and traffic (anthropogenic GHG emissions) into the LUONNIKAS calculation tool. The study area consists of 14 municipalities within the Vanajavesi catchment area located in Southern Finland. In these municipalities, croplands, peat extraction sites, water bodies and undrained mires are emission sources, whereas forests are large carbon sinks that turn the land use-related GHG budget negative, resulting in C sequestration into the ecosystem. The annual land use-related sink in the study area was 78tCO2eqkm(-2) and 2.8tCO2eq per capita. Annual anthropogenic GHG emissions from the area amounted to 250tCO2eqkm(-2) and 9.2tCO2eq per capita. Since forests are a significant carbon sink and the efficiency of this sink is heavily affected by forest management practices, forest management policy is a key contributing factor for mitigating municipal GHG emissions.
authors.affiliation: Finnish Environment Institute, Natural Environment Centre, P.O. Box 140, Mechelininkatu 34 a, FI-00251 Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: pekka.vanhala@ymparisto.fi.
authors.forename: Pekka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vanhala
authors.affiliation: Finnish Environment Institute, Natural Environment Centre, P.O. Box 140, Mechelininkatu 34 a, FI-00251 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bergström
authors.affiliation: University of Helsinki, Department of Environmental Sciences, P.O. Box 65, Viikinkaari 1, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Tiina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Haaspuro
authors.affiliation: Finnish Environment Institute, Natural Environment Centre, P.O. Box 140, Mechelininkatu 34 a, FI-00251 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Pirkko
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kortelainen
authors.affiliation: Finnish Environment Institute, Natural Environment Centre, P.O. Box 140, Mechelininkatu 34 a, FI-00251 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Holmberg
authors.affiliation: Finnish Environment Institute, Natural Environment Centre, P.O. Box 140, Mechelininkatu 34 a, FI-00251 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Forsius
keywords: CO(2); Carbon sequestration; Ecosystem services; Greenhouse gases; Municipalities