Region Archives: International

The Great East Japan Earthquake tsunami in 2011 damaged a total of 2,800 hectares of coastal forest. While the damage was immense, the devastation provided an opportunity to study which coastal forests withstood the tsunami impact and why some forests fared better than others. The forests can only mitigate tsunami effects if trees remain intact during the tsunami. Recently, scientists from Yokohama National University discovered that coastal forests that contained mixed tree species bore the tsunami forces better and with less damage than monoculture forests made up exclusively of black pine. The research team published their findings in the journal Natural Hazards. …The study also found a benefit in complex tree planting arrangements compared to simple arrangements. Analysis of the visual impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake tsunami suggests that forests with complex spatial structures were more able to withstand tsunami forces.

WARSAW – The Polish government ordered a state-run company that manages more than 7 million hectares of the country’s forests to curtail logging in 10 most cherished forest areas, delivering on a campaign promise following elections last October. “We have decided to stop logging in the most valuable forest areas. It’s time to get saws out of the Polish forests,” Climate Minister Paulina Hennig-Kloska told a news briefing on Monday. Hennig-Kloska said the ministry’s decision, to be in place for six months, is a first step before a systemic solution that will further limit logging in such woodlands. According to public opinion polls, 75% of Poles believe that logging should be reduced. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has repeatedly said his government would boost protection of woodlands. Last month, more than 100 environmental groups called for a moratorium on logging in the oldest and most precious forests.

A new study highlights the harmful impact of vanilla cultivation on Madagascar’s biodiversity. An alarming 47% drop in endemic species has been observed when this spice is grown in forests. This is a worrying figure, especially as the island of Madagascar is renowned for its unique species. Nearly 90% of species are endemic to the island, according to official figures. The study, published at the end of December 2023 in the journal Natural Communications by researchers from the University of Göttingen in Germany, took a close look at trees, herbaceous plants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies and ants. …the team of researchers is advising farmers to turn to fallow land. “The good news is that farmers do not need to clear their land to obtain high yields. In fact, they can add value to the biodiversity of fallow land by growing vanilla on it”, said Dr Annemarie Wurz, lead author of the study.

BEIJING — China’s capital Beijing has been awarded the title of “National Forest City” by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the administration said on Friday. Thanks to the city’s unswerving greening efforts, its forest coverage rate has increased from 38.6 percent in 2012 to the current 44.8 percent, Cheng Jianhua, deputy secretary general of Beijing Municipal People’s Government, told a press conference. The city boasts 2,088 species of vascular plants and 608 species of terrestrial vertebrates, making it one of the most biodiverse metropolises in the world, Cheng said. “Winning the title is a full affirmation of Beijing’s persistent adherence to green development,” he said. Cheng added that the city will continue to expand ecological space, implement land greening programs, and improve the stability, sustainability and diversity of its ecosystem.

A cross-party group of British MPs have issued a “wake-up call” over the U.K. government’s plans to tackle global deforestation. In a new report out today (4 January), the environmental audit select committee (EAC) warns the intensity of U.K. consumption on the world’s forests is higher than that of China, and calls on British ministers to develop a global footprint indicator to demonstrate this impact to the public. It also calls on ministers to set a firm target to reduce the UK’s impact on global deforestation and work with international partners to improve oversight on this issue, both at home and abroad. According to the committee report, the U.K. government has committed to establishing a regime to require forest-based commodities to be certified as sustainable if they are to be sold into British markets.

Additional coverage from the UK Parliament: The UK’s contribution to tackling global deforestation – Report Summary

UK Guardian, by Helena Horton: Deforestation effect of UK consumption unsustainable, say MPs

The new version of FSC-STD-30-010 Controlled Forest Management Standard V3-0 is now published on 01 January 2024 with major changes in the structure and the contents of the standard. This standard specifies basic requirements applicable at the forest management level for organizations to demonstrate that the materials produced and supplied from those management units conform to the requirements specified in the 5 categories of this standard. This new version replaces Controlled Wood Standard for Forest Management Enterprises V2-0. The revision of the standard FSC-STD-30-010 was triggered by the Strategy for FSC Mix products and Controlled Wood. The strategy aims at reducing reliance on all forms of Controlled Wood and to enable a stepwise approach towards full forest management certification. The new version of the standard now uses FSC’s Principles and Criteria as the basis for Controlled Forest Management with over 70% of the International Generic Indicators now included.

Ten years ago this month, I stood with the CEO of Asia’s biggest agribusiness, Wilmar International, to announce the company’s new No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation policy. It banned deforestation, destruction of carbon rich peatlands, land-grabbing and labor rights abuse throughout their vast global supply chain – meaning that in one stroke, thousands of palm oil companies would have to comply or risk losing access to one of the biggest customers. Because Wilmar single-handedly controls more than a third of trade in the commodity, the policy was a big deal. …Over the next five years, deforestation for palm oil would plummet more than 90% and stay at low levels to this day. The paper and rubber industries, facing similar campaign pressure, would achieve similar progress. Overall, this action contributed to Indonesia reducing overall deforestation to the lowest level on record, as well as progress in Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.

A WA government ban on native logging has come into effect, preventing the state’s native hardwood trees from being chopped down and sold commercially. Typically, native WA hardwood like karri and jarrah has been used for flooring, furniture, firewood, and in garden products like mulch and sawdust. Major WA mills have already closed and timber towns have been forced to explore other industries to keep locals in work. But for West Australians outside these towns, what does the ban mean and how will it affect them? …A lot of the structural supports used in building houses, including roof framing, is made from pine, which comes from plantations. That will not be impacted. Jarrah or karri floors and furniture will be harder to come by and likely more expensive. …Ahead of WA’s ban on native logging, garden suppliers reported a shortage of woodchips and sawdust.

Warren Fenner

Victoria’s timber towns are grieving as the state’s native logging industry officially shuts down on January 1. For many people who have worked in the industry, the date is merely a formality, as some sawmills and harvesters stopped operating months ago. But Warren Fenner, who lives in in East Gippsland’s Orbost and operates out of Club Terrace, has worked in the industry his whole life, along with multiple generations of his family. …”I worked very hard to get my business to where it is now, and I wanted to build that for my family,” Mr Fenner said. …The Victorian government has established a Forestry Transition Program to support businesses, workers and communities to transition out of native timber. …But in Orbost, which is largely made up of timber workers, locals are concerned for the town’s future as many workers may have to move away for new job opportunities.

Ted Green is a rebel. And the ancient tree expert’s new book includes a photo of him sticking up two fingers at a portrait of Margaret Thatcher. But the influential, iconoclastic Green, 89, who has lived his whole life around Windsor Great Park and still works as a conservation adviser for the crown estate, is also a staunch advocate for King Charles’s protection of Britain’s unique trove of ancient trees. …Green has spent his life challenging authority and scientific orthodoxies. …For 34 years, Green helped a wide range of scientists before Thatcher’s university cuts led to his redundancy. Then he became an adviser to the crown estate at Windsor, where he remains today, renowned for connecting sometimes warring ecologists, arborists and conservationists. …If he could have one wish, it would be “for our trees to command the same respect and recognition that we give our historic buildings”, he says. “Trees are living heritage.”

Journal Editorial Report: Paul Gigot interviews Bjorn Lomborg on COP28.

JAKARTA – Indonesia said on Friday that it would slap palm oil companies operating within forest areas with fines amounting to a total of 4.8 trillion rupiah ($310.1 million). More than 475 billion rupiah ($30.7 million) in fines have been issued so far, an official from the ministry of Maritime Affairs and Investment Firman Hidayat told reporters, who did not provide further details or identify the companies fined. Indonesia said last month it had identified some 200,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in areas designated as forests, which are expected to be returned to the state to be converted back into forests. Indonesia, the world’s biggest palm oil producer and exporter, issued rules in 2020 to sort out the legality of plantations operating in areas that are supposed to be forests, aimed at fixing governance in the sector.

Some have recently questioned whether forests really are the climate solution they have long been held to be. This is because some emit great quantities of carbon, while the markets set up to finance them have stumbled. But there is no pathway to a livable climate without saving our intact forests, regrowing some, and finding a more straightforward way to pay for them than carbon offset projects. A 2021 study led by Brazilian scientists established that the Amazon was emitting more carbon dioxide than it was absorbing. The paper mirrored a 2019 analysis of Canadian forests, which showed they had been net emitters since 2001. …Globally, however, forests continue adding vastly more carbon than they are losing. The other challenge to forests’ reputation is the carbon-offset markets set up to finance tree protection and planting. …As a second priority, we need to bring forests back. About half of the globe’s woods have been cleared

Campaigners have demanded the state government do more than save the last 1800 hectares of Perth’s pine plantations for the endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoo, calling this a flimsy lifeline. After years of lobbying by Save the Black Cockatoos, the government has withdrawn its plans to log the final fragment of what had become the primary food source for the birds’ remaining Perth-Peel population as its original food source, banksia woodland, has been largely cleared for urban development. …Environment Minister Reece Whitby said the government acknowledged logging in the area was not a sustainable long-term option to support WA’s timber supply. …Paddy Cullen, a spokesman for Save the Black Cockatoos, an alliance comprising Birdlife WA, the Conservation Council of WA, WA Forest Alliance, The Wilderness Society and the Urban Bushland Council of WA, said the group welcomed the news, but it would take much more to save the species from extinction.

2023 began with the promise of progress. The Global Biodiversity Framework had just been signed at COP15 in Montreal, setting humanity on a mission to protect and restore a third of planet before decade’s end — a goal that will halt and reverse wildlife loss while helping fight climate change. An Environics survey we released last January showed Canadians are overwhelmingly behind this mission too: 77 per cent believe we’re at a crisis point and must act in the next 10 years to reverse biodiversity loss, and half of Canadians want the federal government to make its 30×30 target of protecting 30 per cent of lands and waters by 2030 a top priority. Then, of course, the rest of the year saw the country, and the world, beset by the nightmarish impacts of climate change — record-shattering wildfires, floods, superstorms and heatwaves — eventually ending with the near-failure of this month’s COP28 climate summit in Dubai after “phase out fossil fuels” was removed.

New Zealand’s per-capita contribution to carbon emissions is very high by international comparison. But so too is its potential to mitigate climate change by planting forests to quickly sequester large amounts of carbon. There is sometimes passionate debate about how best to do this. Should we continue establishing radiata pine plantations, or focus instead on planting New Zealand native trees? Arguments for and against each option exist – but there is also a third way that could achieve the best of both worlds: planting radiata pine forests that are not harvested, but instead transitioned over time into native forests through targeted management. We need to cut emissions drastically. But we also need to remove as much CO₂ from the atmosphere as possible, especially over the next 20 years. A transitional forest model is a powerful way to help achieve this. …This strategy will provide both permanent carbon storage and carbon capture.

As Colombia announces it will host the next biodiversity meeting, there is cautious optimism about the progress made since Cop15. Governments risk another decade of failure on nature loss if they do not implement a landmark agreement in full, the UN’s acting biodiversity chief has warned, 12 months after the deal was struck. As anticipation begins for the next summit – which was confirmed last week to be hosted by Colombia – the legacy and implementation of the last, historic agreement remains uncertain. …Looking back to this time last year in Montreal where, in the early hours of 19 December, governments signed a once-in-a-decade deal, it is worth remembering that the world has never met a UN target to stem the destruction of wildlife and life-sustaining ecosystems. …Cop15’s 23 targets included protecting 30% of the planet for nature, reforming billions in damaging subsidies and restoring huge areas of degraded ecosystems.

The Uganda Timber Growers Association (UTGA) has obtained an Ecosystem Services Claim alongside the expansion of its FSC-certified forest area by 1000 hectares of the West Bugwe Central Forest Reserve (CFR) in Eastern Uganda. The ES Claim verifies and confirms UTGA’s positive impacts in restoring the CFR while reversing biodiversity loss and enhancing its protection. In 2018, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) launched the Ecosystem Services Procedure, a pivotal tool that empowers FSC-certified forest managers to demonstrate the positive impacts of their management practices on specific ecosystem services. The West Bugwe Central Forest Reserve (CFR), spanning 3065 hectares, stands as one of Eastern Uganda’s last remaining natural forests. Thanks to UTGA, the West Bugwe Central Reserve became FSC-certified as part of UTGA’s group scheme, thus doubling the scheme’s certified area to more than 2000 hectares. 

The Environmental Audit Committee published its Fifth Report of Session 2022–23, Seeing the wood for the trees: the contribution of the forestry and timber sectors to biodiversity and net zero goals (HC 637) on 19 July 2023. The Government response was received on 1 December 2023. The Government agrees that the forestry and timber sectors will be crucial nature-based solutions as we work towards Net Zero and reverse the decline in biodiversity. That is why the Government has already acted or is planning action to address many of the recommendations and the wider points raised. The Government’s England Trees Action Plan (ETAP) sets out our vision for a thriving forest economy which contributes to the local economy of rural communities whilst also meeting our national objectives on climate and nature. Trees provide timber, recreational opportunities, and ecosystem services. …Government is committed to ensuring that the highest standards of sustainability underpin bioenergy use across the economy. 

Commercial logging in native forests will come to an end with the Cook Government’s Forest Management Plan 2024-2033 setting out the latest framework for managing more than 2.5 million hectares of native forest throughout Western Australia’s south-west. The plan, which was published on Friday and will come into effect from 1 January 2024, will include: An end to commercial-scale timber harvesting in native forests; Commitment to add more than 400,000 hectares of karri, jarrah and wandoo forests as nature reserves, national parks and conservation parks; Support for Traditional Owner involvement in forest management, consistent with the intent of the South West Native Title Settlement; and Promotion of healthy forests that are more resilient to climate change. The State Government’s latest Forest Management Plan was developed through extensive consultation, assessment and analysis by the Conservation and Parks Commission, which received more than 3,500 submissions when it released the draft plan for public comment.