Development of village-level forest carbon sink map for spatial carbon sink management of the local government

Forests play a crucial role in carbon neutrality by acting as significant carbon sinks. To meet these targets, local governments must establish comprehensive carbon neutrality strategies that incorporate forest management. Appropriate spatio-temporal information is essential for implementing effective forest management systems at the local level. In this study, we developed a carbon sink map designed to support carbon neutrality efforts using a dynamic forest growth model to assist with local-level decision-making. The input data had a spatial resolution of 100 meters, which is informative for identifying detailed forest characteristics. These high-resolution data allow improved representation of forest areas and the specific species that are present. We found that South Korean forests sequestered approximately 41.5 million tons of carbon in 2020. These carbon sequestration data were divided considering the local forest areas, ensuring precise allocation of carbon sink capacities. We verified our results using national statistics obtained from the Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center of Korea (GIR). We proposed the need for support tailored to regional carbon sink characteristics on urban areas, suburbs, and forest villages. Especially, our results indicate that areas including or adjacent to the Baekdudaegan Mountain range absorb significant amounts of carbon. Many of these high carbon absorption areas correspond with regions experiencing population decline. This finding emphasizes the necessity for targeted carbon sink incentive systems in population-decreasing areas. Our study emphasizes the practicality and applicability of 100-meter spatio-temporal modeling for generating carbon sink maps to assist in local government decision-making processes. Such maps provide critical insights for the formulation and implementation of carbon-neutral strategies.