Comparing the carbon benefits of forest harvest and regrowth alternatives in Norway by integrating carbon dynamics in the forest and harvested wood products

Assessing boreal forest management’s role in climate change mitigation requires an integrated approach. This study analyzes carbon dynamics in forest and wood products for a Norwegian forest using a dynamic vegetation model and a single-stand approach. We simulate forest regrowth over 180 years after one harvest event, followed by three regeneration scenarios, and compare results to a no-harvest case. We extrapolate the single-stand results and apply them to a landscape perspective with two harvest rates. A sensitivity analysis investigates the effects of changes in climate, avoided emissions, and product lifetimes. It takes 42–75 years for the regrowth alternatives to offset emissions, and the natural regeneration alternative sequesters and stores more carbon. Using residues for energy substitution yields negligible carbon benefits. At a landscape level, a 100% harvest rate prevents net sequestration; only the system with natural regeneration maintains carbon neutrality. A reduced rate preserves carbon pools and promotes long-term storage. When the regeneration scenarios are compared to the no-harvest alternative, the latter remains the most effective strategy. Changes in climate and avoided emissions can make the system with natural regeneration more favorable in the medium term. Trade-offs between sequestration and wood provisioning highlight the need for thresholds on resource extraction.