‘emissions’ means anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by sources;

‘removals’ means anthropogenic removals of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere by sinks;

‘afforestation’ means the direct human-induced conversion of land that has not been forest for a period of at least 50 years to forest through planting, seeding and/or the human-induced promotion of natural seed sources, where the conversion has taken place after 31 December 1989;

‘reforestation’ means any direct human-induced conversion of land that is not forest to forest through planting, seeding and/or the human-induced promotion of natural seed sources, which is confined to land that was forest but ceased to be forest before 1 January 1990, and which has been reconverted to forest in the period after 31 December 1989;

‘deforestation’ means the direct human-induced conversion of forest to land that is not forest, where the conversion has taken place after 31 December 1989;

‘forest management’ means any activity resulting from a system of practices applicable to a forest that influences the ecological, economic or social functions of the forest;

‘cropland management’ means any activity resulting from a system of practices applicable to land on which agricultural crops are grown and on land that is set aside or temporarily not being used for crop production;

‘grazing land management’ means any activity resulting from a system of practices applicable to land used for livestock production and aimed at controlling or influencing the quantity and type of vegetation and livestock produced;

‘revegetation’ means any direct human-induced activity intended to increase the carbon stock of any site that covers a minimum area of 0,05 hectares, through the proliferation of vegetation, where that activity does not constitute afforestation or reforestation;

‘carbon stock’ means the mass of carbon stored in a carbon pool;

‘wetland drainage and rewetting’ means any activity resulting from a system for draining or rewetting land which has been drained and/or rewetted after 31 December 1989, which covers a minimum area of 1 hectare and on which organic soil is present, provided the activity does not constitute any other activity for which accounts are prepared and maintained pursuant to Article 3(1), (2) and (3), and where draining is the direct human-induced lowering of the soil water table, and rewetting is the direct human-induced partial or total reversal of drainage;

‘source’ means any process, activity or mechanism that releases a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor to a greenhouse gas into the atmosphere;

‘sink’ means any process, activity or mechanism that removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol, or a precursor to a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere;

‘carbon pool’ means the whole or part of a biogeochemical feature or system within the territory of a Member State within which carbon, any precursor to a greenhouse gas containing carbon or any greenhouse gas containing carbon is stored;

‘precursor to a greenhouse gas’ means a chemical compound that participates in the chemical reactions that produce any of the greenhouse gases listed in Article 3(4);

‘harvested wood product’ means any product of wood harvesting that has left a site where wood is harvested;

‘forest’ means an area of land defined by the minimum values for area size, tree crown cover or an equivalent stocking level, and potential tree height at maturity at the place of growth of the trees, as specified for each Member State in Annex V. It includes areas with trees, including groups of growing young natural trees, or plantations that have yet to reach the minimum values for tree crown cover or equivalent stocking level or minimum tree height as specified in Annex V, including any area that normally forms part of the forest area but on which there are temporarily no trees as a result of human intervention, such as harvesting, or as a result of natural causes, but which area can be expected to revert to forest;

‘crown cover’ means the proportion of a fixed area that is covered by the vertical projection of the perimeter of tree crowns, expressed as a percentage;

‘stocking level’ means the density of standing and growing trees on land covered by forest measured in accordance with a methodology established by the Member State;

‘natural disturbances’ means any non-anthropogenic events or circumstances that cause significant emissions in forests and the occurrence of which are beyond the control of the relevant Member State provided the Member State is objectively unable to significantly limit the effect of the events or circumstances, even after their occurrence, on emissions;

‘background level’ means the average emissions caused by natural disturbances in a given time period, excluding statistical outliers, calculated in accordance with Article 9(2);

‘half-life value’ means the number of years it takes for the quantity of carbon stored in a harvested wood products category to decrease to one half of its initial value;

‘instantaneous oxidation’ means an accounting method that assumes that the release into the atmosphere of the entire quantity of carbon stored in harvested wood products occurs at the time of harvest;

‘salvage logging’ means any harvesting activity consisting of recovering timber that can still be used, at least in part, from lands affected by natural disturbances.

afforestation;

reforestation;

deforestation;

forest management.

cropland management;

grazing land management.

carbon dioxide (CO2);

methane (CH4);

nitrous oxide (N2O).

above-ground biomass;

below-ground biomass;

litter;

dead wood;

soil organic carbon;

harvested wood products.

carbon pools and greenhouse gases;

area under forest management;

harvested wood products;

natural disturbances.

paper;

wood panels;

sawn wood.

the emissions in a particular year of the accounting period exceed the background level plus a margin. Where the background level is calculated in accordance with the method specified in Annex VII, that margin shall be equal to twice the standard deviation of the time series used to calculate the background level. Where the background level is calculated using a country-specific methodology, Member States shall describe the manner in which the margin has been established, in cases where such a margin is needed. Any methodology used shall avoid the expectation of net credits during the accounting period;

the information requirements in paragraph 5 are met and reported by the Member States.

exclude from accounting for the rest of the accounting period all subsequent removals on lands affected by natural disturbances and on which the emissions referred to in paragraph 3 have occurred;

not exclude emissions resulting from harvesting and salvage logging activities that took place on those lands following the occurrence of the natural disturbances;

not exclude emissions resulting from prescribed burning that took place on those lands in that particular year of the accounting period;

not exclude emissions on lands that were subject to deforestation following the occurrence of natural disturbances.

that all land areas affected by natural disturbances in that particular reporting year have been identified, including their geographical location, year and types of natural disturbances;

that no deforestation has occurred during the rest of the respective accounting period on lands that were affected by natural disturbances and in respect of which emissions were excluded from accounting;

which verifiable methods and criteria will be used to identify deforestation on those lands in the subsequent years of the accounting period;

where practicable, which measures the Member State undertook to manage or control the impact of those natural disturbances;

where possible, which measures the Member State undertook to rehabilitate the lands affected by those natural disturbances.

a description of past trends of emissions and removals including, where possible, historic trends, to the extent that they can reasonably be reconstructed;

projections for emissions and removals for the accounting period;

an analysis of the potential to limit or reduce emissions and to maintain or increase removals;

a list of the most appropriate measures to take into account national circumstances, including, as appropriate, but not limited to the indicative measures specified in Annex IV, that the Member State is planning or that are to be implemented in order to pursue the mitigation potential, where identified in accordance with the analysis referred to in point (c);

existing and planned policies to implement the measures referred to in point (d), including a quantitative or qualitative description of the expected effect of those measures on emissions and removals, taking into account other policies and measures relating to the LULUCF sector;

indicative timetables for the adoption and implementation of the measures referred to in point (d).