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1. For the purposes of this Decision, the following definitions shall apply:

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

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

(c) ‘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;

(d) ‘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;

(e) ‘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;

(f) ‘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;

(g) ‘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;

(h) ‘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;

(i) ‘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;

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

(k) ‘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;

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

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

(n) ‘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;

(o) ‘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);

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

(q) ‘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;

(r) ‘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;

(s) ‘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;

(t) ‘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;

(u) ‘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);

(v) ‘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;

(w) ‘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;

(x) ‘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.

2. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 12 to amend the definitions in paragraph 1 of this Article to ensure consistency between those definitions and any changes to relevant definitions adopted by the bodies of the UNFCCC or the Kyoto Protocol or of agreements deriving from or succeeding them.

3. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 12 to amend Annex V for the purpose of updating the values listed therein in accordance with changes to definitions regarding the aspects specified in Annex V adopted by the bodies of the UNFCCC or the Kyoto Protocol or of agreements deriving from or succeeding them.