LOT Polish Airlines will support an innovative project on counteracting the adverse effects of climate change implemented by State Forests.
The experimental program covers selected areas in 23 State Forest Districts all over Poland. As part of CFP, foresters will conduct there the so-called additional activities, that is, plant more fast-growing species, introduce the second story of trees and the understory, increase the share of natural regeneration and planting with the Sobanski method.
It’s a pilot phase which is accompanied by wide-ranging scientific research. Scientists calculate that within 30 years, each hectare of forest currently covered by the CFP will absorb additional 37 tonnes of CO2 – in total, 1 million tonnes more than what they would absorb without the conducting the said activities.
The assumptions and anticipated effects of the undertaking aims at increasing the amount of carbon dioxide captured and stored by forests were presented during the international climate conference COP24 in Katowice and attracted a lot of interest.
“We respond to the challenges which are today of concern of the entire world. Climate change caused, among others, by greenhouse gases, including CO2, affect forests, as well: trees suffer from ever more frequent droughts and rapid natural disasters. Therefore, we should reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere simultaneously reducing the emissions of the gas and increasing its absorption. In the latter, the role of forests is clear, as they naturally absorb CO2 during photosynthesis,” says Andrzej Konieczny, CEO of State Forests.
He adds: “The CFP assumes that by modifying the standard sustainable forest management, we can make the given fragment of a forest absorb even more CO2 than it already does. Considering the number of forests we have in Poland, and the fact that it is continuously growing, such activities applied at a larger scale could positively influence the general carbon balance.”