398 - Canada / Forest Type / World-wide Tree News

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In this issue:

 

BC-Canada

Forest Type / World-wide

 

Index:

 

--British Columbia: 1) Wesern Forest Products get slammed by citizens,

2) Journey to a vanishing East Creek Jewel that's surrounded by ruins,

3) One-stop information centre for rainforest visitors, 4) Producing a

bumper crop of well-trained activists, 5) Makes more economic sense to

conserve forests than it does to cut them down,

--Canada: 6) Pillars of nature have always performed small miracles,

7) About time the industry does some Creative destruction, 8) Formal

discussions between Greenpeace and AbitibiBowater ended today,

 

--Non-Tropical Forests: 9) Old forests outside tropics are 15 percent

of the world's total

--Tropical forests: 10) Reduced from 15 billion acres down to 210

million acres 11) Half of all tropical timber in the past 20 years

came from Indonesia and Malaysia,

 

--World-wide: 12) Old growth forests store more carbon dioxide, 13)

Developing a workable means of forestry protection to cut carbon? 14)

Climate negotiations are at an absolute crossroads, 15) FSC criticism

continues to escalate, 16) Photogrammetrists and foresters on canopy

calculations, 17) Paper Trails by Mandy Haggith, 18) Commonwealth

Secretariat offers new series of Discussion Papers, 19) 50% of the

production costs for new pulp mills is where the trees come from, 20)

What do respondents think about paper production? 21) Species

Invasions and Extinction: The Future of Native Biodiversity on

Islands, 22) Community-based tourism, 23) We need better law

enforcement to protect forests, 24) New methodologies and trading

structures are needed to tackle climate change, 25) FSC conference is

a farcical exercise in corporate-sponsored public relations, 26) Dr.

Leslie Taylor's Rain-tree.com, 27) Appetite for animal flesh drives

every major category of environmental damage, 28) 13 million hectares

of forests are lost every year, 29) Only an idiot with the foresight

of a slug could ignore our current trajectory, 30) Relationship

between local enforcement and forests used as commons, 31) Old growth

really is a carbon sink! 32) Cont.

 

Articles:

 

British Columbia:

 

1) An open house organized by Western Forest Products was hijacked by

frustrated opponents of the forest company's development plans last

night. About 120 people crowded into the tiny Shirley Community Hall,

ostensibly to look at tables covered with plans for 319 acreages

around Shirley, Otter Point and Jordan River. However, as WFP chief

operations officer Duncan Kerr was surrounded by people asking

questions, guerrilla organizers seized stacks of chairs, set them out

in rows and sat down, demanding at least a semblance of a public

hearing. " If someone has got a plan here, it's not mine, " said Kerr,

as environmental activist Vicky Husband took the microphone and

offered to MC the impromptu meeting. Kerr agreed to answer questions

and, during the often raucous evening, agreed with a request to sit

down and talk to representatives of the communities about their

wishes. " I challenge you to step back and look at the process you are

undertaking and look at the desires, dreams, aspirations and passions

of the people in this room, " said a woman, who would not give her

name. " It is going to cost you a couple of years to do the appropriate

process, " she said. Kerr replied that he would like to sit down and

talk to residents, but could not agree to withdraw the subdivision

application or to stop a court case challenging the Capital Regional

District bylaws. The case will be heard in B.C. Supreme Court next

week, together with a second challenge, based on CRD voting procedures

for Juan de Fuca electoral area, launched by the B.C. Landowners

Association. Residents and environmental groups are furious that WFP's

subdivision applications, which have gone to the Highways Ministry

approving officer for a decision, have never gone to public hearing,

even though they are contrary to official community plans and the

Regional Growth Strategy. The subdivision applications also run

contrary to zoning bylaws passed by the Capital Regional District

limiting lot size on forestry and resource lands to 120 hectares. The

applications were made during a time lag while the bylaws were waiting

to be signed by the province and, under a grandfathering clause, WFP

has until April to get approvals and infrastructure in place.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=d883f09a-9c2e-432\

4-b897-ab98ca52c5d3

 

2) Flying out of Coal Harbour, over Quatsino Inlet on the northwest

corner of Vancouver Island, I looked down at a coastline dotted with

fish farms, tree farms, and clear-cuts. We headed south along the

rugged Pacific coast and flew past Red Stripe Mountain, logged from

the waterline up and over its peak at 639 metres (2096 feet). Back in

May I wrote of my journey by logging road into the Upper East Creek

Valley where I discovered that the highest standards of logging in the

province, much flaunted by government and the logging industry, are

nothing short of clear-cuts and environmental destruction on a massive

scale. We flew up Klaskish Inlet and over the estuary of East Creek

with its beautiful tidal fields and interwoven channels. The lush

forest below carpeted the valley floor and swept up the steep slopes

to the tops of the surrounding mountains. It was difficult to keep

track of the meandering creek as we soared higher into the watershed

and the valley split into several narrow canyons. Suddenly the thick

foliage was ruptured by a gapping hole that ripped open the canopy to

reveal bleached stumps and crushed wood debris. The clear-cuts became

more recent as we circled the upper valley of East Creek, below I

could see a grapple-yarder at work, a fully loaded logging truck

driving over a bridge, an excavator building a new road, and vehicles

parked at the edge of a cut-block which still contained fresh cut

trees. The upper watershed looked like a patchwork quilt of

destruction woven together by sparse threads of trees. I was glad when

we finally drifted back down over the pristine rainforest and made our

descent towards the ocean. The pilot skillfully landed the Beaver

Seaplane behind an island and taxied towards a sandy beach. I jumped

into the water and helped position the seaplane while my friend and

the pilot unlashed our kayaks. We waded onto shore and the pilot took

off, leaving us alone in the wilderness of Klaskish. Having obtained

permission from their descendents, the Quatsino First Nations, we

entered the ancient village site of people who lived here for nearly

10,000 years prior to contact with western civilization. We spent the

afternoon marveling at culturally modified trees, which had been

altered by first nations hundreds of years ago. The forest was dense

from the ground up into the canopy. Life flourished on every surface

with diversity that boggled my mind.

http://islandlens.blogspot.com/2008/09/when-wild-forest-is-cut-down-does.html

 

3) This website, created by the Wilderness Committee, aims to become a

one-stop information centre for those wishing to visit Vancouver

Island's spectacular ancient forests. The website contains

descriptions of many significant ancient forest sites and how to

access them. Unlike other wilderness and outdoor recreation websites,

however, it includes unprotected ancient forests in need of

protection. The website currently is relatively simple but will be

expanded over time to include maps, photos, and more detailed

descriptions of each area, as well as covering a wider array of

protected and endangered ancient forests. Satellite photos taken in

2004 revealed that three-fourths of Vancouver Island's original,

productive old-growth forests had already been logged, including 90%

of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow and 87% of southern

Vancouver Island's productive ancient forests (south of Port Alberni).

http://www.oldgrowthplaces.org

 

4) It takes skill and know-how to protest successfully, and Victoria

is producing a bumper crop of well-trained activists. Three events,

run by different groups, offer instruction for would-be protesters in

skills ranging from how to protect your communications from police to

basic tree-sitting. For Zoe Blunt, an organizer of the Wild Earth

conference in Bella Coola, which wrapped up last weekend, it's about

trying to slow down destruction of the environment in a non violent

way. " We can discourage developers from thinking they can go in and do

anything they want without consulting anyone, " Blunt said, hinting

that Western Forest Products' plans to develop former forest land

saround Jordan River might be next in line for a protest. " There's a

lot of interest in trying to stop or delay that, " she said. Blunt,

spokeswoman for activists during the Spencer Road/Bear Mountain

interchange protests, said lessons learned from that protest will be

valuable for future battles. " We were constantly surprised by the

things [Langford Mayor] Stu Young and [bear Mountain CEO] Len Barrie

did. A lot of the opportunities that came to us were because they said

or did things that were outrageous, " she said. The camp focused on

non-violent civil disobedience and how to defuse potentially violent

situations. But Blunt, of the Vancouver Island Community Forest Action

Network, said the most popular session was role playing police and

protesters. Protesters will have another chance to learn next weekend

when Greenpeace holds a three-day workshop at Fairfield Community

Centre. Organizer Mark Calzavara said the training sessions are done

in cities across the country and now it's Victoria's turn. " We need to

make people understand why we are non-violent and we want to give them

the tools to deal with people, " he said.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/capital_van_isl/story.html?id=b\

fa6c91e-d4ff-4dcd-bfda-48b150320b50

 

5) A sophisticated new study by researchers at Simon Fraser University

shows that in the vast majority of cases it makes more economic sense

to conserve forests than it does to cut them down. The study uses

computer modelling to assess three different conservation scenarios in

old-growth forests near Vancouver that are home to highly endangered

northern spotted owls. The scenarios range from present-day,

relatively low levels of forest conservation to two future scenarios,

each involving more forest conservation and less logging. The study

backed by three environmental groups - Wilderness Committee, David

Suzuki Foundation, and Ecojustice - used computer modeling to look at

a variety of conservation and logging scenarios in a large tract of

forest near Vancouver. In almost every scenario, researchers say they

found the value of the carbon captured and stored by the trees far

outweighed the value of the lumber harvested from the logs. Faisal

Moola, science director for the David Suzuki Foundation, called the

results a clear indicator that B.C. should be protecting its

old-growth forest as it works with other western provinces to reduce

global warming. " The old-growth forests that we have are not only

going to be a benefit in the fight against climate change, but there's

also a significant economic windfall that could be celebrated by

British Columbians, " he said. As the B.C. government begins to

participate in a market for carbon credits with other western

provinces and states, the study suggest the towering trees and the

rich soil that surrounds them could become a cash crop for their

carbon-storing properties. Trees absorb and store carbon dioxide,

using it as a building block in their development. When old-growth

forests are harvested, that carbon is released into the atmosphere.

While much of global warming is caused by the combustion of fossil

fuels such as gasoline, Moola said 25 per cent of the carbon dioxide

that hits the atmosphere is caused by destruction of carbon stores of

old-growth forests. Duncan Knowler, the SFU associate professor behind

the study, said the report is being conservative in its assessment of

carbon prices, which are set to rise in coming years.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gMlKnAkS8-el40bR9HahZGu4eL6A

 

 

Canada:

 

6) Carved in the trunk of a tree is an uncanny image of the Virgin

Mary. She is petrified in wood, her outstretched arms and covered head

carved out by the natural forces of wind, weather and time. The story,

reported first by the Toronto Sun's Brett Clarkson, has gained the

tree fame around the world, with news outlets such as Britain's The

Telegraph, and United Press International picking up the story and

distributing it worldwide. But whether a tree bears the image of a

saintly figure or not, these pillars of nature have always performed

small miracles, mostly thanklessly. According to Tree Canada, studies

have shown hospital patients with window views of trees recovered

faster and with fewer complications than patients without such access.

Trees near homes have also been found to reduce residential heating

costs by as much as 15% from the windbreak they provide. Similarly, if

properly located, trees can shade buildings and reduce summer air

conditioning costs. It's for virtues like these that world leaders are

now launching campaigns to rebuild what has been lost to clearcutting

bulldozers and shortsighted money schemes. In November 2006, the

United Nations Environment Programme launched the Billion Tree

Campaign, inspired by the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor

Wangari Maathai. By January of this year, 2.38 billion trees had been

pledged and 1.8 billion planted. The success of the program has even

given rise to a new goal of planting seven billion trees by the end of

2009. Ontario responded to the call by launching its own plan last

year -- the most ambitious program of its kind in North America --

calling it the 50 Million Tree Program. " It's the single largest

initiative towards the UN program to date, " said Rob Keen, a Trees

Ontario program manager.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2008/09/07/6688171-sun.html

 

7) " Creative destruction " is a term economists use to describe a

process by which innovation creates long-term value even as it

destroys value for the status quo. Usually applied to individual

companies, it may also be applied to whole industries. The forest

industry is a case in point. It would be safe to say Saskatchewan's

forest industry has been in a tailspin during the last few years, with

a number of critical shutdowns affecting whole communities. Changes in

the industry are also occurring worldwide and the environment is a

major factor in this change, alongside economic factors. In its recent

report, Trees in the Greenhouse: Why Climate Change is Transforming

the Forest Products Business, the World Resources Institute

(www.wri.org) points out forestry is perhaps uniquely positioned -- or

exposed -- to a set of environmental, political and economic forces

reshaping regulatory and market landscapes. The industry as we know it

is being destroyed, but this could be a creative form of destruction

if industry innovators respond effectively to new opportunities found

among the ruins. Future access to forest lands is shifting. WRI

anticipates highly managed forests -- regular forests that are

routinely harvested as well as plantations -- will provide an

increasing share of the world's fibre and wood resources in the

future. This will occur as access to native forests becomes more

restricted due to environmental regulation and production shifts to

fast-growing tropical and subtropical areas. Efforts to improve

protection of native forests in these regions could also intensify the

demand for new, sustainably managed forests in rapidly growing

markets. Governments may develop deforestation reduction strategies in

regions where competition from illegal logging currently makes

sustainable forestry operations uneconomic, potentially opening new

markets for the industry. Competition for land with lucrative

bioenergy export crops could, however, limit the growth of plantation

forestry in those regions best suited to low-cost, short-rotation

forestry.http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/arts/story.html?id=d969\

cad6-fad1-42f9-a49a-61da5aa85c4a

 

8) Formal discussions between Greenpeace and Canada's largest logging

company AbitibiBowater ended today following a meeting in a Toronto

hotel between Greenpeace representatives and company CEO David J.

Paterson. AbitibiBowater expressed an unwillingness to curb

destructive logging in sensitive areas of the Boreal Forest. " We are

saddened that AbitibiBowater has chosen to blame Greenpeace for the

breakdown in talks when, in reality, the jointly approved mediator

adjourned our dialogue because of lack of agreement, " said Richard

Brooks, Greenpeace's Forest Coordinator. " The talks may have been more

fruitful had AbitibiBowater focused more on seeking solutions to

Boreal Forest destruction and less on appointing blame and making

excuses for their performance and lack of action. " With the support of

major customers of Abitibi Bowater, Greenpeace initiated a dialogue

with Abitibi-Consolidated and subsequently AbitibiBowater over 10

months ago. The goal of these discussions was to find reasonable and

fair measures to protect those areas of the Boreal Forest under

Abitibi Bowater management. These measures were to include a

suspension of logging in ecologically sensitive intact forest areas

while maintaining suitable andadequate wood supply to AbitibiBowater

mills. An independent moderator was appointed to facilitate the

discussions. " It is now clear that AbitibiBowater came seeking

solutions to their public relations problem, rather than seeking

solutions to ongoing destruction of the Boreal Forest, " said Bruce

Cox, Executive Director of Greenpeace. " While Greenpeace prefers a

dialogue with industry, we are always aware of the risk of companies

intentionally dragging their feet in negotiations while they carry on

business as usual. " During the several months of discussions,

AbitibiBowater did not curtail logging operations in intact forests.

Currently logging is planned in major intact forest areas in Ontario

and Quebec. Less than 35 per cent of AbitibiBowater's forestlands

remain intact. Intact forests are key habitats for endangered species

such as woodland caribou and help mitigate the impacts of climate

change by storing more carbon than fragmented forests.

" AbitibiBowater's actions speak louder than words, " added Cox.

" Unfortunately for them, a lack of action will equate to further

losses of major contracts with paper and wood purchasers. "

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2008/04/c9765.html

 

Non-tropical forests:

 

9) " New growth continues in forests that are centuries old, " an

international team of scientists wrote in the journal Nature of old

forests outside the tropics that make up 15 percent of the world's

total tree-covered area. Plants soak up heat-trapping carbon from the

air as they grow and release it when they die. Until now, most

scientists have reckoned that mature forests have a neutral impact on

the climate, with any new trees merely replacing others that die. The

report, by scientists in Belgium, the United States, Germany,

Switzerland, France and Britain, estimated that old-growth forests

outside the tropics absorbed a net 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon a year

with ever denser vegetation. That is almost as much as the total

annual industrial greenhouse gas emissions by the 27 nation European

Union. " Until now there was a belief that ecosystems -- like weeds,

bacteria in a pond or forests -- reach carbon neutrality when they

age, " lead author Sebastiaan Luyssaert of the University of Antwerp

told Reuters. " We find no support for that idea, " he said. The

scientists urged greater protection for temperate forests and northern

pine forests such as in Siberia, Canada, the Nordic region or Canada.

The forests studied, from 15 to 800 years old, kept on growing thicker

roots and branches while carbon-rich leaves and other debris built up

in the soil. And new vegetation quickly replaced fallen trees that

could take decades to rot.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LA160030.htm

 

Tropical Forests:

 

10) The world's tropical forests, which circle the globe, are

interestingly diverse. Ranging from the steamy jungles of the rain

forests to the dry forests and savannas, they provide habitat for

millions of species of plants and animals. Once covering some 15.3

billion acres (6.2 billion ha), these tropical forests have been

reduced through cutting and clearing by 210 million acres (85 million

ha) between 1985 and 1990. All types of tropical forests are defined

and their products and benefits to the environment are presented and

discussed. Modern forest practices are shown as a means of halting

forest destruction while still providing valuable forest products and

protecting and preserving the habitats of many endangered species of

plants and wildlife. The Luquillo Experimental Forest is presented as

a possible model to exemplify forestry practices and research that

could manage and ultimately protect the tropical forests throughout

the world. The world's tropical forests circle the globe in a ring

around the Equator They are surprisingly diverse, ranging from lush

rain forests to dry savannas and containing millions of species of

plants and animals. Tropical forests once covered some 15.3 billion

acres (6.2 billion ha). In recent times, however, they have been cut

at a rapid rate to make room for agriculture and to obtain their many

valuable products. Between 1985 and 1990, 210 million acres (85

million ha) of tropical forests were destroyed.

http://forestrystudent.blogspot.com/2008/09/student-guide-to-tropical-forest.htm\

l

 

11) Over 20 years later, Indonesia and Malaysia together have produced

more than 50 percent of the world output of tropical timber. The next

important producer , Brazil, outputs the tropical logs between 20 to

more than 25 million cubic metres. Most of Logs produced are

transformed within the countries themselves as raw material to primary

industrial timber forest products ( sawnwood, veneer sheet, plywood ),

and increasingly, semi- finish and finish product like moulding,

blockboard, laminated blockboard and fancy board. Annual Review and

Assessment of the World Tropical Timber Situation in 1998 by ITTO (

International Tropical Timber Organization): Tropical plywood is

dominated by Indonesian, Malaysian, Japanese, and, to a much lesser

extent, Brazilian producers, who together account for around 80

percent of all tropical plywood output. Expansion of logging

operations supply raw material need into industries posed a

significant threat to forest conservation efforts. In the ohter hand

it is a significant driver of economic development and a generator of

employment. Unfortunately the countries that produce logs or other

forest product are categorized into the developing countries. These

need much resource include of money to carry out their development

actions. It is necessary to use wood which categorized of unknown

species or lesser used species. Nowdays, few kind of species have

optimum used from natural forest to back wood base industries.

Otherwise thousands of species left have not used yet, or used in

minimum scale widely. Most research result indicated that many lesser

used species not only have good or appropriate as building contruction

but also as raw material to wood industries. Furthermore output wood

industries will widely come up as input of other industrie like

furniture, transportation, banking, manpower, household industries and

retail. In South America, ITTO Tropical Timber Market Report Number 16

(August 2008) said .... The Guyana Forestry Commission has announced

an increase in production for lesser used species, which is leading to

an expansion of the pecies utilization base in Guyana's forest product

sector.

http://mounandar.blogspot.com/2008/09/backing-up-woodbase-industries.html

 

World-wide:

 

12) A group of forest scientists from the United States and Europe

reports that a growing body of evidence settles an old question over

whether old growth forests store more carbon dioxide from the

atmosphere than they release. Based on a review of research from more

than 500 forest sites around the world, the answer, published Thursday

in an online edition of the journal Nature, is that most forests

between 15 and 800 years old do, and the total amounts to about 1

billion metric tons a year, or about 10 percent of the net carbon

uptake worldwide. Co-author Beverly Law, a professor of global change

forest science at Oregon State University, said the findings argue for

including credit for preserving old growth forests in the Kyoto

Protocol and cap-and-trade schemes for controlling greenhouse gas

emissions blamed for global warming. " If you have an old forest on the

ground, it's probably better to leave it there than to cut it, " she

said. " For the countries that did sign on to Kyoto, it is suggesting

that perhaps they need to consider unmanaged primary forests in their

carbon accounting. " The United States did not sign the Kyoto

agreement. " The absolute amount of carbon stored in these forests is

significant, " Law said from her office in Corvallis. " Once you disturb

them by logging or fire, there is carbon loss. When that occurs, there

is material left on site that decomposes. And some is lost in the

manufacturing process. " At U.N. talks last month in Accra, Ghana,

aimed at a new global warming treaty, delegates agreed that countries

should be compensated for slowing or halting deforestation, and that

countries where forests have largely been depleted should be rewarded

for conserving and expanding their forest cover. About 30 percent of

the world's forests have not been significantly logged, and about half

of that is in the boreal and temporal forests of the Northern

Hemisphere, Law said. The review estimated that 1.3 billion metric

tons, plus or minus 500 million metric tons, of carbon are absorbed by

these forests annually. The conventional wisdom for the last 40 years,

based on one study of a young plantation forest, has been that old

growth forests were carbon neutral, giving up as much from

decomposition and gases released from the trees as they drew out of

the atmosphere during photosynthesis, Law said. Law is science chair

of the AmeriFlux network of some 100 forest research sites around the

country that measure carbon absorption, including one outside Sisters,

OR. http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D9345KSG2.ht

 

 

13) It seems so simple: develop a workable means of forestry

protection and we can slash emissions by 20 per cent in double quick

time, giving economies the extra breathing space they require to make

the journey towards low carbon technologies. The problem - and it is a

dilemma that has haunted environmentalists since long before Sting

began patronising Amazonian tribes - is how to achieve this, and once

again the politicians appear to be looking in all the wrong places.

The deforestation debate at the latest round of UN climate change

talks in Ghana this week centred on a number of different proposals,

all of which aim to throw cash at the problem. A tax on forestry firms

to fund forest protection is one idea in the mix, as is a huge

increase in forestry investment funds, such as those recently proposed

by the Brazilian government. But the idea that appears to have gained

the most traction and now seems likely to be adopted is the

integration of forestry schemes into the global carbon market. The

thinking behind such a move is simple: provide countries with a way of

monetising the continued survival of their tropical forests through

the sale of carbon credits and they have a clear incentive to protect

them and not cut them down. But even if you ignore the potential

dampening effect on the price of carbon that is likely to result from

the issuing of millions of new carbon credits, you have to ask if such

an approach could work? The US delegation has previously voiced

concern that such a scheme would effectively equate to paying loggers

and the governments that fail to act against them not to do something

that is already illegal.

http://www.illegal-logging.info/item_single.php?item=news & item_id=2845 & approach_\

id=8

 

14) We, the Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change would like to

reiterate that this meeting on REDD convened in the city of Accra,

Ghana is held at a time when the climate negotiations are at an

absolute crossroads in terms of the future of our planet. We have the

opportunity to recognize and respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples

and to incorporate these issues into the basic framework of the

climate convention so that we all progress down the road of finding

workable solutions to the problems presented by climate change as

equals. On the other hand, we face the very real danger that the

decisions we make here today will be in breach of the United Nations

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and will set back the

fight for justice on many fronts. Likewise the decisions that we make

on the future of the REDD discussions must ensure that if this is to

progress, it does so in a manner designed to enhance human rights,

ensure real reductions in Greenhouse gas emissions at source, and in a

manner designed to recognize, protect and preserve the issues of

social justice and economic equity. To that end, in order to ensure

that any agreement on forests is based on the full implementation of

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we

again call on the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate

Change gathered here in Accra to: 1) Establish a formal recognition of

the Indigenous Forum on Climate Change. 2) Establish a voluntary fund

to facilitate the full and effective participation of Indigenous

Peoples and Local Communities with all levels of the convention. 3)

Insist that whatever mechanism goes forward from this meeting on REDD

includes the necessity of the free, prior and informed consent of

Indigenous Peoples (including complete and timely access to

information). 4) The clear recognition of Indigenous Peoples as

guardians and protectors of the forests which form an integral part of

their traditional lands and territories, and which form the basis for

a large part of their traditional knowledge. 5) The rights of

Indigenous Peoples to expect a secure and permanent land tenure system

which recognizes and entrenches traditional lands and territories in

the hands of the traditional owners of these lands. 6) Given that in

the REDD talks we are addressing approximately 18% of total GHG, the

REDD discussions must not be seen as a way of annex one nations

abrogating their responsibilities in terms of real and permanent

reductions in their domestic emissions. If you do have any signatures,

please send them to me at <sandyoceania

 

 

15) Mongabay reports that the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is

coming under increasingly harsh criticism. Ecological Internet (EI)

and many others believe FSC is imploding as claims of environmental

and social benefits of certified ancient forest logging and industrial

monoculture plantations are exposed as myths. FSC's future (if it is

to have one) depends upon changing its guidelines to end support for

both business as usual old-growth logging and large-scale monoculture

plantations. If unwilling to end their involvement in ancient forest

logging, FSC and supporters must be protested until they are shutdown.

Global ecological sustainability depends critically upon strictly

protecting all remaining relatively natural ecosystems, particularly

primary forests. All ancient forests are of high conservation value.

There is no alternative to continued logging of centuries old trees

found in primary forests. The era of ancient forest logging must end

if global ecological collapse is to be averted.

http://projectfreesheet.blogspot.com/2008/08/fsc-failing.html

 

16) In our role as photogrammetrists and foresters, we have carried

out numerous mapping projects for several large forestry companies

around the world. This has involved not only the production of new

maps but also auditing the aerial data bases of the forestry

companies, often as part of a privatisation process. We have evaluated

over one half million hectares of mapped forest in the last 15 years.

A common trend observed throughout many of these evaluations has been

for the maps to relatively accurately portray the extent of the

resource and yet to be somewhat less accurate when geo-locating the

forest stand boundaries. Analysis of the identified map discrepancies

has shown that the area of forest stands had usually been measured to

an accuracy of better than _ 5%. The same analysis also showed that

the boundaries of the stands were often laterally displaced by up to

several decametres with respect to their correct position. The

references for these assessments were maps produced, of the same

stands, using a precision analytical stereoplotter. Spatial and/or

locational errors of these magnitudes can affect the forest manager's

estimates of timber volume, an important aspect of forest value. High

definition aerial photography will continue to be the medium best

suited for base-map creation and the map-revision process for some

years to come. However, the approach taken to carry out map revision

in the future is likely to be based on the use of relatively

inexpensive, computer-based mapping tools. These utilise

photogrammetric principles, in combination with a digital terrain

model, to correct for photographic image displacements. They also

offer the possibility of providing an ortho-image backdrop to the

traditional line work map. http://sezatti.blogfa.com/post-27.aspx

 

17) Mandy Haggith is a freelance writer, researcher and activist. She

has spent the past decade campaigning for the world's forests,

including lobbying at the United Nations, working as a consultant for

Greenpeace and WWF and writing articles for Pulp and Paper

International and Resurgence magazine. While researching her book,

Paper Trails, Mandy traveled to forests around the world, toured paper

and pulp mills, and was " face to face " with both those in - and those

affected by - the forest products industry.Her book is fascinating and

challenging. Hear what she has to say to us: I want to make it clear

right from the start that I am not anti-paper. I love paper! I cherish

the role that it plays in our culture and I think we can't

underestimate the importance it plays in enabling us to communicate

ideas across space and time. The most important thing is to look at

how to make the most efficient use possible of paper - treating it as

a precious resource. The starting point for this is to realize that

waste is in nobody's interest and costs money. We need to design waste

out of the supply chain, for example by designing printed work to be a

shape and size that makes optimal use of paper stock. In some cases it

may be possible to work up the supply chain to encourage manufacturers

to make stock to fit the end-use precisely. However, a huge amount of

waste is caused by simply printing more copies of documents than there

are people who want to read them, which leads to unsold magazines,

unread promotional material and unsolicited direct mail that is dumped

unopened. There is a huge amount the printed paper industry can and

must do to reduce such waste, and it will save money by doing so. For

example, we need new distribution and shelf-replenishment systems for

magazines that take advantage of print-on-demand technology to print

only as many copies as actually sell. A lot of mail-order sales are

going online, where catalogues can be kept up-to-date more easily than

on paper and promotions can be targeted more effectively.

http://sections.whattheythink.com/environment/2008/08/mandy-haggith-author-of-pa\

per-trails-speaks-to-wtt

 

18) The Commonwealth Secretariat has introduced a new series of

Discussion Papers which aim to contribute to ongoing debates on a

variety of topics and stimulate debate amongst experts. The first

paper - 'Forest Carbon Finance: Potential and Challenges for

Commonwealth Countries' - addresses the potential of Sustainable

Forest Management by Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest

Degradation (REDD). The paper explains that REDD is believed to offer

the most benefits for forest mitigation through positive impacts on

the environment, biodiversity conservation and sustainable

development. Carbon Finance is a general term used to describe

investment in projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It

essentially involves developed countries paying developing countries

to conserve their forests without losing economic gains from not using

them for industrial development. Deforestation currently contributes

about one-fifth of all human-made emissions of carbon dioxide, the

principal greenhouse gas that leads to global warming and climate

change. Because of this, the paper states that " preventing

deforestation could therefore be highly significant in averting

climate change " , adding that Commonwealth countries - many of which

are developing countries - have over one-fifth of the world total

forests, and therefore the potential to gain from the initiative. The

Discussion Paper was prepared by Dr Michael Richards of IDL Group Ltd

with input from Alan Pottinger of the Commonwealth Forestry

Association. " Forests not only represent a massive source of stored

carbon but their removal is one of the principal causes of global

carbon dioxide emissions, " said Mr Pottinger. REDD is the mechanism

promoted in the 2006 Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change

presented in Kyoto. The Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework

Convention on Climate Change in Bali in December 2007, supported

action on REDD. " At present their importance in the global carbon

economy is not recognised adequately. Moves to develop forest carbon

finance schemes and include them in international agreements are being

developed, but are complicated. "

http://allafrica.com/stories/200808280398.html

 

19) The wood costs, which typically account for almost 50% of the

production costs for a pulp mill, often determine a region's or

company's competitiveness. The average global conifer wood price

reached a new all-time-high of $112.53/odmt (oven-dry metric tonne) in

the second quarter of 2008. This was up 11% from 2007 and 26% higher

than two years ago. The only exception to this price trend was in

North America, where softwood pulplog prices fell between 1-6% from

the previous quarter, depending on region. The fall occurred secondary

to increases in log supply combined with slightly lower demand for

wood. The largest price increases came in Europe, Brazil, Russia and

Australia, where supply of both roundwood and chips became tighter.

With the slump in the lumber markets in North America and Europe, the

supply of residual chips from sawmills continued to decline, resulting

in increased competition and higher reliance on the more expensive

wood fibre from roundwood. The average non-conifer wood fiber costs

were also up in the second quarter of 2008, reaching a record-high of

$108.77/odmt, which was up 16% from a year ago and 23% higher than in

2006. Some of the largest increases have occurred in Brazil where

costs for pulpwood traded in the open market have increased over 300%

in five years in US dollar terms, and more than 200 % as measured in

the Brazilian Reais. The Global Average Wood Fiber Price is a weighted

average of delivered wood fibre prices for the pulp industry in 17

regions tracked by the publication WRQ. These regions together account

for 85-90% of the world's wood-based pulp production capacity.

http://www.internationalforestindustries.com/2008/08/27/wood-costs-increased-for\

-pulpmills-worldwide-in-the-2q-2008-as-reported-by-wri/

 

20) The environmental impact of paper is still not understood by the

general public, according to a survey of media buyers conducted by the

National Association of Paper Merchants (NAPM). Of all respondents,

95% believed the public is poorly informed about paper's impact, while

60% indicated their preference for paper-based communications over

digital alternatives. Alistair Gough, president of the NAPM, said:

" Every day we are hit by new environmental claims about the

detrimental effects of paper, which are clearly having an impact on us

all in the communications industry. This survey has revealed the true

extent of the misunderstanding. " The survey found that 27% of

respondents believe paper production is a major cause of

deforestation, while 55% felt that recycled paper is better than

virgin fibre grades. Gough said: " It reveals a lack of understanding

of paper's environmental impact, and yet, with so many purchasing

decisions taking the environment into consideration, we need to put

the record straight. "

http://www.printweek.com/paper/news/842614/Public-unclear-environmental-impact-p\

aper-NAPM-study-shows/

 

21) The paper, " Species Invasions and Extinction: The Future of Native

Biodiversity on Islands, " is one in a series of reports by this team

studying how humans have altered the ecosystems of the planet. Gaines

and Sax started the project with a question: What effect are humans

really having on biological diversity? " The presumption at the time

was that we are driving biodiversity to lower levels, " said Gaines,

who directs UCSB's Marine Science Institute. " Certainly, if you think

about it at the global level, this is true because humans have done a

lot of things that have driven species extinct. " However, when studied

on the smaller scale of islands, the findings showed something

completely different. Diversity is on the rise - markedly so in some

instances. Diversity has gone up so dramatically that it might cause

some to wonder if the health of the ecosystems might not be better

because the number of species is twice as high as it used to be. But

it's not that simple, Gaines said. " What Dov and I worked on a few

years ago is the fact that the vast majority of introductions (of

species) don't have large negative effects, " Gaines said. " Indeed,

most species that get introduced don't have much effect at all. It

doesn't mean that they're not altering the ecosystem, but they're not

driving things extinct like some of the big poster-child stories we've

been hearing about. " Still, the study showed that human colonization

has had a massive impact on ecosystems of islands, with the

introduction of new, exotic plants and animals. In New Zealand, for

example, there were about 2,000 native species of plants. Since

colonization, about 2,000 new plant species have become naturalized.

Over the same period, there have been few plant extinctions, so the

net effect is that humans have transformed New Zealand's landscape by

bringing in so many new species. Sax, a former postdoctoral researcher

at UCSB who is now assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary

biology at Brown University, did much of the fact-finding for this

report by painstakingly digging through data that had been collected

over hundreds of years on islands around the world. " This is Dov's

specialty, " Gaines said. " Finding really old data sets that are very

interesting. " " The dramatic increase in the number of species has

changed how the system functions, " Sax said.

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Study_Of_Islands_Reveals_Surprising_Extinction\

_Results_999.html

 

22) Community-based tourism refers to situations in which local people

– usually those who are poor or economically marginalized in very

rural parts of the world – open up their homes and communities to

visitors seeking sustainably achieved cultural, educational, or

recreational travel experiences.Under a community-based tourism

ar¬¬range¬¬ment, unique benefits accrue to both traveler and host:

Travelers discover local habitats and wildlife and learn about

traditional cultures and the economic realities of life in developing

countries. Host communities accrue lucrative revenues that can replace

income previously earned from destructive resource extraction

operations or other unsustainable economic activity. Locals earn

income as land managers, entrepreneurs, or food and service providers

– and at least part of the tourist income is set aside for projects

that benefit the community as a whole. Just as important, says

ResponsibleTravel.com, which promotes community-based tourism in a

partnership with nonprofit Conservation International, the communities

become " aware of the commercial and social value placed on their

natural and cultural heritage through tourism, " thus fostering a

commitment to resource conservation. Travelers indulging in a

community based tourism trip might follow a local guide deep into his

tribe's forest to spot wildlife, eat regional delicacies, watch and

even take part in celebrations of local culture, and sleep on straw

mats at the homes of local families. In many cases, local communities

partner with private companies and nonprofits that provide money,

marketing, clients, tourist accommodations, and expertise for opening

up lands to visitors. In 1997, ecotravel operator Rainforest

Expeditions wanted international visitors to learn about threats to

the rain forest. Natives in Peru's Esé-eja community of Infierno

wanted to generate income without destroying their rain forest home,

central to their subsistence lifestyle. So the two joined forces. To

this day, the resulting Posada Amazonas lodge offers visitors an

exotic way to learn about rain forest ecology directly from

English-speaking Esé-eja staff, who in turn earn a living sharing

their local knowledge and traditions.

http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/09/01/earthtalk-how-to-save-the-e\

arth-while-on-vacation/

 

23) We need better law enforcement to protect forests, big and small,

around the world, say researchers. Such initiatives would help improve

forest cover and reduce deforestation and degradation – something that

is crucial since all forests are carbon sinks. Much of the debate on

forest protection focuses on the clearing of relatively pristine

forests, such as those in the Amazon basin, central Africa and

south-east Asia. Although these are important, we must not neglect the

large areas of wooded lands present in human-dominated landscapes too,

explained team member Ashwini Chhatre of the University of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign, US. Such " forest islands " – also called forest

commons – are often closely tied to rural livelihoods and the local

economy relies heavily on the land, especially in the poorest regions

of the world. In fact, 1.2 billion people around the globe depend

directly on this kind of forest for firewood, timber, fodder and

occasionally wild honey, medicinal herbs and tree nuts. Quite often

these forests may be formally owned by governments but local people

have unwritten rights to them, said Chhatre. Many countries have

recently introduced policies that make these rights more formal, for

example so that the local population can now assist forest departments

in enforcing laws that address forest protection and sustainability.

" Our analysis suggests that national policies need to provide greater

recognition to effect local enforcement of forest laws, " Chhatre told

environmentalresearchweb. " This is likely to improve forest cover,

reduce deforestation and forest degradation. "

http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/futures/35679

 

24) Forestry is key to tackling climate change. However, new

methodologies and trading structures are needed if the sector is to be

included in carbon trading schemes in order to slow rates of

de-forestation. Speaking after the conclusion of the UN Climate talks

in Ghana, Barry Gardiner MP, Chair of the Forestry Dialogue for GLOBE

International, and the UK Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Forestry,

said: " I applaud the UNFCCC negotiators for getting forestry onto the

agenda and accepted by all parties as a vital part of the climate

talks. However, it is crucial we now develop a model which delivers

maximum benefits to all countries. " " This means creating a market

which pays for forests - actual standing stock - and not just avoided

deforestation, as is the current model. Politicians must regulate the

trading structures so that the financial markets can be used to

benefit forests, not structure regulations so that forests can be used

to benefit the financial markets. " Mr Gardiner has laid out a set of

proposals, contained in an article - Paying for Forests - to

contribute to GLOBE International's Commission on Land Use Change &

Ecosystems, which will be formally launched at its first meeting to be

held in the Mexican Congress in November 2008. One area the Commission

will consider is how forestry is currently being addressed within the

UNFCCC negotiations. Mr Gardiner outlined several concerns with the

current model of avoided deforestation including problems in

measurement and possible perverse incentives to increase rates of

deforestation. Instead he proposed a new system of tree-centred

financial markets. This would allow countries to be issued credits

over a 100-year cycle, more closely reflecting natural life-cycles of

forests. Every year a country's total standing forest should be

measured and the country authorised to issue credits corresponding to

one per cent of measured stock. This means that over the 100 year

cycle the total forest cover will be accounted for.

http://www.mhwmagazine.co.uk/index.asp?show=newsArticle & id=5606 & country=

 

 

25) FSC's forthcoming 3-yearly General Assembly in Cape Town, South

Africa, looks like it will be a farcical exercise in

corporate-sponsored public relations, whilst the disparity between

what the organisation likes to think it is doing and what it is

actually doing continues to grow. Nothing illustrates FSC's absurd

self-deception better than the field trip planned for the pleasure of

assembly participants. FSC's invite to this promises that " FSC has

organized a field trip to one of the most beautiful nature reserves

near Cape Town - the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve. Mammals like

leopards, hone (sic) badgers, baboons, klipspringers and mongooses

call the reserve home....A visit to FSC certified pine plantations is

a distinctive element of this field trip " . What FSC's members and

guests will no doubt not be taken to is the certified plantation

operations of Global Forest Products in South Africa's easterly

Mpumalanga Province. Here, they would be able to get much closer to

the native wildlife, albeit that it would probably be dead: against

the protests of local conservationists, GFP has been trapping and

shooting the local baboon population, evidently in an attempt to

protect the plantations that have been established on the primate's

habitat and which they evidently wish to carry on living in.

http://www.fsc-watch.org/archives/2008/09/04/Wildlife_slaughter_a

 

26) One of my all time favorite websites is Dr. Leslie Taylor's

Rain-tree.com and my favorite section of the website is the plant

database she has painstakingly compiled. It is a database of the many

plants and herbs used by indigenous peoples of the Brazilian and South

American rain forests and it has information about historical uses,

modern studies, plant compounds, side effects and more for each plant,

as well as beautiful photos of each and every plant. I urge everyone

to go take a look and browse a bit -- words alone are not sufficient

to describe it to fully appreciate it. Here is the link to the common

plant name database: (http://www.rain-tree.com/plist.htm) You can also

search by botanical name, ethnic uses, conditions and actions. As an

example, some of the plants used by indigenous peoples for

cancerinclude: http://www.naturalnews.com/024079.htmlRuhong Li, J.

Buongiorno, J.A. Turner, S. Zhu and J. Prestemon assessed the impact

on the world forest sector of a progressive elimination of illegal

logging. The analysis compared predictions from 2007 to 2020, with and

without a gradual reduction of illegally logged industrial roundwood

from 2007 to 2011. A large part of the curtailment of timber supply

due to the stoppage of illegal logging would be compensated by

increased legal production incited by higher prices. As a result,

without illegal logging the world annual production of industrial

roundwood would decrease by no more than 1%, even though it would

decrease by up to 8% in developing countries. World prices would rise

by 1.5 to 3.5% for industrial roundwood and by 0.5 to 2% for processed

products, depending on the assumption on illegal logging rates. World

consumer expenditures for wood products and producer revenues would

rise by 1 to 2% without illegal logging. World value added in forest

industries would remain the same. However, the changes in consumer

expenditures would be more than double the changes in producer

revenues in countries dependent on illegally logged timber of domestic

or foreign origin such as Indonesia and China. Symmetrically, changes

in producer revenues would be almost twice the changes in consumer

expenditures in countries with little illegal logging and efficient

industries, such as Canada, Germany and the United States. Value added

in forest industries would decrease most in countries with heavy

illegal logging (12% in Indonesia and up to 9% in Brazil), and it

would increase most in Germany, Canada (4%), and the United States

(2%). Without illegal logging, the world forest inventory would

increase slightly, as the increase in developing countries would more

than compensate the decrease in developed countries.

 

27) 'The human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind

virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening

the human future, " warned Worldwatch Institute and listed the harm we

meat eaters cause to deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air

and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social

injustice, the destabilization of communities and the spread of

disease. I wonder whether eating your meat rare is better for the

environment? The Brits, of course, say the United States is the

biggest offender, backing the charge with this comment from Raj Patel,

author of " Stuffed and Served. " " The average meat eater in the US

produces about 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide more than a vegetarian every

year. That's because animals are hungry and the grain they eat takes

energy, usually fossil fuels, to produce, " he says. The top UN

climatologist explain the value of his one-day-a-week meat ban: " In

terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about

reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most

attractive opportunity, " said Pachauri, an Indian economist and a

vegetarian. " Give up meat for one day [a week] initially and decrease

it from there, " he added.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/secretingredients/archives/148174.asp

 

28) Data from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) show that

13 million hectares of forests are lost every year due to

deforestation. Although the rate of forest loss is going downward, the

slow progress is still not enough to cover what has already been lost.

According to FAO, for the 2000 – 2005 period, 37 countries lost at

least one percent of their forest cover every year. In contrast, only

20 countries managed to expand their forest covers by at least one

percent. Deforestation skews ecological equilibrium, often with

disastrous consequences. Forests are home to a variety of species, all

of which rely on each other for survival. The loss of a specie's

habitat could spell extinction for that particular specie, which could

trigger a domino effect in the food chain. With a diminishing forest

cover, a community is more prone to flashfloods and landslides since

there are no more trees to hold the soil together. The people of

Aurora, a Philippine province, know this all too well. When a typhoon

hit the province in 2004, it triggered a flashflood – blamed on

rampant illegal logging in the province - which claimed the lives of

thousands of people. In the aftermath, thousands of illegally cut logs

were seen floating – along with the bodies of victims who drown in the

flood. http://hain-news.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-price-development.html

 

29) Only an idiot with the foresight of a slug could ignore our

current trajectory - and that includes the millionaire sport heroes,

actors, and entrepreneurs who have benefited directly from our

collective resource exploits. In their article entitled Deforestation,

mosquitoes, and Ancient Rome: lessons for today, Lara O'Sullivan and

colleagues discuss the evidence from Ancient Rome that deforestation

rapidly increased the prevalence of malarial diseases. They also go on

to cite several examples from the modern world where deforestation

appears to be linked to greater manifestation of diseases like

malaria. The evidence isn't just linked to Africa and the Amazon, but

the authors suggest that the incidence of mosquito-borne diseases in

Australia such as Ross River fever may also be on the rise as forests

are quickly degraded and destroyed. In two previous posts (see here

and here), I commented on the escalating biodiversity crisis in the

tropics driven largely by habitat loss (i.e., deforestation) - add

increasing human disease to the long list of negatives associated with

degrading or disappearing ecosystem services such as increased

frequency and severity of floods, reduced food provision, reduced

availability of clean water, reduced pollination, etc. We MUST educate

the masses with the increasing body of scientific evidence that our

behaviour is self-defeating (see previous post on this issue). Indeed,

it's no longer the days of the capitalists versus the 'greenies' - the

rapid decline in the quality of human life and and our own survival is

affecting all of us, including the wealthy. In fact, I would argue

that environmentalism has fully developed as the principal rationale

in conservation ecology, such that it has become much less of an

esoteric struggle for maintaining all things beautiful (the capitalist

viewpoint of the traditional 'greeny'), to a science-driven means to

maintain human life and prosperity. Can we afford to continue along

this path? Definitely not.

 

30) This article examines the relationship between local enforcement

and forests used as commons. It uses a unique multi-country dataset,

created over the past 15 years by the International Forestry Resources

and Institutions Research Program. Drawing on original enforcement and

forest commons data from 9 countries, we find that higher levels of

local enforcement have a strong and positive but complex relationship

to the probability of forest regeneration. This relationship holds

even when the influence of a number of other factors such as user

group size, subsistence, and commercial importance of forests, size of

forest, and collective action for forest improvement activities is

taken into account. Although several of the above factors have a

statistically significant relationship to changes in the condition of

forest commons, differences in levels of local enforcement strongly

moderate their link with forest commons outcomes. The research, using

data from diverse political, social, and ecological contexts, shows

both the importance of enforcement to forest commons and some of the

limits of forest governance through commons arrangements. Ashwini

Chhatre and Arun Agrawal, Department of Geography, University of

Illinois, 232 Davenport MC-150, 607 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL

61801; and ‡School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of

Michigan, 3502 Dana Building, 440 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

 

 

31) Old-growth forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at

rates that vary with climate and nitrogen deposition. The sequestered

carbon dioxide is stored in live woody tissues and slowly decomposing

organic matter in litter and soil. Old-growth forests therefore serve

as a global carbon dioxide sink, but they are not protected by

international treaties, because it is generally thought that ageing

forests cease to accumulate carbon. Here we report a search of

literature and databases for forest carbon-flux estimates. We find

that in forests between 15 and 800 years of age, net ecosystem

productivity (the net carbon balance of the forest including soils) is

usually positive. Our results demonstrate that old-growth forests can

continue to accumulate carbon, contrary to the longstanding view that

they are carbon neutral. Over 30 per cent of the global forest area is

unmanaged primary forest, and this area contains the remaining

old-growth forests. Half of the primary forests (63108 hectares) are

located in the boreal and temperate regions of the Northern

Hemisphere. On the basis of our analysis, these forests alone

sequester about 1.360.5 giga tonnes of carbon per year. Thus, our

findings suggest that 15 per cent of the global forest area, which is

currently not considered when offsetting increasing atmospheric carbon

dioxide concentrations, provides at least 10 per cent of the global

net ecosystem productivity8. Old-growth forests accumulate carbon for

centuries and contain large quantities of it. We expect, however, that

much of this carbon, even soil carbon9,will move back to the

atmosphere if these forests are disturbed. Sebastiaan Luyssaert, E.

Detlef Schulze, Annett Borner, Alexander Knohl Dominik, Hessenmoller

Beverly E. Law, Philippe Ciais & John Grace

 

32) Contrary to the national " carbon budgets " as outlined in the Kyoto

Protocol, a new analysis in Nature suggests that old growth forests

are " carbon sinks " and they continue to absorb carbon dioxide from the

atmosphere and mitigate climate change for centuries. Old growth

forests around the world are not protected by international treaties

and have been considered of no significance in the Kyoto Protocol.

That perspective was largely based on findings of a single study from

the late 1960s and these scientists now say it needs to be changed. An

analysis of 519 different plot studies found that about 15 percent of

the forest land in the Northern Hemisphere is unmanaged primary

forests with large amounts of old growth, and that rather than being

irrelevant to the Earth's carbon budget, they may account for as much

as 10 percent of the global net uptake of carbon dioxide. " Carbon

accounting rules for forests should give credit for leaving old growth

forest intact, " researchers from Oregon State University and several

other institutions concluded in their report. " Much of this carbon,

even soil carbon, will move back to the atmosphere if these forests

are disturbed. " In forests anywhere between 15 and 800 years of age,

the study said, the net carbon balance of the forest and soils is

usually positive – meaning they absorb more carbon dioxide than they

release. " If you are concerned about offsetting greenhouse gas

emissions and look at old forests from nothing more than a carbon

perspective, the best thing to do is leave them alone, " said Beverly

Law, professor of forest science at OSU and director of the AmeriFlux

network, a group of 90 research sites in North and Central America

that helps to monitor the current global " budget " of carbon dioxide.

Forests use carbon dioxide as building blocks for organic molecules

and store it in woody tissues, but that process is not indefinite. In

the 1960s, a study using 10 years worth of data from a single

plantation suggested that forests 150 or more years old give off as

much carbon as they take up from the atmosphere, and are thus " carbon

neutral. "

http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/which_forests_are_the_best_carbo\

n_sinks_new_study_says_old_growth_deserves_a_new_look