Spanish Forest Plan

The Spanish Forest Plan has a 30-year time span (2002-2032). It establishes the necessary actions for the development of a forest policy based on the principles of sustainable development, the multi-functionality of landscapes, territorial and ecological cohesion and public participation in the preparation of policies, strategies and programmes. It aims to increase the amount of carbon stored in forests through reforestation programmes, including: hydrological?forest restoration, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) agricultural land reforestation programme, reforestation within the Red Natura 2000, and planting 45m trees. Sustainable management of forests will be achieved through forest planning, forest management and forestry to improve forest masses.

The Plan makes a number of direct references to forests as carbon sinks. It states that the actions under the Plan to protect existing forests and preventing their degradation will impact on carbon storage. It is estimated that the implementation of the Forest Plan will result in a 60 Gt increase of carbon sequestration in Spain.