ИСТИНА

In the context of the Paris Agreement, the problem of objective and complete accounting of the carbon sink in Russia’s forests is of a great importance. The agreement gives a reason for revising practices and improving assessments of carbon sink and carbon balance in Russia’s forests. According to Global Forest Resource Assessment FAO UN (2015), the area of Russian forests has reached 20% total forest area of the world. Forests cover 67% of the territory of the Russian Federation and are important for stabilizing climate in the country, as well as on the planet. The latest National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report under the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and the Kyoto Protocol (2017) underestimate the carbon sink in Russian forests. The upgraded methodology of calculating the sequestration capacity of Russian forests has been developed and discussed. GIS support of the methodology contributed to: 1. More accurate localization of the accounting categories of inventory; 2. Stratification of forests and forest management units, according to the forest site-growth conditions; 3. Differentiate the biomass expansion factor for the conversion of merchantable stock volume to aboveground tree biomass and other parameters of calculations depending on forest stratification. All operations performed by ArcGIS due to the available functionality and geospatial data analysis. More accurate localization of accounting categories, rethinking and expansion of the list of categories being a subject of accounting, stratification of forests and forest management units, the elimination of methodological ambiguities give a more objective assessment of the Russian forest carbon sink. New assessment with upgraded methodology following the IPCC and based on State Forest Register data for 2015 Net Ecosystem Production (NEP) of the Russian forests is about 630±110 million tons С/year including about 140 million tons C/year accumulated in dead biomass. According to our research, a total gain of carbon sink compared to latest National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report would be about 340 million tons C/year. The results of carbon accumulation and carbon balance assessments presented on the maps.