Land and Forestry

Sinks from soil (forest, arable land, pastures and seizures in wood products) amount to 7 658 Gg of carbon dioxide equivalent (in 2021) are so far the only way to offset the greenhouse gas emissions produced by being a great potential for carbon sequestration from the atmosphere (approximately four times more carbon is stored in soil and biomass of forests and crops than in the atmosphere itself). In contrast to all other sectors that produce emissions (e.g. transport, industry, energy, waste management, but also livestock production) and where the possibility of sinks is only on an experimental level, is emission removals possible only in the LULUCF sector.

There are changes in the acreage of individual land use categories, methodological changes since 1990, but the ability to capture GHG emissions through soil and biomass in agricultural and forest land remains and has exceeded emissions in the sector throughout the reporting period.

Examples are the area of permanent agricultural crops, such as vineyards or hop gardens (perennial plants). Here the situation is more than alarming, as their area has been halved by 2007. Perennial crops capture significantly more carbon than annual plants. In addition, these lands do not remain arable land, but are reclassified as settlements, leading to the final degradation of the land and the land becoming a producer of emissions. These changes are irreversible and definitive and impoverish the potential of sinks in Slovakia.

Trends of seizures in parts of the country

Trends in emissions and removals of greenhouse gases and air pollutants from the LULUCF sector by individual activities (types of countries) have been balanced since 1990. More information on emissions and removals trends from the LULUCF sector by individual activities in Slovakia.

Sinks in the LULUCF are important from the point of view of the emission balance, namely in the forest and forest land, on arable land (managed for food and fodder) and on pastures (for grazing and forage production). All these categories show permanent sinks in total. This means that they do not produce carbon emissions; on the contrary, they capture carbon bound in the form of CO₂. Other parts of the country that are able to capture carbon emissions are harvesting wood products (HWP) and wettlands. On the other hand, settlements and other land (infrastructure) produce emissions, i.e. increase the emissions balance. Arable land contributes to the removals in the country about 17%, pastures 2%. Forest soils can absorb the most removals (71%). Slovakia does not yet show potential sinks from wetlands and wet soils, despite the fact that we see considerable potential for increasing carbon sinks and reducing the emission balance in the future. Negligible N₂O emissions in the LULUCF are from the use of special soil mineralization techniques on cropland, grassland and forest land (arable land and pastures).

By more intensive sustainable use of harvested wood products, emissions can be significantly reduced by the substitution effect and greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere can be improved. This category shows CO₂ capture (kt) for different scenarios. CO₂ capture occurs through carbon sequestration in individual groups of wood products. While for paper products, the storage period is 2 years, in wooden panels it is 25 years and in lumber up to 35 years.