Region Archives: International

The number of fires shows no signs of easing as Brazil’s Roraima faces unprecedented blazes, and several Amazonian countries, including Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela, registered record-high outbreaks in the first quarter this year. Fire outbreaks in primary (old-growth) forest in Brazil’s Amazon soared by 152% in 2023, according to a recent study, rising from 13,477 in 2022 to 34,012 in 2023. Fires in the mature forest regions are the leading drivers of degradation of the Amazon Rainforest because the biome hasn’t evolved to adapt to such blazes, according to the researchers. The fires are a result of a drought that has been fueled by climate change and worsened by natural weather phenomena, such as El Niño, which has intensified dry conditions already aggravated by high temperatures across the world, experts say.

NEW ZEALAND — A second Gisborne forestry company has lost its sustainability accreditation within the space of two months. Aratu Forests’ Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certificate was suspended on March 28 by Swiss auditing company Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS). This follows forestry company Ernslaw One’s FSC certification being suspended in February. Aratu Forests chief executive officer Neil Woods declined to comment on the suspension but said the company was working towards getting accredited again. Gisborne’s certifiers have been in the spotlight recently after an Audit Services International (ASI) report raised shortcomings. FSC certifiers SGS and Preferred by Nature were issued four major non-conformities, just one non-conformity short of ASI’s policy to consider a suspension of both certifying bodies. …Following the recent suspensions, MTT has said auditors will return to New Zealand to review audits of three more companies.

The Cook Government’s Forest Management Plan 2024-2033, which supports the decision to bring commercial logging of native forests to an end, will be bolstered with a $67.2 million investment over the next four years. The funding, which will be part of the 2024-25 State Budget, will deliver: an additional 65 new jobs throughout Western Australia’s South West and metropolitan Perth, focused on a range of climate actions; a new forest health monitoring program; and support for emerging technologies, such as eco-acoustics, fire research, and ecological thinning, to improve forest health. Funding will also support work with Traditional Owners, protection of native wildlife from feral predators and managing weeds and plant diseases. The new jobs will be created between 2024 and 2027 within the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions and partner agencies.

Visitors to Australia could have their access to a popular UNESCO World Heritage site restricted after authorities controversially set fire to neighbouring land on Wednesday. Locals fear the skies will soon be choked with smoke across regions of Tasmania after the state government’s logging agency began its annual burning program. While logging company Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) says the practice promotes “natural regeneration” and is crucial in “reducing fuel loads” on land it has cleared, conservationists warn it kills endangered species including the state’s iconic Tasmanian devils. One was found dead in a burrow after a burn in 2023. Jenny Weber from the Bob Brown Foundation said STT had logged right up to the edge of an access road to the Hartz Mountains National Park… “It’s obscene that people going to a World Heritage site to visit the beautiful wild Tasmania are going to be impacted by Forestry Tasmania burning.”

A team of researchers has unveiled a novel approach to accurately characterizing tree height composition in forests using the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology. This study marks a significant advancement in our understanding of forest ecosystems, shedding light on the intricacies of tree height variability and their implications for ecological studies and climate change mitigation efforts. …Limitations have historically hindered the challenge of accurately mapping this structural diversity in scale and detail. However, the advent of recent advancements in remote sensing technologies has opened new pathways for detailed canopy height mapping. Highlighted in a study published in the Journal of Remote Sensing, this technological breakthrough facilitates more precise assessments of forest structure, thereby enriching our comprehension of forest dynamics, carbon sequestration capabilities, and the overarching influence of forests on climate regulation and biodiversity conservation.

More than a quarter of the world’s tropical forests are exploited for timber1. Logging impacts biodiversity in these ecosystems, primarily through the creation of forest roads that facilitate hunting for wildlife over extensive areas. Forest management certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are expected to mitigate impacts on biodiversity, but so far very little is known about the effectiveness of FSC certification because of research design challenges, predominantly limited sample sizes. Here we provide this evidence by using 1.3 million camera-trap photos of 55 mammal species in 14 logging concessions in western equatorial Africa. We observed higher mammal encounter rates in FSC-certified than in non-FSC logging concessions. The effect was most pronounced for species weighing more than 10 kg and for species of high conservation priority such as the critically endangered forest elephant and western lowland gorilla. Across the whole mammal community, non-FSC concessions contained proportionally more rodents and other small species than did FSC-certified concessions. 

Additional coverage from FSC: Groundbreaking study confirms FSC standards are vital for thriving wildlife in tropical forests

Joe Fontaine

After a record-breaking hot summer and significant dry spell, ecologists are warning large pockets of WA’s central to south-west coast are facing a potential forest collapse event, where trees and other smaller plants get so dry they die. One expert has likened it to coral bleaching on land, and just like in the ocean, such an event can have serious implications on the wider ecosystem, impacting breeding habitats and potentially populations of entire species. Murdoch University fire and plant ecologist Dr Joe Fontaine has been tracking and recording signs of tree and plant stress since early February, with numerous areas displaying large swathes of dry and dying flora, some of it already dead. …The south west of WA was identified as one of the first parts of the world to begin a drying trend, beginning around the 1970s, and experts agree the region is drying out at a globally significant rate.

ROMANIA — An investigation published by environmental NGO Greenpeace claims to show that furniture manufacturers producing for IKEA are sourcing wood from some of Europe’s last remaining old-growth forests in the Romanian Carpathians, including in Natura 2000 protected areas. Seven manufacturers producing IKEA’s products are linked to the destruction of high-conservation value forests, according to the investigation. …At least 30 different products from these suppliers were reportedly found in IKEA stores in 13 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. …The non-profit also mentions that just 2.4% of the Romanian Carpathian forests are currently protected against logging. …In an official response to Euronews Romania, IKEA confirmed that it works with the mentioned companies and that the only requirement it imposes is for the wood to be either recycled or approved by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Loggers are “ripping to pieces” forests earmarked to become the Great Koala National Park, according to businessman and former head of the Australian Conservation Foundation Geoff Cousins. Mr Cousins is calling on the state government to stop allowing logging in native forests as part of a fresh push to establish the boundaries of a koala conservation area on the Mid North Coast, which was a state Labor election promise. The Australia Institute has taken out full page adverts in newspapers featuring the signatures of dozens of luminaries, including Mr Cousins, former Reserve Bank head Bernie Fraser and former Liberal leader John Hewson. The adverts push for the end of all logging in public native forests and koala habitat. The state government has committed $80 million over four years to establishing the national park, which includes stakeholder consultation with local industry and communities.

Using a unique combination of old-fashioned field work and sophisticated computer modeling, scientists in Sweden have found a way to trace a single beam of lumber to the forest in Europe where it originated. The researchers said the new method, described in the Nature Plants journal, could significantly curb the sale of Russian timber, which is prohibited because of the war in Ukraine. …Last month, the novel approach was used to identify large shipments of illegal Russian lumber in Belgium. The new study looked at the chemical composition of 900 wood samples collected from 11 countries in Eastern Europe. The data was fed into a model powered by machine learning, which found patterns that could predict the geographic origin of the samples. Overall, the model caught 60% of the samples that had been intentionally labeled with the wrong country of origin. The model could also narrow the wood’s origin to a roughly 125-mile radius.