Loss of forest carbon sequestration capacity 1990-2020

This graph uses data from the Province of BC’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory. It shows that the capacity of BC forests to sequester carbon from the atmosphere held steady at about 90 megatonnes per year through the 1990s but began to drop rapidly in about 1999. In 2018 and 2019 net carbon sequestration was below zero. This annual loss in carbon sequestration capacity is larger than BC’s official account of its non-forest-related carbon emissions. Restoration of this ability of BC forests to absorb carbon emissions would occur naturally if the cut in BC was lowered to the level needed to meet BC’s own needs for wood products.

The forest industry and the ministry of forests claim that the Mountain Pine Beetle and forest fires are responsible for the large loss of volume from BC forests during this time. They neglect to include logging, which the ministry’s own data shows accounted for about 60 percent of all volume lost during this period of decline.