Canada’s forest carbon reporting system
The National Forest Carbon Monitoring, Accounting and Reporting System (NFCMARS) is Canada’s forest carbon reporting system. Its purpose is to estimate forest carbon stocks, changes in carbon stocks, and emissions of non-CO2 greenhouse gases in Canada’s managed forests.
NFCMARS is designed to:
- estimate past changes in forest carbon stocks, such as from 1990 to the present (monitoring)
- predict changes in carbon stocks, based on scenarios of future disturbance rates and management actions, in the next 2 to 3 decades (projection)
The system integrates information into a modelling framework incorporating the best available scientific understanding of the ecological processes involved in forest carbon cycling. Information includes:
- forest inventories
- temporary and permanent sample plots
- statistics on fires, insects and forest management activities
- systems quantifying forest growth and yield
- harvested wood product (HWP) production and trade
Text version
Diagram of the National Forest Carbon Monitoring, Accounting and Reporting System (NFCMARS) showing input elements to the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3). Results from the ensuing database are exported for use in the NFCMARS-Harvested Wood Products (HWP) model.
Inputs to the CBM-CFS3 include:
- Disturbance events
- Harvesting
- Deforestation
- Afforestation
- Natural disturbances
- Growth and yield curves
- Land-use changes
- Detailed forest inventory
Key elements of the NFCMARS include:
- Carbon budget model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3)
- ANSE and the NFCMARS-Harvested Wood Products model
- NFCMARS spatial framework
- NFCMARS outputs
- NFCMARS partners
- Forest management and disturbance monitoring
- Forest inventory and tracking land-use change
- Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis
Find out more
Canadian Forest Service Publications
- A Compiled List of Technical and Research Publications Involving the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (2024)
- How does Canada Report Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Wildfire? (2024)
- Is Canada’s Forest a Carbon Sink or Source? (2024)
- Forest Carbon 101: How Canada calculates forest carbon (2023)
- Improving Canada's forest carbon estimates (2023)
- How does Canada report on forest GHG emissions (2020)
- Quantifying the impacts of human activities on reported greenhouse gas emissions and removals in Canada’s managed forest: conceptual framework and implementation (2018)
- Uncertainty of inventory-based estimates of the carbon dynamics of Canada’s managed forest (1990-2014) (2017)
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