Region Archives: International

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”.

NEW ZEALAND — One of the world’s largest certifiers of responsible forests is cracking down on risky work in erosion-prone forests, which could affect smaller plantation growers. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was working to reduce health and safety risks in forests that were not certified under its programme, but supplied what was known as “controlled” wood into mixed class products. The Germany-based organisation’s strict certification aimed to prevent illegal harvesting, human rights violations, to reject the use of genetically-modified organisms and protect conservation values. …FSC Australia and New Zealand senior policy manager Stefan Jensen said it was proposing significant due diligence changes in New Zealand, especially in steep and erosion-prone areas. He said the current risk assessment included one specified risk that was relatively easy for companies to meet, but more were being proposed.

Now, for the first time, scientists have compiled a global map of the mycorrhizal network, revealing an underground network of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM) threads that stretches an estimated 110 quadrillion kilometers through Earth’s soils. Around 70 percent of all plant species rely on mycorrhizal symbiosis. …evolutionary ecologist Justin Stewart of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam assembled data from 322 studies representing more than 16,000 soil cores across nine different global biomes. …Then, they used machine learning to predict the density of unseen AM networks across the world… The surprise was where these networks were strongest …Rather than clustering in tropical rainforests, the highest densities were found in places like grasslands, prairies, steppes, and wetlands. …A more worrying finding is that fungal network density was, on average, 47 percent lower in cultivated croplands. …”Mycorrhizal fungi have shaped life on earth, but we still understand too little it,” says mycologist Merlin Sheldrake.

From the rainforests of French Guiana to ancient woodlands in eastern France, thousands of hectares of forest are gaining new protections. On 9 June, France said it has created seven new biological reserves and expanded two existing ones. Together, they safeguard an additional 157,000 hectares of forest as it works toward placing 10 per cent of its land under ‘strong protection’ by 2030. “This translates into less pressure on natural environments and stronger protection for species and habitats,” says Monique Barbut, France’s minister for ecological transition, biodiversity and international climate and nature negotiations. However, the vast majority of that land – around 99.5 per cent – lies in a single reserve in French Guiana, France’s overseas territory in South America. The new reserves in metropolitan France collectively cover under 1,000 hectares. …The remaining eight reserves, spread across metropolitan France, range from the mountain forests of Bannes-Ravines in the Vosges to the Mediterranean woodlands of Pas de la Lauze in Hérault.

As demand for cobalt, gold and other minerals grows, mining is accelerating deforestation in the Congo basin – and increasing the risk of deadly Ebola outbreaks. For decades after the discovery of Ebolavirus in 1976, outbreaks of the disease were relatively small and contained, affecting a few hundred people at most. In recent years, outbreaks of Ebola have been much larger, affecting thousands and even tens of thousands of people across multiple countries. The 2014 outbreak of Ebola in west Africa infected more than 28,000 people in 10 countries on three continents. The current eruption, which began in early May and shows no signs of abating… The conventional explanation has to do with the larger and more interconnected human populations that pathogens can access. But there’s a more fundamental driver: the transformation of the underlying ecology of Ebola, which is being remade, in part, by the rising global hunger for minerals to power the hi-tech economy.

TURKEY — The Istanbul Governor’s Office announced that access to forested areas across the city, as well as lighting fires for barbecues, gas stoves, hookahs and similar purposes, will be prohibited between June 8 and Oct. 15. In a statement the governor’s office said the increase in human and vehicle activity in forest areas during the summer months raises the risk of wildfires. To prevent risks that may arise intentionally or through negligence, authorities decided to implement a series of measures. The restrictions also prohibit the burning of stubble, trees, branches and all types of vegetation for purposes such as cleaning vineyards, gardens, olive groves and agricultural fields in villages and neighborhoods, including those located within, adjacent to or otherwise connected to forest areas. There are no restrictions on picnics, sports, walking or similar activities in designated picnic and recreation areas, groves, parks, nature parks and ecotourism sites within Istanbul.

THE HOT DRY spell at the end of May was welcome sunshine after a particularly wet and miserable winter. However, the flip side of the nice weather is the near inevitability with which it is accompanied by large fires on the hills. A blaze engulfed the south Dublin Mountains as well as areas of Wicklow. National Parks and Wildlife Service described as “lit intentionally, destroying hundreds of hectares of habitat and all associated animals, insects and plants within it”. …Shocking and disruptive as these fires are, they are nothing new. According to the European Forest Fires Information System, 4,355 hectares of land in Ireland were burned in 31 fires in 2025. …In the last decade, some things have changed. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine now issues alerts in the run-up to dry spells with appeals for ‘vigilance’. …Climate change is a significant factor in this issue; 2025 was the second-warmest year on record in Ireland. 

One of the most important changes to New Zealand’s environmental regulations in recent years came into force this week. Yet outside policy circles, the forestry sector and a handful of councils, few people are likely to have noticed. The government’s freshly-amended National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry set bottom-line rules for activities ranging from afforestation and harvesting to slash management and erosion control. There is a clear need for such safeguards. Commercial forestry is one of New Zealand’s most valuable industries, generating billions of dollars in export earnings and supporting thousands of jobs. So, it needs a regulatory framework that provides certainty for long-term investment and operational decisions. But it can also have significant impacts on waterways, infrastructure, ecosystems and downstream communities if activities are not carefully managed, with recent years having provided some stark examples.

The world is losing its forests faster than it can save them, with severe consequences for the climate, biodiversity and over one billion people who depend on forests for their livelihoods, according to the United Nations’ latest Global Forest Goals Report 2026. Although many countries have expanded forest restoration efforts, strengthened governance frameworks, and improved monitoring systems, progress remains critically insufficient to halt deforestation, lift forest-dependent communities out of poverty, and meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.  “We know what to do. We need to act on the information and knowledge we have. But do we have the will to act?” said Éliane Ubalijoro, chief executive officer of Landscape Alliance, the new operating name of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR & ICRAF). That question runs through the report, which finds that existing tools, policies and institutions have yet to deliver change at the scale required.  

The UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has published detailed guidance setting out how a planned UK‑EU sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal will reshape forestry-related trade – and is urging businesses to start preparing now. In a wide‑ranging update, the department set out how the agreement would operate in practice, including the removal of most routine border checks and certification requirements for goods moving between Great Britain and the EU. But the guidance also makes clear the scale of regulatory change required, with the UK set to align dynamically with EU rules across a wide set of areas, including pesticides and plant imports. Among the most significant operational shifts set out for horticultural businesses (which includes forestry-related activities). …Further detail on transition periods and exceptions is expected later in 2026, with full implementation targeted for mid‑2027. Read the full government guidance here.

AUSTRALIA — The bans that have closed native forestry in Victoria and Western Australia, along with the campaign to extend them across NSW and Tasmania, rest on misinformation and a flawed promotion of science that cannot be squared with the published evidence. That is according to lead author John Raison, a former Chief Research Scientist at the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) with nearly five decades studying native forest ecology, writing in the journal Australian Forestry alongside fellow former CSIRO scientists Sadanandan Nambiar and Glen Kile and University of Melbourne hydrologist Leon Bren. As it stands, just 0.05% of Australia’s 132 million hectares of native forest is harvested in any year, the authors point out, a figure equal to about 1.5% of the net harvestable area and one that sits awkwardly beside anti-forestry campaigners’ claims of wholesale destruction. The harvested coupes are scattered and non-contiguous, and the law requires each to be regenerated and monitored.