Globally, roughly half of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have remained in the atmosphere, the rest being taken up by sinks in the oceans and the land. On land, the main CO2 sink are thought to be forest ecosystems. Recently, especially for Europe, reports have emerged that suggest the sink capacity of forests to have declined rapidly, which puts decarbonisation efforts such as the European Green Deal at risk.

In this panel discussion we aim at bringing together scientists, practitioners and stakeholders in the fields of forest ecology, forestry and wood production to discuss the state of the Alpine forest CO2 sink and sustainable ways of improving it.