Preamble

Introduction

The Swiss Forest Climate Protection Association (WKSS) is committed to promoting the sustainable management and protection of Swiss forests, optimising the forest's carbon storage function as an important measure to mitigate climate change, and preserving or expanding biodiversity. As part of these efforts, an advisory board will be established to ensure and further develop the scientific basis for the association's activities. This preamble sets out the principles, axioms, and guidelines that guide the work of the advisory board.

Ownership and System Boundary

Forest climate protection projects in Switzerland focus on the forest with the forest edge as the system boundary. The Swiss forest is clearly defined by the forest law and property rights. Forest owners are responsible for the sustainable management of their forests and hold the rights to forest products, including the CO2 stored in the forest. These rights include the "Verified Emission Reductions (VER)" for CO2 storage and removal.

Forest Use

Forest use in Switzerland reflects the interests of forest owners as well as the needs of society for forest functions, with the ecosystem function of the forest as a carbon store gaining importance. The methodology of Forest Climate Protection Switzerland (WKSS) is based on scientific findings to quantify the carbon balance in the forest and enables forest owners to quantify this ecosystem service and potentially convert it into marketable certificates.

Forestry in Climate Change

Progressive climate change leads to stronger and more frequent disturbances (storms, drought, insect calamities, etc.) in the forest ecosystem. For the forest owner, this means particularly more ecological, social, and economic risks. With active, near-natural forestry, natural principles can be utilised to support forests in adapting to climate change. Resilient forests can better withstand disturbances (resistance) or recover more quickly from them. A resilient forest is characterised by relatively high species diversity, structural diversity and genetic diversity, as well as the stability and vitality of dominant trees, which can lead to a shortening of the rotation period. This active forestry requires financial resources and personnel expertise.

Four Central Axioms

1. CO2 knows no borders: Carbon dioxide (CO2) is distributed globally as a greenhouse gas and is not bound to geographical or political boundaries. Once CO2 is released into the atmosphere, it is distributed worldwide through air currents.

2. Trees cannot grow indefinitely: Trees have a limit regarding the maximum age, size, and growth, which are influenced by biological, physical, and ecological factors depending on the species and location.

3. A specific area can be stored only once: A specific forest area has a maximum biomass that can be achieved. When this saturation point is reached or the ecosystem is in a natural balance, the forest ecosystem emits as much carbon as it absorbs. This axiom is oriented towards the dynamics of primeval forests, for example, in beech forests or spruce-fir-beech forests (Pietsch and Hasenauer) or subalpine spruce forests (Merganicova et al.).

4. Store or Use: A tree can either remain in the forest ecosystem or be used otherwise through human utilisation, such as timber harvesting. When selling raw timber, the carbon contained in it is sold and leaves the forest system. Utilisation is treated as an emission regarding the system boundary. Harvested wood can be credited as a carbon store in other concepts in the form of wood products. However, this is not the subject of this methodology.

Transformation to a Green Economy as a Basis - Temporal Aspect

The critical period for reducing CO2 emissions and thus combating climate change is the period up to 2050. By then, the transformation and exit from fossil energy carriers and materials should be achieved. Forests can contribute to this immediately. By managing wood utilisation in relation to growth and potentially mortality, forests contribute directly to carbon sequestration in the forest (carbon stocks) due to annual growth, that is, the binding of carbon from the atmosphere (carbon sequestration) through photosynthesis.

The Swiss forest removes a significant amount of CO2 from the atmosphere annually and stores it in biomass. Climate-optimised forest management can optimise this CO2 store. The precise measurement of the inflow and outflow of carbon from the forest system is crucial for the WKSS methodology.

Leakage

Leakage refers to the release of CO2 or other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that can occur as a result of measures for carbon sequestration or storage. Internal leakage is prevented by declaring the entire forest area of an owner within the managed forest. External leakage, the shifting of emissions (wood usages) outside of the project (market leakage), is not attributed to WKSS projects, provided the amount of wood utilisation in Switzerland does not exceed the sustainable utilisation amount.

WKSS Projects

Forestry is designed for more than one tree generation and thus takes place over a time horizon of 60 (pioneer species) to 350 years (e.g. oak forests). Project development according to a standardised methodology requires the incorporation of project-specific baseline and project scenarios, a project-specific forestry concept, and a project-specific owner strategy. These elements can account for the time factor even in the forestry dimension of several tree generations. The time-limited project commitment thus takes place in a long-term forest ecosystem management context.

Carbon storage as a "new" forest function takes place in Switzerland within a multifunctional forest ecosystem management. This is taken into account on a project-specific basis during project development. The project owners decide which scenario to implement for carbon storage in the forest based on a risk assessment.

This preamble establishes the scientific and methodological foundations for the work of the Scientific Advisory Board of Forest Climate Protection Switzerland, ensuring that the association's activities are based on sound scientific findings.