Region Archives: International

UNDRR expresses condolences and solidarity with the people and government of Chile as they battle growing forest fires. As the death toll exceeds 100, this disaster is believed to be Chile’s deadliest forest fire on record with expectations that the death toll will grow. The Chilean National Disaster Prevention and Response Service has stated that it has delivered more than 560 tons of aid and has urged communities at risk to develop response plans and to take measures to reduce the risk of forest fires. These fires come less than two weeks after Colombia issued a disaster declaration due to raging fires and asked for international assistance. Regionally, between 2000 and 2019, an average of 33 million hectares of land are estimated to have been affected by wildfires in Latin America every year. 

AUSTRALIA — Loggers for the state government Forestry Corporation will no longer be required to search for endangered greater gliders and their den trees in known habitat areas, under changes to NSW Environment Protection Authority protocols. Instead, loggers will be compelled to protect 14 trees with hollows in them per hectare of forest, an increase from eight under previous rules, in a change the EPA chief executive Tony Chappel said would more effectively protect the animal. He said conducting surveys of the shy nocturnal animal in the past had proven difficult and unreliable. …Environment groups and the Greens have criticised the changes, saying they will lead to the deaths of more gliders. …Forestry Corporation has been criticised for conducting its surveys for the animals during the day, when they were sleeping in their hollows.

AUSTRALIA — Environmental campaigners are celebrating a win as timber harvesting operations in Victoria’s west come to an end today. VicForests announced last fortnight that all community forestry operations would end by February 5, citing the risk and cost of litigation as the reason for its decision. Community forestry operators work under Forest Product Licences, which had been due to expire at the end of June 2024, but it was unclear whether licences could have been extended beyond that date. State-owned business VicForests is facing court proceedings brought by 200-member community group Wombat Forestcare alleging it breached requirements to survey for threatened species in western Victorian forests. …The state government last year announced native timber harvesting operations in Victorian forests would end by January 1, 2024… But this did not include community forestry, which mainly operated in western Victoria by harvesting wind-thrown timber, felling single trees, or thinning

Scientists have described three new frog species that dwell exclusively in the spiky leaves of pandan trees in Madagascar’s eastern rainforests. While the frogs are new to science, locals have observed them for generations, and they’ve been given names in Malagasy. The frogs have a unique life cycle completely restricted to the trees, meaning they entirely depend entirely on intact pandan trees. Pandan trees, from the genus Pandanus, are threatened by deforestation driven by mining, agriculture and development, while slashing, burning and deforestation threaten Madagascar’s extraordinary biodiversity in general.

Josh Newton

In new research published in the journal iScience, researchers present evidence for a low-cost, noninvasive tool that can be used to monitor animals: spiderwebs. In recent years, scientists have started using environmental DNA, or eDNA, which is simply different creatures’ DNA just lying around in the environment to monitor and track animal biodiversity. Morten Allentoft, an evolutionary biologist at Curtin University in Perth, Australia looked at spider webs as big passive air filters capturing the DNA that [is] floating around. Allentoft and Josh Newton, a Ph.D. student in genetic biodiversity at Curtin University amplified small amounts of DNA collected from webs they collected in the wild, and found 11 mammals, 13 species of birds, the motorbike frog and the snake-eyed skink. The woodland analysis was also able to pick up DNA from the red fox, house mouse and black rat — invasive species that don’t belong in Australia.

SCOTLAND—Ronald Christie has 130 million trees growing on his nursery in Moray but fears many will have to be destroyed because of cuts to government funding. The seedlings were being grown for new woodlands as part of the Scottish government’s expanding forestry targets, which are critical for tackling climate change. But with the budget now being slashed, Mr Christie predicts the market will dry up leaving skilled workers out of jobs. He wants ministers to rethink cuts which he believes will damage the sector long-term. As part of its climate change commitments, the Scottish government is meant to be increasing tree-planting to 18,000 hectares annually from this year, a target would involve about 28 million trees across an area about three times the size of Dundee. …Mr Christie, the owner of Christies of Fochabers, which has operated for 200 years, described the cuts as an “absolute shocker”.

In December, the Peruvian congress passed amendments to the country’s Forest and Wildlife Law, effectively decriminalising illegal logging in the Amazon. The revised law now permits the clearing of forested lands for agricultural purposes or other economic activities without requiring consideration of the existing forest ecosystems. Notably, the law lacks environmental safeguards to ensure that these activities are conducted responsibly within forest areas. These legislative changes open the door to widespread deforestation and destruction of the country’s forests. This represents not only an environmental crisis, but is a direct attack against our human rights, the pillars of our buen vivir – our “living well” in harmony with nature. …Unfortunately, the struggle for the preservation of forests in Peru has intensified and become more dangerous in recent years. …Without forests, millions of people in Peru who indirectly and directly depend on them will not be able to enjoy their fundamental human rights. 

A sister company to Swedish furniture giant Ikea has quietly bought up more than 23,000 hectares of New Zealand forests and farmland since 2021. Ingka Investments Management NZ and Ingka Investments Forest Assets NZ were registered with the Companies Office in December 2020. Both companies are described as related to forestry and owned by Ingka Investments, a Dutch-based investment arm of Ingka Group, Ikea’s largest owner-operator. Since August 2021, the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) has granted the companies 20 consents to buy more than 23,100ha of land in plots from Southland to Bay of Plenty. …When Ingka’s early interest in buying land in New Zealand was revealed, an Ikea spokesperson said the group was “considering different opportunities, including forestry investments in the country.”

SAO PAULO, Brazil – Climate change is the main culprit for a record drought in the Amazon rainforest that has drained rivers, killed endangered dolphins and upended life for millions of people in the region, according to a new study. Global warming made the drought 30 times more likely, drove extreme high temperatures and contributed to lower rainfall, according to the analysis by World Weather Attribution. The study focused on June to November last year. The drought that hit all nine Amazon rainforest countries – including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru – is expected to worsen in 2024 after the rainy season begins to recede in May. …Researchers have said the drought could worsen forest fires, which when coupled with climate change and deforestation could push the Amazon more quickly toward a point of no return after which the biome dries out and ceases to be lush rainforest.

It’s a sign that not every indicator is pointing toward doom — though there is no room for complacency. Think of a planet in the grip of climate crisis, and many of the images in your mind will be carved from wood. Forests in Canada and Australia going up in flames; loggers in the jungles of Indonesia and Brazil chain-sawing ancient trees for lumber; monocultural fir plantations marching in geometric order up the hillsides of Scotland or Sweden. You might be surprised to discover, then, that many of the world’s woodlands are in a surprisingly good condition. The destruction of tropical forests gets so much (justified) attention that we’re at risk of missing how much progress we’re making in cooler climates. [to access the full story a Bloomberg subscription is required]

IRELAND — Forestry sales have reached an “all time high”, with year on year increases between 15-25%, according to Tradeforus Forestry Ltd. Typical prices for bare land are between €7,000 and €8,500 per acre depending on location, access, land quality and plot size, according to the business. Premium plots of Sitka Spruce, depending on age are being sold for up to €10,000 per acre. Office and auction manager Lorraine Woulfe said that “there is real interest in forestry investment at present”. She said that investments are coming from institutional forestry investment funds, semi state companies and farmers. Almost 23,000 landowners’ own forestry in Ireland now, according to Woulfe. Buyers are mainly interested in commercial conifer plantations, but more recently, there has been an upsurge of people interested in buying broadleaf plantations. The crop age, yield class and time to clearfell are also key factors for valuations. Premiums remaining to be drawn is also a factor, according to Woulfe.

The complexity of forests cannot be explained by simple mathematical rules, a study finds. …Nature is full of surprising repetitions. In trees, the large branches often look like entire trees, while smaller branches and twigs look like the larger branches they grow from. …It has long been assumed that this property, called fractality, also applies to entire forests but researchers from the University of Bristol have found that this is not the case. The study, published in the Journal of Ecology, refutes claims that the self-similarity which is observed within individual trees can be extended to whole forest canopies and landscapes. Lead author Dr. Fabian Fischer said, “…if we cannot understand the forest from its trees, and vice versa, then we must monitor forests both at small and large scales to understand how they respond to climatic changes and growing human pressure.”