Region Archives: International

Business & Politics

Paper Excellence rebrands as Domtar

By Nelson Bennet
Business in Vancouver
October 24, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, International

What’s in a name? For Richmond-based forestry, pulp and paper giant Paper Excellence, it’s a name that has been tinged with intrigue, so it is taking on the more venerable moniker Domtar – the name of the Canadian pulp and paper giant it acquired in 2021. Paper Excellence announced it is rebranding as Domtar. …In 2007, Paper Excellence made its appearance in Canada with the acquisition of a pulp mill in Saskatchewan. Headquartered in Richmond, B.C., it grew through a number of acquisitions. …In 2022, Paper Excellence acquired Resolute Forest Products, via Domtar. …The acquisitions made Paper Excellence one of the largest forestry, pulp and paper companies in North America. …Paper Excellence’s parentage has long troubled environmental groups like Greenpeace, which has linked Paper Excellence to Indonesia’s Asia Pulp and Paper. …Paper Excellence’s rebranding is a logical one, given Domtar’s name recognition in Canada and the US.

Related coverage in Northern Ontario Business: New signage coming for northwestern Ontario mills

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Cambodian logging syndicate tied to major U.S. wood flooring supply chains

By Gerald Flynn
Mongabay
October 21, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, International

Cambodian companies producing engineered hardwood flooring for the U.S. market are getting their timber from a company described as a cartel that’s been repeatedly accused of illegally logging inside protected areas. Angkor Plywood is the sole supplier of plywood to flooring manufacturers based in the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, and claims the wood comes from its acacia and eucalyptus plantations. However, watchdog groups, industry insiders and independent media, including Mongabay, have long documented evidence of Angkor Plywood and its supplier, Think Biotech, felling tropical hardwoods inside Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. AHF Products, which claims to be the biggest U.S. wood flooring manufacturer, runs a factory in the Sihanoukville SEZ, but denies any protected wood entering its supply chain — a claim industry veterans question, given Angkor Plywood’s notoriety.

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International Paper Announces Shareholder Approval in Connection with the Proposed Acquisition of DS Smith

By International Paper
PR Newswire
October 11, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East, International

MEMPHIS, Tennessee — International Paper announced that it received the necessary shareholder approval for its pending acquisition of DS Smith. Earlier this week, DS Smith also received the necessary shareholder approval for the Combination. International Paper will report the final vote results of the special shareholder meeting in a Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. International Paper and DS Smith continue to expect the Combination to close late in the fourth quarter of 2024, subject to regulatory clearance and other customary closing conditions. …Andy Silvernail, Chairman and CEO of International Paper. “Bringing the two companies together will create a true global leader of sustainable packaging solutions which will drive significant value for our employees, customers and shareholders.”

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EU plywood dumping probe opens new front in China trade dispute

By Andy Bounds
The Financial Times
October 10, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

The EU is launching an anti-dumping investigation into cheap plywood imports after complaints by the bloc’s domestic producers, opening another front in its trade conflict with China. EU producers say there has been a surge in cheap hardwood plywood coming from China, much of which they believe originates in Russia. Brussels banned Russian wood imports after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. …“This investigation is crucial to protect the entire EU hardwood plywood value chain,” said the Greenwood Consortium, which represents forest owners, loggers and suppliers to producers. “Unfairly priced Chinese imports — now apparently also using cheap conflict Russian timber — threaten the survival of many European businesses and jobs.” …The main EU producers are in Poland, Finland, France and the Baltic states. The EU has already put tariffs on birch plywood imports from Kazakhstan and Turkey after finding they included some Russian content. 

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Finance & Economics

Lowest UK Housing Starts Since 2009 Pose Test for Labour

By Tom Rees
BNN Bloomberg
October 25, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: International

The UK’s new Labour government entered office off the back of the worst 12 months for housing starts in England in almost 15 years, underscoring the scale of the challenge it faces to spur a construction boom. The number of new homes starting construction in the year through June collapsed to fewer than 88,000 from more than 190,000 a year earlier, Office for National Statistics data showed Friday. It was the lowest 12-month total since the end of 2009, during the housing market crash caused by the financial crisis. The UK-wide total has almost halved in a year to just over 114,000. That figure is lower than the English data alone during the pandemic — when there is a gap in national figures — and is therefore also the lowest since 2009.

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Stora Enso Sees Slower Forestry Market Recovery After Q3 Profit Miss

By Reuters
European Supermarket Magazine
October 24, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: International

Finnish forestry company Stora Enso missed market expectations for third-quarter operating profit and said it expected the gradual market recovery seen so far this year to slow down in the fourth quarter. It sees a sequential slowdown in its markets due to weak consumer board demand, corrugated board overcapacity and weakness in the construction sector. Nordic forestry firms have been suffering from weakened demand, elevated cost of wood and low pulp prices. “Pulp prices have been falling in China, the world’s largest pulp market, since the end of July,” CEO Hans Sohlstrom told Reuters, adding the prices had also fallen in Europe since then. …Stora Enso’s adjusted operating profit rose to €175 million ($189 million) in the third quarter from €21 million a year earlier.

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Forest Sector Outlook: Global Consulting Alliance

Russ Taylor Global
October 24, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: International

The Forest Sector Outlook – 2024-Q2 report features global economic and forests/industry/market updates from all continents around the world. The report includes regional reviews on local market and industry developments in wood products and timberlands for each region. This 13-page report can be found on the RUSS TAYLOR GLOBAL web site and can be downloaded here. The Forest Sector Outlook – 2024-Q2 report features global economic and forests/industry/market updates from all continents around the world. The report includes regional reviews on local market and industry developments in wood products and timberlands for each region.

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European Central Bank lowers key rate to 3.25% in third cut this year

By Jenni Reid
CNBC News
October 17, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: International

The European Central Bank on Thursday cut its key interest rate to 3.25%, in its third quarter-percentage-point reduction of the year. The move at the October meeting had been fully priced by markets after policymakers flagged reduced inflation risks and a weakening growth outlook. The ECB’s Governing Council called the process of disinflation “well on track” in its most optimistic statement in the current cycle. “The inflation outlook is also affected by recent downside surprises in indicators of economic activity,” it said. Headline price rises in the euro area eased to 1.8% in September, coming in below the central bank’s 2% target for the first time in three years. The ECB once again forecast that inflation would “rise in the coming months, before declining to target in the course of next year.” It is the first time the ECB has reduced rates at consecutive meetings since December 2011.

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European wood-based panels sector predicted to remain flat in 2025

By Stephen Powney
The Timber Trades Journal
October 11, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: International

The European wood-based panels market will start to gradually recover from mid-2025, delegates at the European Wood Based Panels symposium in Hamburg were told on October 10. Thomas Walther, of consultant Afry, told the 375-strong event that European panel markets will gradually recover after a period of decline, but demand levels by 2027 are unlikely to reach pre-Covid levels. His predictions for 2024 in the particleboard and MDF key product areas forecast a -1% demand reduction for both, with MDF down by 100,000m3 and PB by 600,000m3. Then a +1% growth is forecast in 2025 in both areas. Despite this prediction of flat business volumes in a sector which has struggled in 2023 and 2024, Mr Walther said there was some room for optimism. He referenced the falls in chemical and woodchip prices compared to two years ago as being a beneficial development for panel producers.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

UPM Biomedicals launches FibGel the world’s first injectable nanocellulose hydrogel for medical devices

UPM Biomedicals
October 24, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

UPM Biomedicals, the forerunner in producing high quality nanofibrillar cellulose for medical and life science applications, today announces the launch of FibGel™—a natural injectable hydrogel for permanent implantable medical devices. FibGel is a nanofibrillar cellulose hydrogel made from birch wood cellulose and water only, offering a safe, sustainable and biocompatible alternative for medical device developers. Designed and manufactured under ISO 13485 standards in Finland and designed for medical applications, FibGel is poised to transform the fields of soft tissue repair, orthopedics, regenerative medicine and more. Unlike synthetic and animal-derived hydrogels, FibGel is a natural hydrogel—manufactured from renewable and responsibly-sourced Finnish birch wood—offering a safe, sustainable, animal-free solution. As a stable, non-degradable material, FibGel is designed for long-lasting use in the human body without causing adverse immune reactions or the formation of fibrotic capsules common to animal-derived and plastic-based alternatives.

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Explore wood architecture, Paris’ new timber tower and how to make sustainable construction look ‘iconic’

By Ellie Stathaki
Wallpaper Magazine
October 18, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Think of Paris and more cream-coloured limestone than wood architecture comes to mind. But a new 50m-tall apartment building might just start a trend. Named ‘Wood Up’, it’s one of the first wood towers to grace a European skyline. The project was designed by French architectural firm LAN (Lan Architecture Network), headed up by Benoît Jallon and Umberto Napolitano, and developed by REI Habitat, which specialises in wood. …This is a mass timber building, meaning that wood layers are bonded using either a glued laminated timber (glulam) or cross-laminated timber (CLT) process, giving it the structural strength of concrete. All the wood came from French forests, and was transported via the Seine. The external columns are Douglas fir, for its moisture resistance; the interior columns are beech, for its compressive strength; and the beams are spruce, for its bending resistance.

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Iconic! German Design Council honors the Wangen Tower and Hybrid Flax Pavilion

University of Stuttgart
October 17, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Wangen Tower

Hybrid Flax Pavilion

As part of the “ICONIC AWARDS 2024: Innovative Architecture”, two projects from the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture” (IntCDC) were honored this year. The international competition is backed by the German Design Council, which is regarded as an authority on design in Germany. There was a lot of competition: 540 submissions from 36 countries faced the jury’s verdict at the “ICONIC AWARDS 2024: Innovative Architecture”. The Cluster of Excellence IntCDC achieved three successes. The hybrid flax pavilion was awarded “Best of Best” in the “Innovative Materials” category. The Hybrid Flax Pavilion and the Wangen Tower also received an award in the “Innovative Architecture” category. …The award-winning projects Hybrid Flax Pavilion and Wangen Tower show in different ways how bio-based materials and bio-inspired structures open up new paths for regenerative architecture.

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Forestry

Minister Guilbeault delivers statement on opening day of COP16

By Environment and Climate Change Canada
Cision Newswire
October 21, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, International

Steven Guilbeault

OTTAWA — “Canada is immensely proud of the role we played in hosting COP15 in Montréal… passing the Kunming–Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework.”…”For our part, Canada has moved fast and early. We are steadily making progress on the largest conservation campaign in our country’s history, backed by over $12 billion in investments and aiming toward protecting 30 percent of Canadian land and water by 2030. Our recent 2030 Nature Strategy, released ahead of COP16, charts our path to achieving our objectives. …”To hold this and any future government accountable, we introduced the Nature Accountability Bill that requires the Government to transparently report on their progress.” …”Canada is coming to COP16 ready to galvanize leadership and action. …Let’s make COP16 a breakthrough for many countries ready to deliver on the global biodiversity framework.”

In related coverage: Delegates gather in Colombia for global biodiversity conference

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Tracking timber: scientific and digital innovations promise wood supply chain transparency

Lombard Odier
October 23, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, International

From the end of 2025, EU Regulation 2023/1115 is expected to come into effect. Its modest name belies its potentially industry-transforming impact. …According to Interpol, as much as 30% of the entire global trade in timber may come from illegal sources. Illicit timber is the world’s most profitable natural resource crime, worth as much as USD 150 billion each year. …For the timber industry, the impact could be seismic.
US-based non-profit World Forest ID may have a solution. Formed in 2017 by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London, the US Forestry Service, UK isotope testing experts Agroisolab, and the Forest Stewardship Council, World Forest ID is pioneering a new testing technique that aims to pinpoint the geographic location from which a piece of wood originated to within 10 kilometres. ..The resulting ‘wood anatomy’ database can be used to identify the species of a sample taken from any product.

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The Finnish Environment Institute Forest says carbon sinks have been overestimated, logging must be reduced

YLE News
October 18, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) says that tree felling should be decreased by about one quarter from a previous government estimate. Previous estimates of the capacity of Finland’s forests to absorb planet-warming emissions have been overly optimistic, the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) said on Thursday. The institute’s latest research indicates that the nation’s forest carbon sinks have been overestimated. In 2022, Finland’s land use and forestry (LULUCF) sector became a net source of emissions for the first time. That means that the carbon absorbed by forests was no longer enough to counterbalance emissions from farming and other land use. Last year the sector constituted a small net sink. Syke calculates that the felling of forests must be reduced significantly in order for Finland to reach its stated goal of carbon neutrality by 2035. The sustainable amount of felling would be 60–62 million cubic metres per year.

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Q&A: New Director General of the Forest Stewardship Council

By Jasmin Jessen
Sustainability Magazine
October 25, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Subhra Bhattacharjee

Dr. Subhra Bhattacharjee, Director General of the Forest Stewardship Council, took on the position in October 2024 and shares her insight. Subhra has dedicated more than 23 years to advancing solutions for poverty, climate change and sustainable development. She has worked in diverse roles including in banking, academia and as an international civil servant within the United Nations. Subhra shares her insight and plans for the FSC: “As a 30-year-old organisation with a broad and diverse stakeholder base, FSC must contribute to a global shift in the way we perceive, protect and leverage forests for sustainable development. …Aside from EUDR, we will advance our climate, biodiversity and restoration initiatives, aligning with the broad goals of the COP16 summit. …Looking ahead, I see FSC evolving beyond its role as a certification scheme and becoming a central force in shaping forest-related policy at the highest levels, driving meaningful change at an economic, environmental and societal level.”

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TrusTrace Unveils Highly-Automated Deforestation Compliance Solution: “Brands Must Act Now Despite EUDR Delay”

By TrusTrace
PR Newswire
October 22, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

STOCKHOLM — TrusTrace, a global leader in product traceability and supply chain compliance, unveiled its advanced Deforestation Compliance Solution, designed to help companies meet and prove deforestation-free shipments in alignment with the EU’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The recent decision to delay enforcement until December 30, 2025, provides a crucial window for companies to thoroughly prepare and ensure their supply chains meet the rigorous standards ahead of the deadline. As setting up systems and getting all the data needed for customs clearance can take several months, proactive preparation is essential for compliance success. The EUDR aims to prevent deforestation by ensuring products entering the EU do not contribute to deforestation or environmental degradation. To comply, companies must provide full traceability to the plot of land, and ensure their EU-bound products are free from deforestation-related practices. 

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Government must reinvigorate forestry and promote wood building

By James Hanly
Irish Farmers Journal
October 21, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Forest Industries Ireland (FII) has called on the Government to reinvigorate new forest planting and promote more building with wood. The national representative body for the forestry and timber sectors within Ibec has launched its manifesto – ‘Forestry for our future: Delivering on the potential of Irish forestry’ – for the upcoming general election. Launching the manifesto, FII director Mark McAuley said that forestry activity is going in the wrong direction. “It is government policy to rapidly increase Ireland’s forest cover, but the afforestation rate is only 2,000 hectares per annum,” he said. “…we need to take a fresh look at what our farmers are being incentivised to do and tip the balance more towards tree planting.”  …FII has called on the Government to reinvigorate new forest planting and promote more building with wood. …We can build houses faster and greener with wood, while reducing carbon emissions. Government should take the lead by insisting on green buildings.

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Banking on seeds to help save endangered possum

By Adrian Black
South Coast Register
October 18, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

A battle to save a critically endangered possum is being fought on many fronts and multiple timelines. Victoria’s Leadbeater’s possum, known as “forest fairies” for their elusiveness, were thought to be extinct when they were rediscovered near Marysville in 1961. The state’s faunal emblem, with its big eyes and bushy tail, relies on dense, damp areas in old growth forest and nests in hollows that take over 150 years to form. Less than 40 of the lowland subspecies exist today. But a project spearheaded by state-owned statutory authority Melbourne Water aims to grow the creature’s future habitat through a climate-modelled seed bank. The seeds have been collected from areas with climatic conditions similar to what is expected for the Yarra Valley in the next 25 to 65 years.

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Much of the Emerald Isle Is an Ecological Desert. He’s Trying to Change That.

By Cara Buckley
The New York Times
October 18, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Is Ireland really all that green? Ecologically speaking, the answer is no… Earlier this month, the country’s Environmental Protection Agency published a report that rated Ireland’s environmental health as “poor.” Thousands of years ago, 80 percent of Ireland was forested. Trees now cover just 11 percent of the country, one of the lowest rates in Europe, and are predominately nonnative Sitka spruce. Native trees cover just 1 percent of the land. Biodiversity is also suffering. Ireland may have millions of acres of brilliant green fields dotted with cows and sheep, but that land is largely grass monocultures… Eoghan Daltun rewilded his land in West Cork into a temperate rainforest and wants more of Ireland to do the same. [A subscription to the New York Times is required to access this full story]

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Gisborne forestry firm develops plan to battle woody debris

By Zita Campbell
New Zealand Herald
October 18, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Neil Woods

A Gisborne forestry firm plans to install three steel debris nets to reduce the amount of woody debris clogging waterways after severe storms. Aratu chief executive Neil Woods says the region has paid a high price for the devastation caused by Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle, and that the firm is working on ways to limit the impact of its operations. The Swiss-designed nets will be the first of their kind for the Tairāwhiti region and will cost more than $500,000 each, Woods says. “We have learnt much from the cyclones and are determined to keep lifting our game.” Since Cyclone Gabrielle, Gisborne ratepayers have spent more than $1.2 million removing woody debris from two of Gisborne’s beaches, and taxpayers have contributed $53m for the debris clean-up in the region.

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Environmental delegates gather in Colombia for a conference on dwindling global biodiversity

By Steve Grattan
The Associated Press
October 20, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

BOGOTA, Colombia — Global environmental leaders gather Monday in Cali, Colombia to assess the world’s plummeting biodiversity levels and commitments by countries to protect plants, animals and critical habitats. The two-week United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP16, is a follow-up to the 2022 Montreal meetings where 196 countries signed a historic global treaty to protect biodiversity. The accord includes 23 measures to halt and reverse nature loss, including putting 30% of the planet and 30% of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030. In opening remarks on Sunday, Colombia’s environment minister and COP16 president Susana Muhamad said the conference is an opportunity “to collect the experience that has passed through this planet from all civilizations, from all cultures, from all knowledge … to generate livable, relatively stable conditions for a new society that will be forged in the light of the crisis.”

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COP16: From forests to oceans, nature in a dire state

By Jake Spring
Reuters
October 18, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

As the United Nations two-week COP16 biodiversity summit kicks off on Monday in Cali, Colombia, here is what you need to know about nature’s rapid decline – and its importance to the global economy. Plants and animals play significant parts in keeping nature humming, from cycling nutrients throughout an ecosystem to aerating soils and engineering rivers. …However, more than a quarter of the world’s known species, or a total of about 45,300 species, are now threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Because forests are home to the most plant and animal species in any ecosystem, including 68% of mammal species, scientists consider deforestation levels to be a good proxy for nature destruction. …As of 2023, the amount of land deforested was 45% higher than where it should be in order to meet the 2030 goal…

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Forest fires are shifting north and intensifying – here’s what that means for the planet

By Matthew Jones, Crystal Kolden and Stefan Doerr
The Conversation
October 17, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Fires have long been a natural part of forest ecosystems, but something is changing. Our new study Global rise in forest fire emissions linked to climate change in the extratropics shows that forest fires have become more widespread and severe amid global heating, particularly in the high northern latitudes such as Canada and Siberia where fires are most sensitive to hotter, drier conditions. The implications of this are alarming, not just for the ecosystems affected or the cities engulfed by smoke downwind, but for the planet’s ability to store carbon and regulate the climate. …We established the leading causes of forest fires in different parts of the world using an AI algorithm. It grouped forest regions into distinct zones with similar fire patterns and underlying causes, uncovering the worrying extent to which climate change is fuelling the expansion of forest fires in Earth’s high northern latitudes.

In related coverage:

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Delay of EU Deforestation Regulation may ‘be excuse to gut law,’ activists fear

By Justin Catanoso
Mongabay.com
October 17, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Forest defenders were stunned and concerned by the European Commission’s recent proposal for a 12-month delay in implementation of the EU’s new law to reduce global deforestation and forest degradation. While the European Parliament must still approve that proposal, forest advocates battling the multibillion-dollar wood pellet industry and other commodity sectors fear that the extra time will give the biomass industry, other commodity suppliers and exporting nations an opportunity to weaken or undermine the law’s current modest requirements. “I think the biggest threat from a delay is that it’s an excuse to gut the law by giving more time to already aggressive industry opposition,” Heather Hillaker, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in North Carolina, told Mongabay. “With climate change, every month matters when we’re trying to avoid [carbon] emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.”

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Government-contracted loggers underestimate the number of endangered greater gliders in areas set for logging

By Michael Slezak
ABC News Australia
October 16, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Government-contracted loggers have vastly underestimated the density of endangered greater glider populations in NSW forests, before approving plans to log forests where more than 800 of the protected species were found. Surveys conducted by community conservationists documented more than 10 times the number of critical glider “den trees”, and more than three times the number of gliders themselves, compared to those found by Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) in its mandated pre-logging surveys. The logging in those forests is planned to continue despite the regulator being told about the sightings.

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Forests and the Fate of Civilizations: A Conversation with John Perlin

By Rhett A. Butler
Mongabay
October 16, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The narrative of civilization’s rise and fall is often painted with grand achievements and epic downfalls, but one of the most understated forces behind humanity’s progress—and its moments of regression—is the forest. John Perlin’s, A Forest Journey, reveals how forests have been central to human history, shaping the fate of societies from antiquity to the modern day. Perlin’s book, now in its third edition, has long been a cornerstone of environmental literature, even earning its place as a Harvard Classic in Science and World History. Published originally in 1986, A Forest Journey explores how wood, once the primary material for nearly all human activity, fueled the development of civilizations across millennia. …Perlin charts how the exploitation of forests for timber, fuel, and other needs contributed to the rise of some of history’s greatest empires, only to sow the seeds of their collapse when the forests were depleted.

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European Parliament Fast Tracks Deforestation Regulation Entry into Force Amendment

By Thomas Delille, Guillermo Fustes and Christina Economides
Squire Patton Boggs
October 15, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

On 10 October 2024, the European Parliament’s (EP) Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) fast-tracked the European Commission’s (EC) proposal to amend the implementation timeline for the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), under the urgent procedure. …The ordinary legislative procedure requires the EP to go through the EC’s proposal, amending it, and sending it to the Council of the European Union. In normal circumstances, ENVI would have held votes on amendments to the legislative proposal, as well as the text taken as a whole, before forwarding it to the EP’s plenary. Nevertheless, ENVI’s recourse to the urgent procedure means that the proposal will be directly voted upon in plenary – likely during the 13 – 14 November session. This may allow a revision of the EUDR implementation timeline before its scheduled entry into force next 30 December.

Related by Greenpeace: 225 global groups say “Hands off the EU deforestation regulation!”

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Why Germany’s dying forests could be good news

By Kiyo Dorrer
Deutsche Welle
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Conifer forests across Germany are deteriorating under the combined pressures of droughts, storms and invasive pests, according to the latest government report on the state of the country’s woodland. It’s a similar story in Poland, the Czech Republic and Scandinavia. But some see this loss as a net positive for the climate in the long term. To understand why forest loss might, in some cases, be a good thing, we need to rewind back to World War II. After Germany’s defeat, the Allied forces ordered the country to pay reparations — partly in the form of timber. …German foresters started planting large amounts of one specific tree: the spruce. That’s because spruce trees grow fast and straight, which makes them ideal for timber production and construction. …But these monoculture forests are less hospitable to other plants and animals and are significantly less biodiverse than mixed ones.

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European forest plants are migrating westwards: Research suggests nitrogen is the main cause

By German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
Phys.Org
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

New research reveals nitrogen pollution, and to a lesser extent climate change, unexpectedly as the key driver behind surprising westward shifts in the distribution of plants. A study published in Science has uncovered that many European forest plant species are moving towards the west due to high nitrogen deposition levels, defying the common belief that climate change is the primary cause of species moving northward. This finding reshapes our understanding of how environmental factors, and in particular nitrogen pollution, influence biodiversity. While it is widely assumed that rising temperatures are pushing many species toward cooler, northern areas, this research shows that westward movements are 2.6 times more likely than northward shifts. The primary driver? High levels of nitrogen deposition from atmospheric pollution, which allows a rapid spread of nitrogen-tolerating plant species from mainly Eastern Europe.

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Ukraine’s vast forests devastated in hellscape of war

By Thomas Peter and Max Hunter
Reuters
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Serhiy Tsapok surveyed the smouldering ruins of pine trees, blackened stumps as far as the eye can see that bear witness to a scorched nation. …It’s a drop in the ocean of the damage caused by the war, which has brutalized the landscape of Ukraine and much of its 10 million hectares, or 100,000 sq km, of forest. Both Russian and Ukrainian armies blast thousands of shells at each other every day. …Tending to forests is now a perilous occupation, with mines and unexploded shells hidden in the ground posing the biggest threat. …All that remains of many forests in eastern Ukraine are fields of stripped, broken trunks. Local wildlife, including deer, boars and woodpeckers, have been badly affected by the loss of habitats, the experts said, although it is currently hard to gauge biodiversity loss in forests. …About 425,000 hectares of forest across the country have been found to be contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance.

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FSC Forest Week Campaign Calls for Collective Global Action on Climate and Biodiversity

Forest Stewardship Council
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

BONN, Germany — The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) International has successfully concluded its third annual FSC Forest Week, spotlighting the crucial role of responsible forest management in addressing urgent environmental challenges. With the world set to convene at the upcoming COP16 and COP29 summits, FSC calls on businesses, communities, governments, and individuals to continue their efforts in protecting the world’s forests and urges decisive action to ensure forestry remains a priority in global climate discussions. This year’s campaign, themed “Small steps together create big change for all”, …amplified the message that impactful change does not always require large-scale efforts. Rather, everyday choices, such as purchasing FSC- certified products, can contribute to broader efforts of protecting forests and those who depend on them. Additionally, it highlighted the critical role these actions play in combatting biodiversity loss and climate change.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

The shifting jet stream has magnified wildfires and plagues. What’s next?

By Kate Yoder
The National Observer
October 11, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, International

The patterns of Earth’s high winds have surprisingly widespread effects on life on the ground. A study in the journal Nature shows that when the summer jet stream over Europe veers north or south of its usual path, it brings weather extremes that can exacerbate epidemics, ruin crop harvests, and feed wildfires. “The jet stream has caused these extreme conditions for 700 years in the past without greenhouse gases,” said Ellie Broadman, a co-author of the study and a researcher at the University of Arizona. …For the recent study, a team of researchers… used data from tree rings to reconstruct the position of the jet stream over the last 700 years. Then they sought to understand how these shifts affected people, comparing the results to records on epidemics, crop yields, and wildfires. …“The big challenge now is to work out how we can really use this new information to test and improve our climate models”.

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At COP16, countries clash over future of global fund for nature protection

By Sebastian Rodriguez
The Climate Home News
October 24, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Two years ago, at the COP15 UN biodiversity summit in Montreal, 196 countries agreed to set up a fund for projects to conserve and restore nature – but it has struggled to attract large contributions. Now, at COP16 in Cali, government negotiators are clashing over what to do with it. A group of developing countries – concerned about their access to the existing fund – is pushing a proposal to establish a new fund for biodiversity under the COP. The plan is for it to replace the one created in Montreal, which is managed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and offer biodiversity-rich developing countries a bigger say in how it is run. …Experts say the future of the fund could become the biggest issue for debate at the Colombia summit, adding that disagreements over the developing-country proposal were starting to obstruct progress on other finance negotiations.

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Europe not ready for increasing drought, flooding and forest fires, auditors warn

By Robert Hodgson
Euronews
October 16, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

With increasingly frequent episodes of drought, flooding and forest fires across Europe, an audit of EU spending and action on the ground suggests the bloc is not keeping up with a worsening situation – and as much as two-fifths of local projects are having little to no impact… The auditors examined 36 projects in preparing their report, and concluded that a substantial number of them were wrong headed, and possibly even counter productive. A spruce forest in Estonia destroyed by storms was replanted with spruce, despite it being “known for having low resistance to strong winds”. Maritime pine, planted in southwest France in a reforestation project, can tolerate both drought and high rainfall, but it was also “sensitive to forest fire and wind (both expected to increase due to climate change)”.

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Vattenfall cancels plans for pellet-fueled district heating project

By Erin Voegele
Biomass Magazine
October 16, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Vattenfall, a multinational power company owned by the government of Sweden, on Oct. 16 announced it has cancelled plans to develop a biomass heating plant in Diemen, a city located just outside Amsterdam in the Netherlands… Vattenfall in June 2020 announced it would delay making a final decision on the biomass-fired district heating plant, citing ongoing debates on biomass sustainability. At that time, the company said it was essential the Dutch government enact a clear sustainability framework… Development of a district heating project, however, is expected to continue with a focus on geothermal energy, the use of residual heat, e-boilers and hydrogen.

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Importing biomass from North Korea is not UK’s intention

By Trevor Hutchings, The UK Association for Renewable Energy & Clean Technology
The Guardian UK
October 15, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Trevor Hutchings

The bioenergy resource model referred to in your article (Anger at UK’s ‘bonkers’ plan to reach net zero by importing fuel from North Korea) is a scenario-planning document, setting out what biomass could be available and from where. It is not, and should not be viewed as, official government policy or reflective of industry sourcing intention. Members of the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA) are committed to upholding the UK’s strong sustainability governance arrangements, which ensure biomass is only imported where it can be demonstrated to be done correctly. We expect these arrangements to be further enhanced with the publication of the cross-sectoral sustainability framework, as committed to in the biomass strategy. The role of sustainable biomass is recognised within all credible scenarios for getting to net zero. 

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Brazil state to consult Indigenous people on carbon credits sale

By Anthony Boadle
Reuters
October 15, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

BRASILIA – The government of the Brazilian state of Para in the Amazon will consult Indigenous communities on how they will benefit from the future sale of carbon offset credits that U.S. companies have agreed to buy to try to protect the rainforest. In a statement, the Para government’s environmental secretariat Semas said it “will begin a new phase of dialogue” with Indigenous peoples and other traditional communities in the rainforest. Scientists say preserving the Amazon rainforest is vital to combating global warming. Amazon.com Inc, and a group of companies agreed last month in New York to buy carbon credits in a deal valued at $180 million through the LEAF Coalition conservation initiative, which it helped set up in 2021 with other firms and governments, including the United States and United Kingdom. …But last week, 38 Indigenous and community organizations signed a public letter saying they had not been consulted properly.

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UK power stations burnt wood from old forest areas, Drax emails show

By Rachel Millard and Camilla Hodgson
The Financial Times
October 15, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Drax found that it was “highly likely” to have burnt wood sourced from old forest areas in Canada deemed to be environmentally important, according to internal emails, as the UK’s biggest biomass power station operator battled to maintain its green credentials. The wood received by pellet plants owned by Drax from its suppliers in British Columbia was traced to areas local authorities classed as ecologically significant, as well as “high-risk” private land. While the material was not illegal to use, many environmental experts said old-growth woods and forests should be protected given their ecological benefits, including absorbing and storing atmospheric carbon for centuries. A lengthy investigation by Ofgem into its reporting concluded recently after the UK regulator cleared it of a deliberate breach, and Drax agreed to pay a penalty of £25mn into a voluntary scheme for failing to record adequate data about the wood it imported.

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Anger at UK’s ‘bonkers’ plan to reach net zero by importing fuel from North Korea

By Isabelle Kaminshi
The UK Guardian
October 9, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

A plan by the British government to burn biomass imported from countries including North Korea has been described as “bonkers”. A bioenergy resource model calculates that only a big expansion in the import of energy crops and wood from a surprising list of nations would satisfy the UK’s plan to meet net zero. …About a third of the biomass used in the UK is imported. In 2021, about 76% from North America and 18% from the EU. But there is not enough wood in these regions to supply the large expansion that the government is banking on. The resource model sets out potential sources of bioenergy. Only the most ambitious scenario outlined would theoretically provide enough biomass to meet this demand, and it involves a huge increase in imports. …Serious concerns have been raised about the affect of large-scale use of biomass on biodiversity, air quality, agriculture and soil health in the UK and abroad.

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