LULUCF Tool User Guide

1About the tool

The LULUCF tool calculates carbon stock changes on forest land, cropland, grassland, wetlands, settlements and other land, plus harvested wood products, with the methods of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 4. It is the only inventory sector that can report net removals (a sink). It is built for national and subnational inventory teams, forestry agencies and land managers in any country.

2Quick start

1. 1

   Complete the inventory profile

   On the start sheet, enter the reporting entity, the inventory boundary and the country.

2. 2

   Set the analysis year and GWP set

   Add one or more years; select and confirm AR4, AR5 or AR6.

3. 3

   Prepare your land areas

   For each category, establish the area remaining and the area converted over the last 20 years, with its source and destination use.

4. 4

   Start with forest land

   On the forest biomass and soil sheets, enter areas, the ecological zone and growth and harvest data.

5. 5

   Complete the other categories

   Enter land remaining and converted on the cropland, grassland, wetland, settlement and other-land sheets. Conversions entered on one sheet appear automatically on the others.

6. 6

   Add to inventory

   Use Add to Inventory in the bottom bar on each sheet to book the result to the selected year.

7. 7

   Review and export

   Check CRF Table 4 and the net balance in Results, then download PDF or Excel.

3Start sheet and core settings

4Land conversions

Under the 2006 IPCC Guidelines Vol. 4 Section 2.2.1, a hectare that changes use is reported in the “land converted to” sub-category of its destination for the whole transition period (20 years by default), and leaves the area of its source category at the same time.

• Conversion rows are written to a shared land-conversion register. A “land converted to X” row entered on one sheet appears automatically on the sheets of both the source and the destination category; you never enter the same hectare twice.
• The register is kept per year and per module, so re-saving one sheet never removes another sheet’s rows.
• Land remaining (4x.1) and land converted (4x.2) are calculated together on each category’s biomass and soil sheets.

5Forest land (4A)

Calculates biomass carbon on forest land remaining forest and land converted to forest with the Gain-Loss method. Gains come from growth rates by ecological zone; losses from harvest, fuelwood and disturbances. Tier 1 provides 14 ecological zones, 14 root-to-shoot ratios and 15 wood densities; under the 2019 Refinement updated tables for 17 zones are used.

• Dead organic matter (dead wood and litter): from the stock difference before and after conversion (Eq. 2.17–2.22).
• Soil and afforestation sheet: CO₂ from drained organic forest soils (Eq. 2.26) and the mineral soil carbon change on afforested land (Eq. 2.25).
• Forest fires: CH₄ and N₂O from dry matter burned (Eq. 2.27); factors are in the “Biomass fires” section.

6Cropland (4B)

The biomass sheet calculates carbon in perennial crops and biomass lost on conversion to cropland (Eq. 2.15). The soil sheet gives the mineral soil organic carbon change from reference stocks and stock-change factors, and CO₂ from drained organic soils.

Stock-change factors: 11 options for land use (F_LU), 9 for tillage (F_MG) and 9 for input level (F_I) (Table 5.5). Under the 2019 Refinement the updated tables offer 13, 13 and 12 options, and reference stocks for 10 climate classes.

7Grassland (4C)

The biomass sheet calculates grassland biomass change by the Gain-Loss or Stock-Difference method (Eq. 2.7–2.8), the biomass difference on conversion to grassland (Eq. 2.16) and CH₄/N₂O from grassland fires. The soil sheet covers mineral soil carbon with management and input factors, and drained organic soils.

8Wetlands (4D)

The peatland sheet calculates on-site CO₂ from drained peat at extraction sites (Eq. 7.4), off-site CO₂ from horticultural peat (Eq. 7.5) and N₂O from nutrient-rich peatlands (Eq. 7.7). The flooded-land sheet covers biomass lost on flooded land, reservoir CO₂ (Eq. 7.13) and CH₄.

With the 2019 Refinement selected, reservoir CH₄ is calculated for 6 climate zones by reservoir age (younger or older than 20 years) and trophic status (Eq. 7.10 and 7.15).

9Settlements (4E)

On settlements remaining settlements, urban tree biomass is calculated by the crown-cover area (Eq. 8.2) or individual-tree method (Eq. 8.3); at Tier 1 the change is taken as zero. On conversion to settlements, the biomass difference before and after (Eq. 2.16) and the soil carbon loss by settlement type are calculated.

10Other land (4F)

• Other land remaining other land: bare soil, rock and ice. Under 2006 IPCC Section 9.2 no emission estimate is made; the area is recorded for consistent land accounting.
• Land converted to other land: biomass and mineral soil carbon lost through desertification or abandonment; at Tier 1 all carbon is released in the conversion year (Eq. 2.16 and 2.25).

11Harvested wood products (4G)

The HWP Tier 1 sheet tracks carbon in sawnwood, wood panels and paper with the First-Order Decay model. Inflows come from harvest, production and trade data. Default half-lives: sawnwood 35, wood panels 25 and paper 2 years.

The approach comparison sheet shows the Stock-Change, Atmospheric-Flow, Production and Simple-Decay approaches side by side on the same data (Eq. 12.2–12.5), to help decide which approach to use in the national report.

12Biomass fires

When burned area is entered on the forest or grassland biomass sheets, CH₄ and N₂O are calculated from the dry matter burned. Fire CO₂ is already part of the biomass loss in the stock change, so it is not added again.

13Results and CRF Table 4

Everything added to the inventory comes together in Results in the CRF Table 4 structure: 4A forest land, 4B cropland, 4C grassland, 4D wetlands, 4E settlements, 4F other land and 4G HWP, with remaining and converted sub-categories on separate rows. Units are kt CO₂e; negative values are sinks.

14Scenario modelling

The Scenario module builds BAU and mitigation pathways from the LULUCF results in your inventory; a scenario cannot be built on an empty inventory. The catalogue holds 2 LULUCF measures (Annex A), both removal measures based on soil carbon accumulation.

• Years between milestones are filled with the method you choose: linear, exponential, S-curve, polynomial, step or custom.
• Outputs: scenario comparison table and pathway charts (Excel and PNG).

15Saving, importing and exporting

During a trial or without a licence you can calculate, save and preview the report as a watermarked PDF. Excel, image and unwatermarked PDF outputs need a paid licence. Work files and blank import templates are always available.

16Worked examples

Example 1 — Forest biomass gain, Tier 1. 10,000 ha of natural forest; Temperate Continental Forest (TeDc), Temperate conifers (50–150 t/ha).

Example 2 — Native land converted to cropland, mineral soil. 1,000 ha; Temperate Moist climate, High-activity clay (HAC); long-term cultivated, full tillage, medium input.

17Verification and quality control

18Troubleshooting

19Glossary

20References

• IPCC (2006). 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 4: AFOLU — Chapters 2–9 and 12.
• IPCC (2019). 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 4.
• IPCC AR4 WG1 Table 2.14, AR5 WG1 Table 8.7, AR6 WG1 Table 7.SM.7 — GWP100 values.
• UNFCCC. Common Reporting Format, Table 4 (LULUCF).

Revision history