Heilongjiang actively promotes forestry carbon sink trading, and air "cashes" Lin Haisheng gold

The trees are towering and the forest sea is vast, stretching for thousands of miles. The forests of the Great and Small Xing 'an Mountains contain precious ecological resources. In recent years, Heilongjiang Province has actively promoted forestry carbon sink trading, promoting the realization of the value of ecological products through measures such as establishing a standard system and adopting remote sensing technology, turning the "carbon pool" into a "money pool", and promoting positive interaction between ecological protection and economic development.

"Did you hear? The air in our forest sold for nearly 1 million yuan!" When mentioning the "rare incident" in the Huanan Forest Area of Longjiang Forest Industry Area in Heilongjiang Province, ranger Yu Hongbo still has a deep memory."I have only seen that cutting down trees can sell money, but I didn't expect to make money by relying on 'breathing' in the forest."

The forest area of Heilongjiang Province is 20.12 million hectares, accounting for 8.7% of my country's forest area. The carbon reserves of the forest ecosystem are about 5.7 billion tons. The economic value of developing forestry carbon sinks is huge.

Establish a standard system to collect carbon sink data

In August, the reporter came to Xiaogenhe Forest Farm of the Forestry Bureau of the 18th Station of Daxinganling Forestry Group Company, and his eyes were full of green.

"DBH is 52 cm, no pests and diseases, and the growth is excellent." Chen Qiming, a staff member of the carbon sink project, introduced while collecting data at the afforestation site that this sample plot is different from other plots. The mixed planting of willow and Korean pine grows better and can absorb more carbon dioxide.

"We need to select 1 or 2 forest management models with large carbon sink increments and establish a carbon sink standard system." Zhang Zhiguo, director of the Improved Seed Base of Xiaogenhe Forest Farm, took over. After being included in the provincial forest carbon sink pilot project, the forest farm set up 30 sample plots and explored the best path to realize the value of forestry carbon sinks by trying multiple forest management models.

The carbon sequestration capabilities of different regions, different tree species, and different forests vary. To accurately calculate the carbon sequestration capabilities of forests, it is inseparable from the support of scientific standard systems.

At present, Heilongjiang Province has formed a forestry carbon sink standard system framework, including a total of 41 standards in the basic category, technology category and management category, covering all aspects such as sample site selection and future prediction. It is planned that by 2026, the forestry carbon sink standard system in Heilongjiang Province will be basically established, and the carbon sink measurement technology will be more standardized; by 2030, the forestry carbon sink standard system will be further improved, and the carbon sink measurement technology and management level will be significantly improved.

If the standard system is an operation manual for obtaining data and methodology is a conversion formula between data, then how to easily summarize and visually display the data? The "One Map" of forestry carbon sinks from the Forestry Carbon Sink Service Center of Heilongjiang Province gives the answer.

"This map collects various information such as forest carbon reserves, forest carbon sinks, and forestry carbon sink resources in the province, providing data support for the development and management of forestry carbon sink projects." The service center commentator randomly clicks on a developed carbon sink project on the map, and the forest farm forest class, land type name, dominant tree species, tree canopy density and other contents are displayed on the screen.

The "One Map" of forestry carbon sinks assists the aggregation of carbon sink resource data and promotes carbon sink project development, approval and verification, and emission reduction trading by integrating multiple functions such as data filling, data management, carbon sink calculation and display.

"The 'One Map' of forestry carbon sinks provides us with scientific and efficient management tools to help us find out what we have." Cao Guangjun, a technician at the service center, said,"It was a lot of effort before. First, we had to go to the forest area to collect afforestation certification documents, verify afforestation plots, time and other information, and then follow the forest survey and design team to inspect the afforestation site, then form a basic data table, and finally divide the carbon layer according to afforestation time and forest stand type. In the past, it took at least a month to integrate relevant data from a forest area, but now you can output it with one click of your finger."

Using remote sensing technology,Efficient monitoring

"Before entering the transaction stage, it also needs to be verified by a third-party review agency designated by the state." Hu Die, a technician at Heilongjiang Forest Industry Carbon Assets Investment and Development Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Forest Industry Carbon Assets Company"), told reporters,"This involves project monitoring."

In traditional project monitoring, the calculation and evaluation of emission reductions from afforestation projects often rely on the manual method of measuring each tree, that is, investigators manually measure the trees in the sample plot one by one, including key parameters such as breast height and tree height. Investigators have to carry monitoring instruments weighing dozens of kilograms into deep mountains and forests, which takes half a month for each operation. Some places are not only difficult to walk, but also face the risk of harassment by wild animals.

Traditional methods not only require a lot of manpower, but also take a long time. Take a project involving more than 50 sample plots as an example, which usually requires 5 to 10 investigators and takes 3 to 4 weeks to complete. Due to human factors, data is prone to errors and difficult to trace. "If there is any doubt about the data of a certain tree, the investigators will have to carry the equipment back to the site for measurement." Hu Die said.

Starting from 2022, Forest Industry Carbon Assets Company will cooperate with the China Academy of Forestry Sciences and Northeast Forestry University to introduce remote sensing technology, using a combination of orthophoto images, elevation images, etc. to scientifically monitor fixed sample plots and control plots, and explore Introduce remote sensing technology into the carbon sink monitoring system.

"In the past, when we were doing scale conversion projects for forestry carbon sink monitoring, we had tried remote sensing technology and verified its advantages in accuracy and speed in forest parameter extraction and carbon sink calculation." Hu Die said that the technology achieves high-precision three-dimensional scanning of trees by emitting a laser beam and receiving echo signals. By processing these scan data, key parameters such as DBH, tree height, and crown width of trees can be quickly and accurately obtained, and then the carbon sink amount of the sample site can be calculated.

"In the past, when manual monitoring was used, a 400-square-meter sample plot required a whole day for one person. Now, drones are used to carry remote sensing images, which can be completed in 10 minutes, which greatly improves the monitoring efficiency of carbon sink projects." Hu Die said.

Compared with each tree ruler, remote sensing technology not only greatly improves monitoring efficiency and reduces manpower investment, but also because of its high degree of automation and less influence by human factors, the monitored data has higher accuracy and is easier to inspect and compare.

Promote value realization,Replace "green content" with "gold content"

There is a proverb circulating in the vast forest areas of Heilongjiang: you don't need wine to welcome guests in forest areas, but you will be intoxicating when you hold green. This "green" refers to air rich in negative oxygen ions. "Nowadays, good air can also be sold for money!" Sun Liang, general manager of Forest Industry Carbon Assets Company, lamented.

On June 28, 2022, the first online forestry carbon sink standardization transaction in Heilongjiang Province was successfully completed. Industrial Bank Harbin Branch successfully bid online for 15,000 tons of office carbon neutral forestry carbon sinks developed by Forest Industry Carbon Assets Company.

By purchasing carbon sinks generated by forest management in the Huanan Forest Area of Longjiang Forest Industry Area, Industrial Bank Harbin Branch offset the greenhouse gas emissions generated by direct emissions, indirect emissions and other related but indirect activities of 29 outlets. Sun Liang said that this will also provide "reassurance" to the majority of forest workers, and their lives will become more and more prosperous.

In July this year, the launching ceremony of forestry carbon sink trading in Heilongjiang Province was held in Harbin City, marking the completion of the forestry carbon sink trading system in Heilongjiang Province. The first batch of "Longjiang Green Carbon" trading agreements were also signed at the ceremony, totaling 4.285 million yuan.

"Establishing a provincial forestry carbon sink trading system provides a good reference for forestry carbon sink work." Guo Qingjun, a first-level inspector of the Ecological Protection and Restoration Department of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, said.

Li Jian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of Northeast Forestry University, said that developing forestry carbon sink projects will not only help improve forest soil, improve forest stand quality, and optimize the ecological environment, but also make use of good forest ecological resources, increase the supply of ecological products and services, and improve Forest land output rate promotes positive interaction between ecological protection and economic development.

For Heilongjiang forestry employees, through the carbon sink marketization mechanism, the efforts of forestry employees to manage and cultivate forests will be transformed into reasonable economic compensation, driving the economic transformation of forest areas and increasing employee income, and turning the "carbon pool" into a "money pool".

In the vast forest of forests, gold and silver are there.