Unwelcome news has come from Germany – "for the first time since records began, the forests in this country have become a source of carbon dioxide" – this is the conclusion set out in a report by the German Ministry of Agriculture (BMEL) . Every decade the government publishes a report on the "Federal Forest Inventory", which describes the state of the country's forests. The latest inventory report emphasises that the decline in the area of pine and spruce monocultures, as well as the decline in the area of coniferous forests due to drought and storms, has affected the ability of Germany's forests to store carbon.

"Because of the effects of climate change, the loss of living biomass has been greater than its growth, turning forests into carbon sources," the report states.

Pierre Ibisch (Pierre Ibisch), a forest expert at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, pointed out that the situation may be even worse than the report indicates, because the data examined and analysed in it was collected in 2022. Since then the forest area has continued to shrink.

Can the negative trend of recent years be halted?

"Germany's forests have lost 41.5 million tonnes of carbon since 2017," concludes the BMEL report, which also stresses that "adaptation and restoration measures must be carried out in forests as a matter of urgency, in order to strengthen them as climate protectors over the long term."

"However bitter this truth may be, the call to act is clearer still: we need a radical health programme for our forests," explained NABU head Jörg-Andreas Krüger of the environmental organisation.

"In light of the results of the federal forest inventory, it is clearer than ever that a strong Federal Forest Act is needed," said World Wide Fund for Nature Germany's forest programme head Susanne Winer (Susanne Winer), explaining that the act "would provide a nationally applicable action plan and the specifications for it that are urgently needed to protect the climate and biodiversity".

"Germany's forests are in poor condition, because the stands of four of the five most common species – spruce, pine, beech and oak – are affected by disease and by a range of adverse factors," states the forest condition assessment carried out this year by the German Ministry of Agriculture. Drought, bark beetle infestations, storms and forest fires in recent years have done very great damage to Germany's forests.

It has to be concluded that Latvia's forests are, by comparison, in very good condition, which means that here in Latvia we must pay even more attention to forest health and its proper monitoring. In any case, the safety and health of Latvia's forests is harmed by exaggerated, ill-considered and at times absurd nature protection requirements, which mean that, for example, in the event of a forest fire the appropriate machinery cannot reach the areas hit by the fire. That is just one example – and there are many…https://www.diena.lv/raksts/videunturisms/dabasdiena/stiklu-mezs-pec-ugunsgreka-14206812

Forests act as natural carbon sinks and have an important part to play in meeting climate targets, by offsetting emissions that are hard to avoid. Germany's climate act already sets annual net negative emissions targets for the land use sector (LULUCF, which also covers other carbon sinks and sources, such as peatlands) for 2030, 2040 and 2045. The German government is currently drawing up a long-term strategy for delivering negative emissions. One of the strategy's aims is to strengthen natural carbon sinks, forests among them.

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/germanys-forests-no-longer-carbon-sink-now-net-emitters-report