More Than Trees: Why Punjab Must Measure Forest Carbon Storage

A forest is more than the green we see

There is more to a forest than just greenery. The first thing you notice when you stand next to a forest is its lush cover. The carbon contained within is more difficult to see. A living tree absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it in its roots, trunk, branches, and leaves. Dead organic matter and forest soils also store some carbon. This is significant for Punjab because forests only make up a small portion of the province, which is always under pressure from infrastructure, settlements, and agriculture.

1.58 million acres of public-sector forest resources, or roughly 3.1% of the province’s total area, are reported by the Punjab Forest Department. Irrigated plantations, riverine forests, scrub forests, rangelands, and coniferous forests are some of these resources. However, the number by itself doesn’t provide much information about the true amount of carbon stored in those trees.

The question Punjab should start asking

For decades, Punjab has been spending resources on forest plantation and restoration. However, the relevant concern now should not be just the area covered by tree planting. The big question is: how much carbon is being stored by the plantations, where it’s located, and whether it is growing or decreasing in volume?

The importance of this change is that numbers of planted trees can hide what happens post-planting. Only if the sapling survives and keeps growing does it continue to absorb and store carbon. Moreover, according to the Forest Department, tree planting does not necessitate the expansion of forest land because the land may undergo anthropogenic influences as well.

Different forests, different carbon stories

In a study published in 2023, subtropical chir pine forests were compared in their natural state and in plantations with the help of direct measurements in the field and satellite data retrieved from Sentinel-2. Biomass of naturally occurring forests was 79.54 megagrams per hectare as opposed to that of plantations that was found to be 94.48 megagrams per hectare. The investigation also estimated below-ground biomass in natural forests and plantations on the level of 20.68 and 24.56 megagrams per hectare, respectively. Furthermore, establishing a relationship between carbon biomass and indices calculated through satellite data could be regarded as another useful result of the study.

This distinction is particularly important when it comes to Punjab’s policies regarding the restoration and conservation of forests and carbon benefits.

Punjab already has the tools to measure change

Punjab has the edge here because the provincial Forest Department has set up its GIS laboratory for digital documentation of forests and to facilitate planning, monitoring, and evaluation work. The lab uses remote sensing, image classification and vegetation indices for forest cover quantification and has set up a centralized data system along with a web-based Forest Management Information System.

In recent times, the department has expanded on the GIS-based approach by running a protection programme that does satellite- and drone-based forest cover change detection for about 1.06 million acres, biomass measurement using LiDAR at 20 forest sites, and experiments for AI-based forest fire detection.

From counting trees to following carbon

Punjab doesn’t need to give up its plantation goals. It has to add an extra layer of monitoring. The forestry initiatives may regularly monitor:

• if the saplings survive after two or three years of planting;

• changes in canopy coverage and the state of the forest based on the data taken from space;

• biomass and carbon at selected monitoring points;

• areas where forests are losing, regaining, or changing in nature;

• biodiversity, water, and soil gains along with carbon storage.

There is already a reason to make this shift

Current forestry projects in Punjab indicate that carbon has been factored into forestry.  CM’s Plant for Pakistan project covers 50,869 acres and is estimated to absorb approximately 60 million tonnes of carbon over its life cycle.

These goals are useful but are hardly of any value without transparent monitoring. A map indicating which areas have changed regarding forest cover, with the help of field measurements of biomass values, is much more informative than a number of trees planted in a forest.

The value of a forest is bigger than its carbon number

Carbon should not be the sole reason for conserving forests in Punjab. Besides providing habitats, forests are key to controlling soil erosion, regulating water, supporting livelihoods, and providing recreational opportunities. The Punjab Forest Policy acknowledges all these functions, especially that of the coniferous forests regarding water and soil erosion control.

At the same time, carbon provides another concrete tool to evaluate the value of forests in Punjab with regard to climate change. In Punjab, there are already forests, tree planting programmes and advanced geospatial data-processing capabilities. What is left is to connect all these elements in a systematic manner. If Punjab monitors the presence of its forests, their health, and the amount of carbon they store, the management of forests will shift from plantation counting to obtaining results.