The forestry and land-use change sectors accounted for approximately 0.17 and 0.08 per cent of Nova Scotia's greenhouse gas emissions in 1990 and 1996, respectively. Emissions from forest product companies are included under manufacturing and transportation.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and are thus referred to as carbon sinks.
It has been estimated that Canada's forests store 12 billion tonnes within trees and 80 billion tonnes within their soils. As a result, deforestation increases the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When they die, are seriously damaged or are used for fuel, trees release the carbon dioxide they had stored. Failure to reforest following clear cutting was identified as a major contribution to greenhouse gas emissions by the forestry sector at the 1992 forestry stakeholder meeting of the public consultations on the NS Action Strategy on Global Warming. All Rights reserved.