Page - 22 - in options, Volume winter 2019

After the Korean War ended, South Korea set about improving its natural resources. To combat the effects of deforestation, such as erosion and ground instability, the government implemented a national forestation program. While this helped increase carbon accumulation, it is unclear what effect these efforts had on soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation. South Korea is currently aiming to increase timber extraction through the reduction of the cutting age of trees. To do this, they must implement effective forest management practices. Furthermore, comprehensive analysis is needed to determine which practices might yield the best results. Ecosystem Services and Management Program postdoc Moonil Kim, collaborated on a study to assess the influence of forest management on SOC dynamics. The study proposes a theoretical framework to assess the influence of these practices on carbon sequestration, water supply, and biomass production and found that reducing the cutting age from 80 to 40 years would only be feasible in high biomass production forests. However, they elucidate that increasing tree species diversity could lessen the negative effects of reducing the cutting age in lower biomass production forests through improving other soil properties. “Our findings confirm the importance of soil biodiversity and nutrient availability in resilient and productive forest ecosystems,” explains Kim. “The Korea Forest Service should use these findings to build action plans to increase timber extraction if they hope to bequeath a healthy and beautiful environment to future generations.” Countries the world over are looking to mitigate the effects of climate change. Japan, one of the world’s largest producers of carbon emissions, wants to reduce emissions by more than half by 2050, but faces many challenges in meeting this goal. The country lacks significant domestic reserves of many fossil fuels and is heavily dependent on imports. The nation also faces an uncertain future in terms of its own energy technologies, particularly after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that led to the Fukushima disaster and damage to several other nuclear reactors. Despite these challenges, there is promise that mitigation efforts could lead to an 80% reduction by 2050. In their study, Shinichiro Fujimori, a researcher in the IIASA Energy Program and his coauthors applied a general equilibrium energy economic model that considered alternative scenarios for nuclear power, energy efficiency, technology availability, and the price of fossil fuels. They found that achieving the mitigation target was feasible for all scenarios and could lead to an energy consumption decrease of 39%–50%, a 28%–57% increase in shares of low-carbon sources, and as much as 16% increase in shares of electricity in the final energy supply. "Our data shows that an emissions reduction target of 80% by 2050 is feasible without nuclear power or carbon capture and storage,” explains Fujimori. “Perhaps more importantly, this data shows that expansion of renewable energy resources can be offset significantly by the economic impact of these efforts.” Achieving climate mitigation amidst an uncertain nuclear policy A S I A Implementing effective forest management in South Korea Regional impacts Shinichiro Fujimori: fujimori@iiasa.ac.at Moonil Kim: kimml@iiasa.ac.at Further info: pure.iiasa.ac.at/15990 Further info: pure.iiasa.ac.at/16001 By Jeremy Summers By Jeremy Summers 22 Options www.iiasa.ac.atWinter 2019/20