Region Archives: International

In 2023 and 2024 the world’s forests absorbed only a quarter of the carbon dioxide they did in the beginning of the 21st century, according to data from the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch. Those back-to-back years of record-breaking wildfires hampered forests’ ability absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide, curbing some of the global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions. Those two years also marked the first time wildfires surpassed logging or agriculture-driven deforestation as the biggest factor lowering forests’ carbon-capturing ability. It’s an emerging pattern that’s different from the last big drop, in 2016 and 2017, which was largely the result of increased deforestation for agriculture. …Other recently published studies suggest that climate change is making extreme-forest-fire years more common, and the worst events more frequent and intense. …“We’re reaching the point where global warming is feeding the warming,” said Werner Kurz, an emeritus scientist for the Canadian Forest Service. [A subscription to the New York Times is required to access the full story]

Anthony Albanese

AUSTRALIA – The Albanese government was so worried a court case could halt native forest logging in northern New South Wales that it drew up plans to essentially sidestep federal environment laws in the event of a loss, documents released under freedom of information laws reveal. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, played a key role as the commonwealth and NSW governments worked to ensure some logging could continue in the face of any “adverse decision” and to manage a potentially volatile situation between loggers and environmentalists. In the end the governments won the case … despite the fact that the RFA was amended in 2018 without fresh scientific studies regarding the impact on threatened species. …If the federal and state governments had lost, there could have been an immediate halt to logging and lengthy processes to assess areas under the commonwealth’s environment laws. The government was concerned [this] could lead to environmentalists demanding an end to logging.

Alastair Collier is right to point out that to build forests that can withstand future conditions, we must invest in resilience from the outset (Britain’s forests need help to adapt to the changing climate Letters, 17 July). At Forestry England, forest resilience is our most critical challenge. We must ensure the nation’s 1,500 forests in our care can withstand and adapt to the threats facing them, including climate change, biodiversity loss, extreme weather, and pests and diseases. We are doing this by planning 100 years ahead in the way we manage these beautiful places, which are home to some of the UK’s rarest wildlife. …The benefits of the nation’s forests are enormous, from storing carbon and mitigating floods to supporting our health and wellbeing. They are an unsurpassed national asset. As their custodians, we are putting forest resilience at the heart of everything we do.

@Wikipedia

Lightning may strike in an instant, but its ecological toll lingers for years. According to a new global study published in Global Change Biology, lightning directly kills approximately 320 million trees each year — a number that rivals other major causes of forest disturbance but has gone largely unrecognized. These deaths release an estimated 0.21–0.30 gigatons of carbon annually, underscoring lightning’s surprising role in shaping forest structure and the global carbon cycle. While lightning has long been associated with wildfires, its direct impact on tree mortality has rarely been quantified. To address this gap, researchers at the Technical University of Munich integrated lightning mortality into a dynamic global vegetation model known as LPJ-GUESS. …Most of this mortality occurs in tropical Africa, where both lightning density and the prevalence of tall, vulnerable trees are high. However, the study also found that as climate change intensifies thunderstorms, lightning-induced tree deaths could increase in temperate and boreal forests.

At the southern tip of Europe’s largest river island, the ground falls away into a vast and unexpected vista. From a high, rocky ledge on Khortytsia Island, the view opens on to a sea of swaying young willows and mirrored lagoons. Some of the trees are already many metres tall, but this is a young forest. Just a few years ago, all of it was under water. “This is Velykyi Luh – the Great Meadow,” says Valeriy Babko, a retired history teacher and army veteran, standing on the former reservoir shoreline at Malokaterynivka village. For him, this extraordinary new-old environment represents more than nature alone. “It is an ancient, mythic terrain, woven through Ukrainian folklore,” he says. “Think of all those Cossacks galloping through its valleys of forests so dense the sun barely pierced them.”

The General Directorate of Forestry (OGM) under Türkiye’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has issued a stark warning, urging extreme caution as temperatures are forecast to rise by 6 to 12 degrees Celsius between July 19 and 25. As record-breaking summer heat and dry winds sweep across the Mediterranean basin, Türkiye is once again on the front lines of a growing global crisis: forest fires. Citing meteorological data, the OGM emphasized that a combination of soaring heat, low humidity and wind can create a dangerous trifecta, fueling wildfires that spread rapidly and with devastating intensity. “Even a moment of carelessness can ignite a fire of catastrophic scale,” the statement read. Citizens are urged not to burn brush, discard cigarette butts, light open fires or leave glass bottles in nature during this critical period. With 86% of wildfires caused by human activity, the risk is real and preventable.

Subhra Bhattacharjee

The Forestry Stewardship Council, a voluntary global certification was established in 1993 by environmentalists, Indigenous groups, human rights advocates and the timber industry to help ensure sustainable forestry practices. A recent report has raised alarm over the implementation of the remedy framework, which allows companies to reclaim certification if they redress past environmental and social harms. Mongabay interviewed FSC’s new director-general, Subhra Bhattacharjee, who stressed Indonesia’s role in how the remedy framework will be implemented worldwide. “When you think of Indonesia, you think of these lush natural tropical forests. You think of the breadth of the biodiversity … sometimes it takes my breath away, the kind of biodiversity we have. The world depends on these natural tropical forests,” she says.

STOCKHOLM — Qarlbo Biodiversity has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Woodland Biofuels to supply up to 500,000 tons of sustainably harvested pine forest thinnings from properties it manages using its Nature+ Forest Management Strategy. This agreement marks a significant milestone in implementing the Nature+ Strategy, an innovative approach to ecological stewardship that goes beyond traditional forestry methods. Designed for biomass-intensive industries, the strategy ensures a sustainable supply of biomass by combining biodiversity conservation, native species restoration, and responsible forestry production. This integrated approach helps sequester carbon, generate biodiversity credits, and promote resilient, high-performing forest ecosystems. …The pine forest thinnings supplied under this MOU will come from Qarlbo Biodiversity’s expanded properties in the U.S. 

Russia’s timber industry is warning of widespread production shutdowns as the sector reels from Western sanctions, declining demand and a surging ruble that has battered the country’s export competitiveness. …The Russian Association of Organizations and Enterprises of the Pulp and Paper Industry described the current moment as one of the industry’s most difficult periods in modern history. Industry data show that timber harvesting fell 13% in 2024 compared with pre-war levels in 2021, lumber production dropped 11% and plywood output declined 23%. Even pulp production, one of the sector’s more stable outputs, decreased by 3%. Major industry players including Segezha Group and ULK Group have been restructuring loans over the past two years in response to falling output, sliding prices and soaring costs. But the situation has continued to deteriorate, especially within the export-heavy pulp and paper sector. Compounding the problem is the Central Bank’s steep 20% key interest rate along with a hike in the profit tax rate from 20% to 25%.

BRUSSELS – Wildfires have scorched hotspots in several Mediterranean countries this month, with blazes forcing thousands of people into lockdown in Catalonia in Spain, and encroaching on France’s second-biggest city of Marseille. …European wildfires have burnt 227,000 hectares of land since the beginning of the year – more than double the average for this time of year over the past two decades, according to the EU’s European Forest Fire Information System. …It’s not yet clear if 2025 will be a record year, as that will depend on how the fire season evolves in the coming months. The number of fires in Europe has also surged this year so far, with 1,118 blazes detected as of July 8, versus 716 in the same period last year, EFFIS said. …Scientists say the Mediterranean region’s hotter, drier summers put it at high risk of wildfires. …Climate change exacerbates this risk , by creating hotter and drier background conditions.

Oak trees change their fine roots and ‘energise’ soil microbes by supplying them with a cocktail of small organic compounds, all to supplement the trees’ supply of essential nutrients when exposed to higher levels of carbon dioxide. Researchers at the unique University of Birmingham Institute of Forest Research’s Free Air CO2 Enrichment (BIFoR-FACE) outdoor forest research facility discovered that trees growing in a CO2-rich atmosphere tactically choreograph in-soil trading of carbon for nutrients through “do it yourself” and “outsourcing” strategies.Perspex-sided root boxes, buried in the forest, allowed scientists at BIFoR-FACE access to the soil and roots below giant ~180 years old English oak trees growing in what is expected to be a mid-21st-century atmosphere; that is, an atmosphere containing over a third more CO2. The trees demonstrated their ability to respond to the change of atmosphere by adjusting multiple carbon investment strategies for sourcing soil nutrients.

The current glorious weather provides an opportunity for all to recreate and enjoy. However, such weather patterns give rise to extreme fire risk. Teagasc Forestry advisors tell us more on the nature of such risks and offer practical advice on mitigating forest fire danger threats. On July 10, 2025, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine issued a Condition Red – Extreme Forest Fire Risk up to Monday July 14. Under such extreme fire risk conditions, any ignition source in dry vegetation will give rise to rapid and unpredictable wildfire development and spread. Such fires can be expected to cover extensive areas and pose extreme difficulties to suppression efforts and may potentially give rise to major emergency scenarios. Such conditions require very high vigilance, particularly in areas with intensive public access and recreational use. …Lighting open fires or barbeques in or around forest areas pose a huge risk and should not occur.

Last year, more than 112 thousand hectares of dry forests were listed in the Estonian Natura 2000 habitats. These are forests with minimal anthropogenic load, and in Estonia they are overgrown dunes, old natural forests and spruce forests with rich ground cover. The Estonian Environmental Service, the University of Tartu and the Estonian University of Life Sciences are jointly developing a plan for the maintenance of dry forests. Taavi Tattar, Head of the Nature Conservation Planning Department of the Environmental Service, pointed out that dry forests are in poor condition both in Estonia and throughout Europe. “They’re either too uniform in age or have impoverished structure. Certain species need forests with diverse structures for their life and activities, coarse woody debris, dead trees, and so on. On a broader scale, diverse forests are also more resistant to disease and better able to adapt to climate change,” Tattar said.

A new paper published in Nature Communications reveals how the way tree species are arranged in a forest can help optimise ecosystem functioning and productivity. The study was conducted using empirical field data combined with advanced computer models and simulations by researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig University, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). The researchers simulated virtual forests with multiple arrangements of tree species, such as block and mini-block designs, plantings in single and double lines, and fully random distributions. These simulations incorporated real data from the BEF-China (Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning) experiment, including tree growth models (based on field inventories), litterfall collections, and decomposition rate measurements. This data allowed the researchers to model the effect of spatial arrangement on ecosystem functions, such as tree productivity, nitrogen, and carbon cycling.

Brazil once again leads the world in the loss of primary tropical forests. New data shows the country accounted for 42% of global primary rainforest loss in 2024, largely due to widespread fires throughout the nation and in neighboring Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. The 2024 spike in Amazon forest loss was due in large part to one of the worst fire seasons on record. But what’s often missed is the fact that recent fires in tropical primary forests are by no means a “natural” disaster. Rather, the conflagration represents a perfect storm of climate change-induced environmental conditions, governance failures and unchecked, organized criminality. Fires in the Amazon are largely started by arson and related criminal activity accompanying agriculture, logging, mining and road building. In fact, a recent survey of government data concluded that 91% of forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon is linked to illegal activity like land-clearing for agriculture and artisanal mining, often orchestrated by well-structured international criminal enterprises.

A new study in The Journal of Cleaner Production confirms that Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification contributes to maintaining and increasing forest cover, especially in lower-middle income countries. These findings reinforce the conclusions of previous research and provide insights on adapting regional certification strategies to increase sustainable forest management. The study investigated the critical role of FSC certification in promoting sustainable forest management and mitigating deforestation across diverse economic and climatic contexts. Using dynamic panel data model and Generalized Method of Moments estimations on 70 countries from 2000 – 2021, the researchers examined forest cover as a measure for impact of FSC certification. Results indicate that FSC certification contributes to maintaining and increasing forest cover across diverse economic and climatic contexts. This positive impact is most strongly observed in lower-middle income countries. Scaling up certification and integrating it into national policies could benefit countries of this economic category.