Evaluating the Potential for Climate Change Mitigation through Doubling the Area of Windbreak Plantations in Hungary

The land use sector assumes a pivotal role in global efforts to combat climate change, particularly as outlined within the Paris Agreement, EU climate regulations, and overarching net zero targets. Agroforestry systems, by capitalizing on the interplay between trees and agricultural endeavors, offer numerous advantages, including carbon sequestration, soil preservation, and biodiversity enhancement. Windbreaks are integral components of Hungarian agricultural landscapes. An enhanced agroforestry subsidy system could positively influence windbreak expansion, highlighting the need to assess their carbon sequestration potential. As part of the ForestLab project at the University of Sopron, we study how agroforestry systems contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Building upon the work of Király et al. [1], we evaluate the implications of doubling the windbreak plantation area in Hungary by projecting its total carbon sequestration and annual climate change mitigation potential up to 2050. For modeling purposes, we use the recently developed Windbreak module of the Forest Industry Carbon Model.

Our projections indicate that newly established windbreak plantations, covering 14,256 hectares, could sequester 913 kilotons of carbon by 2050. The average annual climate change mitigation potential of these plantations is estimated at 144 kilotons of CO₂ equivalent, with the majority of carbon sequestration occurring in the biomass pool. This potential represents 2% of the total annual carbon sequestration in the land use sector as reported by the Hungarian Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

Our findings emphasize that agroforestry practices can cultivate resilient and productive agricultural landscapes while contributing to national climate change mitigation efforts and sustainable development goals.

[1] Király, Keserű, Molnár, Szabó, Borovics (2024): https://doi.org/10.3390/f15010063.

This article was made in frame of project TKP2021-NKTA-43, which has been implemented with support provided by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation of Hungary from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, financed under the TKP2021-NKTA funding scheme.