Region Archives: International

For more than 25 years, the IKEA-launched Sow a Seed project has contributed to the restoration of rainforests in Malaysian Borneo. Today marks the launch of a new phase, the Living Rainforest Restoration Lab, shifting focus toward research and knowledge sharing on these vital ecosystems. The journey started in 1998, when IKEA’s founder Ingvar Kamprad initiated what would become Sow a Seed; a long standing and large-scale restoration project in the rainforests of Borneo. Jointly headed by SLU and the Malaysian Sabah Foundation, Sow a Seed is one of the world’s longest standing restorations of its kind. This program is exceptional in its commitment to long-term impact. By combining a rare 25-year legacy of restoration work with a funding model spanning two consecutive decades, it creates a unique platform for generating knowledge that simply cannot emerge from short-term research, says Petter Axelsson, researcher at SLU within the Sow a Seed-programme.

AUSTRALIA — Tasmania’s public native forestry company has corrected the record in a parliamentary committee after earlier stating that all logs from public native forests were processed in Tasmania. Tasmanian sawmill operator James Neville-Smith confirmed that some logs had been sent to Victoria, where processors had received compensation from the Victorian government as part of its industry shutdown. Mr Neville-Smith said the decision was due to retooling a sawmill to be plantation-only, meaning that hardwood logs needed to be processed elsewhere. Logs displaying stickers from Tasmanian state forests were also spotted at a mill in Powelltown, in the Yarra Valley, that was also a recipient of millions in Victorian compensation payments. Victoria phased out native forest logging in 2024. Since then, environmental groups have raised concerns about large quantities of logs being transported to Victoria on the Spirit of Tasmania, but were told that all were from private forests.

JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL’s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world’s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation process. In late May, APRIL announced it was reviewing its decade-old Sustainable Forest Management Policy 2.0 and lowering its deforestation cutoff date from 2015 to Dec. 31, 2020. The move allows the pulp and paper producer to source wood from PT Industrial Forest Plantation and PT Mayawana Persada, two companies that have experienced some of the country’s largest recent forest losses. APRIL said the decision was necessary to address fibre shortages after the Indonesian government revoked the operating permits of four of its long-term suppliers earlier this year, affecting around 15% of its wood supply in Riau Province.

During the 1930s, Italy’s government launched a sweeping reforestation effort in the Prealps region near Lake Como, planting fast-growing Norway spruce on land that had been pasture and meadow for centuries. It was a conscious decision, made mainly to answer the demand for timber, but it did not involve much ecological thinking. Now, 90 years later, a new study has gone back to measure what that decision actually did to the landscape, and the results are not flattering. According to the study, ‘Long-Term Ecological Impacts of Norway Spruce Plantations on Biodiversity and Microhabitat Conditions’ published in the journal Ecosystems by researchers at the University of Milan and the University of Lausanne, scientists compared century-old spruce plantations to nearby native deciduous forests. The study found that plant diversity in spruce plantations was 50.3% lower than in nearby native forests and 74.5% lower than in the grasslands.

It’s a freezing, foggy morning as the Searoad Mersey II docks at Melbourne Port. We’ve had a tip-off that the truck we’re looking for is on board. …Trees from Tasmania’s public forests are not meant to leave the island. But two years after Victoria banned logging in its own state forests, Four Corners has discovered there are Victorian sawmills now relying heavily on Tasmania for supply. In some cases, Victorian taxpayers are even subsidising the practice. …It’s clear this sawmill, in a state that’s banned native logging in public forests, has shifted its supply. …The state government told Four Corners no logs from public forests like these were leaving the island to be processed interstate. …The environmentalists reckon they’ve spent hundreds of hours at the Devonport ferry terminal, in the state’s north, watching logs leave the island.

JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL made recent changes that are concerning to environmental groups. These changes include suspending and reviewing its flagship sustainability policy, lowering its deforestation commitments, and sourcing wood from two companies responsible for some of Indonesia’s largest recent forest losses. The company, part of the Singapore-headquartered Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) group, the world’s largest manufacturer of viscose rayon, said the changes are needed to align its policies with international standards and secure fiber supplies following the loss of several long-term suppliers. Environmental groups, however, said the move weakens a key safeguard that APRIL has long cited as evidence of its no-deforestation commitments. The controversy centers on APRIL’s decision to add Indonesian concessions PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP) and PT Mayawana Persada (Mayawana) askey wood suppliers, integral to manufacturing viscose.

Forest owners in the wildfire-hit regions of North Gyeongsang (Gyeongbuk), South Gyeongsang (Gyeongnam), and Ulsan will be able to reduce the financial burden of removing fire-damaged trees. The Korea Forest Service said Tuesday it will pursue a measure to “replace logging permit documents for the removal of fire-damaged trees” in order to help forestry workers in the wildfire-hit areas of Gyeongbuk, Gyeongnam, and Ulsan return to forest management. …The Korea Forest Service found that because fire-damaged trees are sold at lower prices than normal standing trees in ordinary forests, the cost of the technical services required to prepare the logging quantity survey report was being borne by forest owners. It improved the relevant regulations through a review by the agency’s Active Administration Committee.

OFUNATO, Iwate — An industry organization aimed at promoting the use of fire-damaged timber has been launched in this northeastern Japan city, in response to a forest fire that broke out here in February 2025 burning approximately 3,370 hectares. The organization, named “TEAM Shinrin Saisei Ofunato” … aims to address challenges surrounding the harvesting of damaged trees and expand distribution channels for related wood products. Trees can still be utilized for parts that were not burned or if the damage was limited to the bark, but they must be cut down promptly before moisture loss makes them difficult to use. By strengthening cooperation among the logging, lumber processing, and construction sectors, which are currently divided into separate segments of the wood industry, the organization hopes to make better use of the damaged timber and encourage forest owners to proceed with logging and reforestation.

Proposals to reduce forestry activity and increase protected forest areas have become an important part of the European forestry debate. However, according to a new impact assessment, such measures risk leading to lower production, tens of thousands of lost jobs, and higher societal costs – without delivering any climate benefits. A new national forestry impact analysis shows that a more restrictive Swedish forestry policy would have far-reaching consequences for the economy, employment, and energy supply. The study was conducted by Tomas Thuresson, a forestry PhD and former Head of Silviculture at the Swedish Forest Agency, together with Runar Brännlund, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Centre for Environmental and Resource Economics (CERE) at Umeå University. The report was commissioned by SCA. Jonas Mårtensson, Head of Business Area at SCA Forest, notes that the report highlights both the significant benefits of active forest management and the risks associated with seeking “simple solutions.”

New Zealand — Contorta pine trees were introduced from North America and planted with abandon across Aotearoa for erosion control, timber and shelterbelts, contorta have rapidly adapted to our environment and spread at an alarming rate into farmland and conservation land. They now infest nearly a million hectares of the South Island. As Frank Film discovered, they’ve become our worst weed. …They suck water out of river catchments, change soil biology and quickly swamp tussock grasslands and pastures, creating an acidic monoculture in which little else can survive. There are at least ten species of pine that have become problematic–including Douglas fir, Scots pine and larch, but contorta is the undisputed wilding king. Over a lifetime spent working with trees, retired tree scientist Nick Ledgard has seen this disaster unfold. Contorta, he says, “was thought to be a bit of a wonder tree, but it’s turned out not to be the case”.