Region Archives: International

As the world’s biggest importer, trillions of dollars’ worth of products from around the globe find their way into the US every year – with the amount of food imports growing in recent years. According to new analysis provided to us by Trase, US imports of seven everyday commodities were linked to the destruction of 122,800ha of tropical and subtropical forest – equivalent to an area the size of Los Angeles – in just two years. Imports of palm oil were the most significant contributor, linked to 41,500 hectares of deforestation – and making up more than a third of the US’ total exposure in this analysis. This palm oil was overwhelmingly imported from Indonesia, where deforestation trends have begun to tick back up over the last two years following a decade of decline.

Related coverage in the NY Times: Why Palm Oil Is Still a Big Problem

BRUSSELS — A group of EU countries led by Austria is calling for urgent revisions to the bloc’s anti-deforestation law set to go into effect at the end of the year. …Those rules equally apply to European farmers, who will be banned from exporting products cultivated on deforested or degraded woodlands. “The agreed overall objective of tackling deforestation in third countries must not be to the detriment of the European economy, in particular the European agriculture and forestry sector,” said the document, also signed by Finland, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden. EU leaders have in recent weeks watered down numerous environmental policies in an attempt to quell months of protests by angry farmers. …The EU countries said producers in low risk nations – a category likely to include many EU members – should be exempt from requirements, while the burden for certifying products as deforestation-free should be “drastically reduced” within the EU.

ATHENS, Greece — Greek authorities presented new plans Thursday for tackling wildfires which often ravage the country during its hot, dry summers, including changes in the deployment of firefighting aircraft and increased staffing in specialized forest firefighting units. The new plans come after massive fires last year killed more than 20 people and decimated vast tracts of forest and farmland, including a blaze in northeastern Greece which raged out of control for about two weeks, growing into the largest wildfire recorded in a European Union country since the European Forest Fire Information System began keeping records in 2000. The government has pointed to a changing climate and extreme weather that has included drier winters and more frequent summer heatwaves as contributing to an increased risk of forest fires.

The European spruce bark beetle has killed several hundred million spruce trees in Sweden and Central Europe in the last five years. A warmer climate will ultimately result in more damage also in Norwegian spruce forests. Fewer spruce trees and softer clearcut edges can prevent and mitigate future bark beetle outbreaks. …The last years, however, the spruce forests in southern Sweden and Central Europe have experienced catastrophic bark beetle outbreaks. Areas with much planted spruce are particularly hard hit by the ravages of the European spruce bark beetle. In just one year (2019), 118 million cubic meters of spruce were killed by the spruce bark beetle. …NIBIO researcher Jostein Gohli is studying fluctuations in spruce bark beetle populations. He says we now may be experiencing “the calm before the storm” in Norwegian forests. …Together with colleagues at NIBIO, Gohli recently published a scientific article identifying factors that increase the abundance of spruce bark beetles.

Wael Mostafa is a programme manager—and a volunteer firefighter—for the Association for Forests, Development and Conservation in Lebanon. The non-profit group is devoted to protecting and restoring forest landscapes, including its famed cedar trees. The association’s work falls under the banner of the Restoring Mediterranean Forests initiative, an ambitious effort to revive woodlands that span from Morocco to Lebanon. The initiative has restored 2 million hectares of forest, creating economic opportunities and helping to counter devastating wildfires in the process. The United Nations recently named the effort a 2024 World Restoration Flagship, an award that recognizes outstanding efforts to rekindle nature. The honour, which makes the initiative eligible for funding and technical support from the UN, is part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global movement to prevent and reverse the degradation of the natural world. 

Tree planting pledges have become a near-universal sign of corporate environmental commitment, despite widespread project failures, negative unintended consequences and a lack of accountability. Over 100 companies from 148 countries have pledged to the World Economic Forum’s Trillion Tree campaign. And a recent study found that 98 percent of Fortune 500 companies in France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have been involved in tree planting projects over the past two decades. … [Tree planting is] a winning issue for businesses and politicians looking to gain favor with key stakeholders. But is it the right strategy to solve the biodiversity and climate crises? Evidence suggests no, and here’s why. Tree planting programs often lead to a loss of biodiversity. …Tree planting programs are often pitched as providing economic benefits to local communities, including smallholder farmers. But they fail when planted trees are not maintained. …Planting trees is not the same as protecting or restoring forests.

The Amazon Rainforest is on fire. Or much of it, at least. On February 28, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research announced that 2,940 fires had burned in the Brazilian Amazon over the course of that month—a record-breaking number for a February. Many of them are still blazing. Real-time satellite monitoring shows that so far in 2024, more than 10,000 wildfires have ripped across 11,000 square kilometers of the Amazon, across multiple countries. Never have this many fires burned so much of the forest this early in the year. Scientists worry this is pushing the region closer and closer to a tipping point, where widespread degradation and repeated burning of the forest will become unstoppable. …“Fire is a contagious process,” says Bernando Flores, a researcher at Brazil’s Federal University of Santa Catarina, who studies changes in the Amazon. “If nothing is done, the system may eventually collapse from megafires.”

AUSTRALIA — Ponder this: If a tree falls in the forest because a storm has knocked it over, should you cart it away and make use of the wood or just let fallen logs lie? Almost three years since a savage windstorm tore through Victoria, some forests are still recovering from the catastrophe that brought down countless trees and left them strewn across the landscape. With fallen trees still prevalent in many areas, forest advocates and scientists are calling for Victoria’s windblown woods to be left alone. …But the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action insists its operations are necessary to mitigate fire hazards and minimise the risk of damaged trees falling in public areas. …David Lindenmayer, a forest ecology professor with the Australian National University, said driving heavy machinery into windblown forests inflicted further damage on them and hampered their recovery.

Thousands of Tasmanians have flooded the streets of Hobart in an effort to send a message to the next state government that native forest logging should be ended. Organisers from the Bob Brown Foundation, who spearheaded the ‘March for Forests’ event, expected a turnout of 500 but “got more than 3,000”. “There is a huge move to get rid of the logging old parties. The swing away from Liberal and Labor will only grow in the coming week,” Bob Brown said. The march down Murray Street to Parliament House, six days before the state election, drew participants from The Greens, The Wilderness Party and Aboriginal Elder Uncle Jim Everett.

ESTONIA — One of the two main quality labels in Estonia may soon disappear if the certifying body does not abandon additional requirements that the largest wood owner in Estonia, RMK, does not intend to agree with on principle. Most Estonian wood industry companies use the required FSC certificate for export markets. …Estonia has been using a temporary FSC standard because there has been no agreement on the wording of a local standard since 2016. Now, Estonia is close to agreeing on the wording for a local standard, while the proposed solution has been deemed unacceptable by the State Forest Management Center (RMK) because it includes a point about considering indigenous peoples. In Estonia, the Setos and Võros have declared themselves indigenous peoples. “The official position of the Republic of Estonia is that there are no indigenous peoples in Estonia in the terms of the UNDRIP. …Manufacturers could start using the competing PEFC certificate instead.

FSC was selected as a member of the new ‘Forest and Forestry Stakeholder Platform’ established by the European Commission. Dr. Marion Karmann, Senior Research Relations Manager, and Matteo Mascolo, Lead EU Affairs & Engagement, will represent FSC in that forum. The Platform gathers knowledge and expertise on forests and forestry-related matters. Members of the Platform will discuss the EU Forest Strategy for 2030’s implementation, policies to better monitor and protect European forests, and closer-to-nature forestry practices. …The Platform’s main responsibility is to assist the Commission in implementing existing legislation, programs, and policies, as well as fostering coordination with European Member States and facilitating exchange of views. …FSC is already supporting the EU Commission on several EU forestry policies, such as the European Union Deforestation-free Products Regulation.

BRUSSELS – The European Union’s environment policy chief will tour South America this week in an attempt to alleviate fierce criticism from the region over a landmark EU law that will ban imports of goods linked to the destruction of forests. From the end of December, the EU will require importers of soy, beef, coffee, palm oil and other commodities to provide proof their supply chain does not cause deforestation. …Countries including Brazil and Malaysia have criticised the EU law, which they say imposes trade barriers and extra costs on their economies, and is protectionist. …EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius said “We see it as a turning point in the global fight against deforestation,” he added. …The EU law banning the import of goods linked to deforestation would go into effect at the end of 2024 anyway, with all countries initially being granted a “standard” level of risk.

Most of Europe’s natural ecosystems have been lost over the centuries. However, a sizeable amount of natural old forest still exists, especially in the north. These “old-growth” forests are exceptionally valuable as they tend to host more species, store more carbon, and are more resilient to environmental change. Many of these forests are found in Sweden, part of the belt of boreal forests that circle the world through Canada, Scandinavia and Russia. But after researching these last relics of natural forest we have found they are being cleared rapidly – at a rate faster even than the Amazon rainforest. There is no direct monitoring of these forests, no thorough environmental impact assessments. …something similar is happening right across the world’s boreal forests. …we’ll need a coordinated system to map and monitor the entire boreal forest simply to learn the rate at which it is being lost. 

Jakub Truszkowski

SWEDEN — A new method of timber analysis developed by researchers from the University of Gothenburg can confidently identify the location in which the tree was harvested. The method has been developed with the aim of combating illegal timber imports from Russia and Belarus. …The researchers present their findings in a paper published in the journal Nature Plants. …Russian timber continues to be exported to the EU and the US despite imposed sanctions, by falsifying the origin of the timber. …Soil composition, environmental pollution and climate leave a chemical footprint in wood tissue, and this is what the researchers use to determine its origin. The study led to the creation of a comprehensive reference database on Eastern European timber, tailored to products under sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine. …The method is applicable all over the world. It is estimated that more than half of tropical timber may be harvested illegally.

Giant redwoods – the world’s largest trees – are flourishing in the UK and now even outnumber those found in their native range in California. The giants were first brought to the UK about 160 years ago, and a new study suggests they are growing at a similar rate to their US counterparts. An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California. However they aren’t yet as tall. In California they can reach 90m-high, but in the UK the tallest is 54.87m. But that’s because the introduced trees are still very young. …To assess how these towering giants are adapting to their UK home, scientists selected a sample of nearly 5,000 trees to study at Wakehurst, Benmore Botanic Garden in Argyllshire, Scotland and Havering Country Park in Essex. …It will be a few more centuries before the UK’s trees grow as tall as those in California.