Monetary Valuation of Carbon Storage of the Forests: A Case of the Örümcek Forest in Turkey

Global climate change has become more important than ever in last decades. Increased concentration of greenhouse gases (e.g. methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, etc.) in the atmosphere is considered as the primary cause of global warming which impacts and changes the global climate. Among the greenhouse gases, the effect of carbon dioxide (CO2) on global warming is significantly higher than any other greenhouse gases mainly due to its abundance in the atmosphere. It has been determined by the international global climate organizations that the most effective way to combat climate change is to reduce the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Forests as terrestrial ecosystems have an important role in the storage of CO2. In recent decades, the importance of the carbon storage capacity of the forests has been increasing regarding with economic value of carbon storage function. Therefore, the monetary valuation of the carbon stored by the forests has become an extremely important issue. In this study, it was aimed to calculate the carbon storage capacity of a sample forest and estimate its economic value. The study was implemented in Orumcek Forest Enterprise Chief (FEC) located in the city of Gumushane in Turkey. The amount of carbon storage was calculated by using the allometric carbon models previously developed for tree species exist in the study area. Then, the economic value of carbon storage was estimated based on the amount of forest products extracted from the FEC between 2005 and 2017, the unit sale prices of the products, and total costs of associated activities over the years. The results indicated that the economic value of carbon stored by the forests was found to be 40.2 TRY per ton. Even though this value cannot be generalized and it is valid specifically for the forest and economic conditions in Orumcek FEC, the results in general highlight the significance of the carbon storage capacity of the forests in terms of their economic assess, which is important for the forestry sector in many countries as well as in Turkey.