tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/forests-295/articlesForests – The Conversation2024-03-25T12:39:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2241522024-03-25T12:39:22Z2024-03-25T12:39:22ZWhat is dirt? There’s a whole wriggling world alive in the ground beneath our feet, as a soil scientist explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582688/original/file-20240318-24-77z9su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C3110%2C2057&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dig into soil and you'll find rock dust but also thousands of living species.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/little-childs-hands-digging-in-the-mud-royalty-free-image/619539728">ChristinLola/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>What is dirt? – Belle and Ryatt, ages 7 and 5, Keystone, South Dakota</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>When you think about dirt, you’re probably picturing soil. There’s so much more going on under our feet than the rock dust, or “dirt,” that gets on your pants.</p>
<p>When <a href="https://arts-sciences.und.edu/academics/biology/brian-darby/index.html">I began studying soil</a>, I was amazed at how much of it is actually alive. Soil is teeming with life, and not just the earthworms that you see on rainy days.</p>
<p>Keeping this vibrant world healthy is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qas9tPQKd8w">crucial for food, forests and flowers to grow</a> and for the animals that live in the ground to thrive. Here’s a closer look at what’s down there and how it all works together.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cupped hands holds soil against a dark background with a tendril of plant root dangling through the fingers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582689/original/file-20240318-20-8yglsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582689/original/file-20240318-20-8yglsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582689/original/file-20240318-20-8yglsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582689/original/file-20240318-20-8yglsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582689/original/file-20240318-20-8yglsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582689/original/file-20240318-20-8yglsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582689/original/file-20240318-20-8yglsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Soil is a vibrant ecosystem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/bokeh-photography-of-person-carrying-soil-jin4W1HqgL4">Gabriel Jimenez via Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The rocky part of soils</h2>
<p>If you scoop up a handful of dry soil, the basic dirt that you feel in your hand is actually very small pieces of <a href="https://passel2.unl.edu/view/lesson/c62dc027ae56/1">weathered rock</a>. These tiny bits eroded from larger rocks over millions of years.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.soils4teachers.org/physical-properties/">balance of these particles</a> is important for how well soil can hold water and nutrients that plants need to thrive. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/sandy-soil-guide">sandy soil</a> has larger rock grains, so it will be loose and can easily wash away. It won’t hold very much water. <a href="https://www.thespruce.com/understanding-and-improving-clay-soil-2539857">Soil with mostly clay</a> is finer and more compact, making it difficult for plants to access its moisture. In between the two in size is <a href="https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/what-is-silt.htm">silt, a mix of rock dust and minerals</a> often found in fertile flood plains.</p>
<p>Some of the most productive soils have a good balance of sand, clay and silt. <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-create-loam-soil-for-your-garden">That combination</a>, along with the remnants of plants and animals that have died, helps the soil to retain water, allows plants to access that water and minimizes erosion from wind or rain.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three tipped over pots spill different types of soil – sandy is heavier grain, clay is finer grain and thicker, and loamy is darker." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581414/original/file-20240312-16-meqnvu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581414/original/file-20240312-16-meqnvu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581414/original/file-20240312-16-meqnvu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581414/original/file-20240312-16-meqnvu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581414/original/file-20240312-16-meqnvu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581414/original/file-20240312-16-meqnvu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581414/original/file-20240312-16-meqnvu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Loamy soil, ideal for gardens, is a mix of sand, clay and silt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/learn-about-soil-types">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The wriggling, munching parts of soil</h2>
<p>Among all those rock particles is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/app10113717">whole world of living things</a>, each busy doing its job.</p>
<p>To get a sense of just how many creatures are there, picture this: The zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, boasts <a href="https://www.omahazoo.com/">over 1,000 animal species</a>. But if you scooped up a small spoonful of soil in your backyard, it would likely contain <a href="https://www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/case-studies/case-study-why-do-soil-microbes-matter">at least 10,000 species</a> and around a billion living microscopic cells.</p>
<p>Most of those species are <a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/newscentre/news_centre/story_archive/2018/first_soil_atlas">still largely a mystery</a>. Scientists don’t know much about them or what they do in soil. In fact, most species in soil don’t even have a formal scientific name. But each plays some kind of role in the vast soil ecosystem, including generating the <a href="https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/farming/essential-plant-elements/">nutrients that plants need to grow</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581410/original/file-20240312-20-vn3j2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two centipede-like creatures caught on camera immediately after a rock is lifted." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581410/original/file-20240312-20-vn3j2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581410/original/file-20240312-20-vn3j2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581410/original/file-20240312-20-vn3j2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581410/original/file-20240312-20-vn3j2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581410/original/file-20240312-20-vn3j2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581410/original/file-20240312-20-vn3j2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581410/original/file-20240312-20-vn3j2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lifting a rock reveals a symphylan, or garden centipede, left, and a poduromorph, or plump springtail, munching through the soil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Symphylan_%26_poduromorph_springtail_(3406419924).jpg">Marshal Hedin via Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Imagine a leaf falling from a tree in late autumn.</p>
<p>Inside that leaf are a lot of nutrients that plants need, such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. There is also a lot of <a href="https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/earth-system/biogeochemical-cycles">carbon in that leaf</a>, which holds energy that can be used by other organisms such as bacteria and fungi.</p>
<p>The leaf itself is too large for a plant to take up through its roots, of course. But that leaf can be broken down into smaller and smaller pieces. This process of breaking down plant and animal tissue is <a href="https://youtu.be/IBvKKMzXYtY?feature=shared">known as decomposition</a>.</p>
<p>When the leaf first falls to the ground, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390%2Finsects11010054">arthropods</a> – such as insects, mites and <a href="https://www.chaosofdelight.org/collembola-springtails">collembolans</a> – break the leaf down into smaller chunks by shredding the tissue. Then, an <a href="https://youtu.be/n3wsUYg3XV0?feature=shared">earthworm might come along</a> and eat one of the smaller chunks and break it down even more in <a href="https://www.pbs.org/video/how-do-worms-turn-garbage-into-compost-jwj6cm/">its digestive tract</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Pa1FwmKZcQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">PBS explores how earthworms help turn dead plants into fertile soil.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now the broken-up leaf is small enough for microbes to come in. <a href="https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/anr-36">Bacteria</a> and <a href="https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/anr-37">fungi secrete enzymes</a> into the soil that further break down organic material into even smaller pieces. If enough microbes are active, eventually this organic material will be broken down enough that it can dissolve in water and be taken up by plants that need it.</p>
<p>To aid in this process, there are many small animals, such as <a href="https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/are_soil_nematodes_beneficial_or_harmful">nematodes</a> and <a href="https://www.livingsoil.net/protozoa">amoebae</a>, that consume bacteria and fungi. There are also predatory nematodes that feed on other nematodes to make sure they don’t become too abundant, so everything remains in balance as much as possible. </p>
<p>It’s quite a complicated food web of interacting species in a delicate balance.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IBvKKMzXYtY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A time-lapse video filmed about 4 inches underground shows a leaf decomposing over 21 days in July. At the end, radish roots make their way down into the soil. Video by Josh Williams.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While some fungi and bacteria <a href="https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/bacteria-fungus-and-viruses-an-overview/">can harm plants</a>, there are many species that are considered beneficial. In fact, they <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/conservation-basics/natural-resource-concerns/soils/soil-health">may be the key</a> to figuring out how to grow enough crops to feed everyone without degrading and overburdening the soil.</p>
<h2>Figuring out your soil type</h2>
<p>Scientists have named <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/education-and-teaching-materials/soil-facts">over 20,000 different types</a> of unique soils. If you’re curious about the <a href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/learn-about-soil-types">soil and dirt in your area</a>, the University of California, Davis has a <a href="https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/">website where you can learn</a> more about local soils and their chemical and physical attributes.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.farmers.gov/conservation/soil-health">Caring for soil</a> to promote its living creatures’ benefits and minimize their harm takes work, but it’s essential for keeping the land healthy and growing food for the future.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Darby receives funding from the United States Department of Agriculture. </span></em></p>Rock dust is only part of the story of soil. Living creatures, many of them too tiny to see, keep that soil healthy for growing everything from food to forests.Brian Darby, Associate Professor of Biology, University of North DakotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259532024-03-25T10:06:51Z2024-03-25T10:06:51ZFighting every wildfire ensures the big fires are more extreme, and may harm forests’ ability to adapt to climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583558/original/file-20240321-26-8oqr15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C13%2C2982%2C1980&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Extreme fires leave forests struggling to recover in a warming world.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.markkreiderphoto.com/portfolio/wilderness-fire">Mark Kreider</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the U.S., wildland firefighters are able to stop about <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/r5/home/?cid=FSEPRD1064021">98% of all wildfires</a> before the fires have burned even 100 acres. That may seem comforting, but decades of quickly suppressing fires has had unintended consequences.</p>
<p>Fires are a natural part of many landscapes globally. When forests aren’t allowed to burn, they <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-years-of-fighting-every-wildfire-helped-fuel-the-western-megafires-of-today-163165">become more dense</a>, and dead <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.177.4044.139">branches, leaves and other biomass</a> accumulate, leaving more fuel for the next fire. This buildup leads to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-years-of-fighting-every-wildfire-helped-fuel-the-western-megafires-of-today-163165">more extreme fires that are even harder to put out</a>. That’s why land managers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2433">set controlled burns</a> and thin forests to clear out the undergrowth.</p>
<p>However, fuel accumulation isn’t the only consequence of fire suppression.</p>
<p>Fire suppression also disproportionately reduces certain types of fire. In a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46702-0">new study</a>, my colleagues <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7G6Y7GsAAAAJ&hl=en">and I</a> show how this effect, known as the suppression bias, compounds the impacts of fuel accumulation and climate change.</p>
<h2>What happened to all the low-intensity fires?</h2>
<p>Most wildfires are low-intensity. They ignite when conditions aren’t too dry or windy, and they can often be quickly extinguished.</p>
<p>The 2% of fires that escape suppression are those that are more extreme and much harder to fight. They <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jof/103.4.179">account for about 98% of the burned area</a> in a typical year.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z_4CueBBYJs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The author and colleagues discuss changing wildfire in Montana and Idaho’s Bitterroot Mountains. By Mark Kreider.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In other words, trying to put out all wildfires doesn’t reduce the total amount of fire equally – instead, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40663-015-0033-8">it limits low-intensity fires while extreme fires still burn</a>. This effect is worsened by climate change.</p>
<h2>Too much suppression makes fires more severe</h2>
<p>In our study, we used a fire modeling simulation to explore the effects of the fire suppression bias and see how they compared to the effects of global warming and fuel accumulation alone.</p>
<p>Fuel accumulation and global warming both <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/climate/climate-change-un-wildfire-report.html">inherently make fires more severe</a>. But over thousands of simulated fires, we found that allowing forests to burn only under the very worst conditions increased fire severity by the same amount as more than a century’s worth of fuel accumulation or 21st-century climate change.</p>
<p>The suppression bias also changes the way plants and animals interact with fire.</p>
<p>By removing low-intensity fires, humans may be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-102320-095612">changing the course of evolution</a>. Without exposure to low-intensity fires, species can lose traits crucial for surviving and recovering from such events.</p>
<p>After extreme fires, landscapes have fewer seed sources and less shade. New seedlings have a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wests-iconic-forests-are-increasingly-struggling-to-recover-from-wildfires-altering-how-fires-burn-could-boost-their-chances-200668">harder time becoming established</a>, and for those that do, the hotter and drier conditions <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wests-iconic-forests-are-increasingly-struggling-to-recover-from-wildfires-altering-how-fires-burn-could-boost-their-chances-200668">reduce their chance of survival</a>. </p>
<p>In contrast, low-intensity fires free up space and resources for new growth, while still retaining living trees and other biological legacies that support seedlings in their vulnerable initial years.</p>
<p>By quickly putting out low-intensity fires and allowing only extreme fires to burn, conventional suppression reduces the opportunities for climate-adapted plants to establish and help ecosystems adjust to changes like global warming.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583472/original/file-20240321-28-2olvh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583472/original/file-20240321-28-2olvh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583472/original/file-20240321-28-2olvh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583472/original/file-20240321-28-2olvh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583472/original/file-20240321-28-2olvh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583472/original/file-20240321-28-2olvh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583472/original/file-20240321-28-2olvh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Firefighters keep watch for smoke from a fire tower in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, Idaho, in 1932.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usforestservice/30162883617/in/album-72157669003030369/">Forest Service photo by K. D. Swan</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Suppression makes burned area increase faster</h2>
<p>As the climate becomes hotter and drier, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2020RG000726">more area is burning in wildfires</a>. If suppression removes fire, it should help slow this increase, right?</p>
<p>In fact, we found it does just the opposite.</p>
<p>We found that while conventional suppression led to less total area burning, the yearly burned area increased more than three times faster under conventional suppression than under less aggressive suppression efforts. The amount of area burned doubled every 14 years with conventional fire suppression under simulated climate change, instead of every 44 years when low- and moderate-intensity fires were allowed to burn. That raises concerns for how quickly people and ecosystems will have to adapt to extreme fires in the future.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583255/original/file-20240320-28-pobf8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two charts show fire area increasing faster in a warming climate climate under conventional fire suppression." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583255/original/file-20240320-28-pobf8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583255/original/file-20240320-28-pobf8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583255/original/file-20240320-28-pobf8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583255/original/file-20240320-28-pobf8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583255/original/file-20240320-28-pobf8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583255/original/file-20240320-28-pobf8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583255/original/file-20240320-28-pobf8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With conventional fire suppression, the average fire size will increase faster as the planet warms than it would under a less aggressive approach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Kreider</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fact that the amount of area burned is increasing is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2020RG000726">undoubtedly driven by climate change</a>. But our study shows that the rate of this increase may also be a result of conventional fire management.</p>
<p>The near total suppression of fires over the last century means that even a little additional fire in a more fire-prone future can create big changes. As climate change continues to <a href="https://theconversation.com/rocky-mountain-forests-burning-more-now-than-any-time-in-the-past-2-000-years-162383">fuel more fires</a>, the relative increase in area burned will be much bigger.</p>
<p>This puts more stress on communities as they adapt to increased extreme wildfires, from dealing with <a href="https://theconversation.com/north-americas-summer-of-wildfire-smoke-2023-was-only-the-beginning-210246">more wildfire smoke</a> to even <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fastest-population-growth-in-the-wests-wildland-urban-interface-is-in-areas-most-vulnerable-to-wildfires-173410">changing where people can live</a>. </p>
<h2>A way forward</h2>
<p>To address the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildfire-crisis">wildfire crisis</a>, fire managers can be less aggressive in suppressing low- and moderate-intensity fires when it is safe to do so. They can also increase the use of <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/prescribed-fire">prescribed fire</a> and <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/rethinking-wildfire">cultural burning</a> to clear away brush and other fuel for fires.</p>
<p>These low-intensity fires will not only reduce the risk of future extreme fires, but they also will create conditions that favor the establishment of species better suited to the changing climate, thereby helping ecosystems adapt to global warming.</p>
<p>Coexisting with wildfire requires developing technologies and approaches that enable the safe management of wildfires under moderate burning conditions. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46702-0">Our study</a> shows that this may be just as necessary as other interventions, such as reducing the number of fires <a href="https://theconversation.com/humans-ignite-almost-every-wildfire-that-threatens-homes-145997">unintentionally started by human activities</a> and mitigating climate change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Kreider receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the USDA Forest Service. </span></em></p>A new study offers a rare window into the hidden effects of aggressive fire suppression that go beyond fuel accumulation. The practice may even change the course of forest evolution.Mark Kreider, Ph.D. Candidate in Forest and Conservation Science, University of MontanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243352024-03-20T19:03:42Z2024-03-20T19:03:42ZTasmania’s tall eucalypt forests will be wiped out by heatwaves unless we step in to help them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582418/original/file-20240318-26-dug8wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C0%2C4898%2C3253&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nicolas Rakotopare</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tasmania’s tall eucalypt forests are globally significant. They <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037811270900872X">accumulate carbon faster</a> than any other natural forest ecosystem in the world. </p>
<p>But climate change is making it harder for these forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in wood. During heatwaves, they <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06674-x">stop removing carbon</a> altogether and release it instead.</p>
<p>What will happen as <a href="https://climatefutures.org.au/extreme-events-technical-report/">heatwaves occur more frequently</a>? Tasmania’s tall eucalypt forests will become carbon sources more and more of the time. As temperatures continue to rise, the forests will reach a “<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.aay1052">tipping point</a>”. When this happens the forests will no longer be able to store carbon and mass tree deaths will occur. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://bit.ly/Giants-Under-Threat_Report-2024">new report</a> released today makes recommendations about preparing for this. There are serious implications for greenhouse gas emissions, conservation and wood production. We cannot ignore the risks of a warming climate. There is a lot we can do now to prepare and make future forests more resilient. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-heatwave-conditions-tasmanias-tall-eucalypt-forests-no-longer-absorb-carbon-176979">In heatwave conditions, Tasmania’s tall eucalypt forests no longer absorb carbon</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Forests of immense value</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/181/">Tasmania Wilderness World Heritage Area</a> is <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2344">ranked number one</a> of all UNESCO sites globally for taking carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it. That’s because western Tasmania’s <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/geb.12171">high rainfall and cool temperatures are ideal for forest growth</a>.</p>
<p>These tall eucalypt forests contribute greatly to Tasmania’s claim to net-zero emissions in its <a href="https://recfit.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/440592/Tasmanian_Greenhouse_Gas_Emissions_Report_2023.pdf">greenhouse gas accounts</a>.</p>
<p>The forests have produced most of the high-quality sawlogs supplying Tasmania’s sawmilling industry for more than a century.</p>
<p>They also provide unique and long-lasting habitat for wildlife. Large logs support diverse communities of insects and fungi.</p>
<p>The forest supports unique <a href="https://tahuneadventures.com.au/">tourism experiences</a> and an emerging opportunity for “<a href="https://www.bigtreestate.com/">big tree tourism</a>”.</p>
<p>Tall eucalypt forests are dominated by one or two or three species of <em>Eucalyptus</em>: </p>
<ul>
<li><em>E. obliqua</em> (messmate or stringy bark)</li>
<li><em>E. regnans</em> (swamp gum or mountain ash) </li>
<li><em>E. delegatensis</em> (alpine ash or gum-top stringybark). </li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582466/original/file-20240318-24-2fq2cg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582466/original/file-20240318-24-2fq2cg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582466/original/file-20240318-24-2fq2cg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582466/original/file-20240318-24-2fq2cg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582466/original/file-20240318-24-2fq2cg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582466/original/file-20240318-24-2fq2cg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582466/original/file-20240318-24-2fq2cg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582466/original/file-20240318-24-2fq2cg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stringybark flowers <em>(Eucalyptus obliqua)</em></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Wardlaw</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Preparing for tipping points</h2>
<p>As temperatures continue to rise, many ecosystems are predicted to reach a <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.aay1052">tipping point</a>. This is the point at which the ecosystem can no longer function and is eventually replaced by a different ecosystem.</p>
<p>Many plant-based ecosystems, mostly in the tropics, are expected to reach a tipping point within three decades. Tasmania’s tall eucalypt forests may be among them because they share <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0084378">similarities with tropical rainforest</a>. </p>
<p>World Heritage values would be jeopardised, huge amounts of stored carbon would be released, and biodiversity dependent on the tall trees would be threatened. So there is an urgent need to begin preparing now for a future tipping point in these forests. </p>
<p>The main ambition of the measures outlined in my <a href="https://bit.ly/Giants-Under-Threat_Report-2024">report released today</a> is to restore forested areas after the original forest is lost – or damaged irreversibly. The new forests would be grown from the same species of eucalypts but the seed sown would regenerate forests better suited to the new climate than the original forest.</p>
<p>To achieve this ambition, we need to decide what features of tall eucalypt forests we want to retain in future forests. Capacity for rapid growth after disturbance would be high on the list of those features. </p>
<p>We also need to know what features need to change to make the forests better suited to a new climate. Increasing the optimum temperature for carbon uptake is the top priority. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582465/original/file-20240318-16-1k5k0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Peering inside the forest, looking through ferns and sedges at ground level and trees of various heights beneath the canopy" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582465/original/file-20240318-16-1k5k0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582465/original/file-20240318-16-1k5k0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582465/original/file-20240318-16-1k5k0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582465/original/file-20240318-16-1k5k0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582465/original/file-20240318-16-1k5k0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582465/original/file-20240318-16-1k5k0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582465/original/file-20240318-16-1k5k0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beneath the canopy of the tallest trees there is a mid-layer of trees and a lower layer of ferns and sedges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Wardlaw</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Producing climate-ready seed for sowing</h2>
<p>In new research, soon to be published, I reviewed several studies that compared the features of Tasmanian tall eucalypt forests with other forests on the Australian mainland. </p>
<p>I wanted to understand why Tasmania’s forests were so sensitive to heatwaves and what, if anything, could be done to lessen their impact. I found the poor response to heatwaves had more to do with the local conditions than anything else. The forests are accustomed to high rainfall and a narrow temperature range. </p>
<p>Could we speed up natural selection to help Tasmania’s tall eucalypt forests adapt to a new, warmer climate? </p>
<p>Previous research has shown forests can be managed to speed up natural selection and <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecm.1333">produce seed better suited to new climates</a>. But this is only feasible in forests managed for wood production. </p>
<p>We need to find out whether natural selection can increase the optimum temperature for carbon uptake by the forest, and if so, by how much. </p>
<p>We need to ensure the right policy settings are in place. A policy to end logging of native forests, for example, would rule out speeding up natural selection.</p>
<p>And we need to think and plan what to do if tall eucalypt forests in reserves are lost or irreparably damaged. Should we try to restore new generations of tall eucalypt forests, and if so, how?</p>
<p>Finally, community support is required. People need to understand what we are trying to achieve. They can also bring new ideas about how to make tall eucalypt forests more resilient. </p>
<p>Timely, accurate, trusted, and accessible information will be crucial. Ongoing <a href="https://www.tern.org.au/tern-ecosystem-processes/warra-tall-eucalypt-supersite/">monitoring</a> of the tall eucalypt forest in the upper reaches of Tasmania’s Huon Valley can provide much of this information.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582464/original/file-20240318-18-dzlsif.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Aerial view of the Warra landscape looking looking south from the Warra flux tower above the canopy" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582464/original/file-20240318-18-dzlsif.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582464/original/file-20240318-18-dzlsif.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582464/original/file-20240318-18-dzlsif.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582464/original/file-20240318-18-dzlsif.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582464/original/file-20240318-18-dzlsif.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582464/original/file-20240318-18-dzlsif.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582464/original/file-20240318-18-dzlsif.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Warra Supersite in the upper reaches of the Huon Valley is one of 16 intensive ecosystem monitoring field stations in Australia’s Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Brown, ComStar Systems</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Future forests</h2>
<p>Clearly, humanity must cut greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming. But some climate impacts are now unavoidable and we need to be prepared.</p>
<p>As heatwaves intensify, Tasmania’s tall eucalypt forests will reach a tipping point. Trees will die. The forest we know today will be lost forever. </p>
<p>But if we are prepared, we can ensure another forest takes its place. With our help, future generations of tall eucalypt forests can still exist – forests better suited to Tasmania’s new climate.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-to-kill-heres-why-eucalypts-are-survival-experts-222743">Hard to kill: here's why eucalypts are survival experts</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I receive funding from the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network.</span></em></p>Our tallest trees are world champions when it comes to capturing and storing carbon, but they don’t like the heat. Climate change will trigger mass tree deaths in Tasmania. Here’s what can be done.Tim Wardlaw, Research Associate, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2239222024-03-19T13:10:57Z2024-03-19T13:10:57ZNigeria’s forests are fast disappearing – urgent steps are needed to protect their benefits to the economy and environment<p><em>Nigeria’s forest cover has been dwindling fast for decades. With one of the <a href="https://earth.org/challenges-facing-policies-against-deforestation-in-nigeria/">highest rates of deforestation</a> in the world, there are concerns about the survival of its forest resources. We asked forest management and biodiversity conservation expert Amusa Tajudeen to explain why the country’s forests are disappearing and what to do about it.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Which parts of Nigeria are covered by forest?</h2>
<p>Nigeria has a rain forest zone in the south. Forest cover decreases in density towards the north, where the savannah belt is characterised by grasses and sparse tree cover. The rain forest ecosystem <a href="https://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:1726/unuinrapolicybriefvol2_4.pdf">lies</a> between latitudes 4⁰N and 9⁰N and extends from the coast to about 250km inland.</p>
<h2>What is the current status of Nigeria’s forest cover?</h2>
<p>Nigeria’s forest cover is diminishing in extent and quality. But reliable data is scarce. For instance, one record indicates that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas-Omali/publication/344238412_Prospects_of_satellite-Enhanced_Forest_Monitoring_for_Nigeria/links/5f5f7158299bf1d43c0223ce/Prospects-of-satellite-Enhanced-Forest-Monitoring-for-Nigeria.pdf#page=4">Nigeria’s land mass is 910,770km²</a> and forest occupies 110,890km², or 12.8% of the total land mass. Another shows that Nigeria’s land mass is 997,936km² and only <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jasr/article/view/112511">10% is under forest reserve</a>.</p>
<p>At independence in 1960, it was <a href="https://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:1726/unuinrapolicybriefvol2_4.pdf">reported</a> that the colonial government had set aside 97,000km² (9.72%) of the country as forest reserves. </p>
<p>Historical accounts also indicate that the country’s rain forest, which was over 600,000km² in 1897 (60% of land mass), had <a href="https://bioone.org/journals/international-forestry-review/volume-8/issue-3/ifor.8.3.372/Status-of-Tropical-Forest-Management-2005-Summary-Report/10.1505/ifor.8.3.372.full?casa_token=ZTKPa_OhRG8AAAAA:iVodlrGMgTr3eYlu4CZ-IWR1KCxrg_0q6lnmCpc6zTfHRaBj2_kFYQETnMpHndwm6KRzxdefZXQ">reduced</a> by about half in 1960 to 30% of land mass. </p>
<p>Nigeria’s forests <a href="https://www.netjournals.org/pdf/NJAS/2015/1/15-011.pdf#page=1">covered</a> an estimated 175,000km² in 1990 and 135,000km² in 2000. Between 2000 and 2004, the country was said to have lost 55.7% of its primary forests – that is, 75,195km² of native and original forests that have never been logged and have developed under natural processes. </p>
<p>A report by the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD) <a href="https://www.un-redd.org/partner-countries/africa/nigeria">shows</a> that the decline rate of forest cover in Nigeria ranged from 3.5% to 3.7% per annum over the period 2000 to 2010. This translates to a loss of 350,000–400,000 hectares of forest land yearly.</p>
<p>Unless something decisive is done, and urgently, the country will lose all its forest areas by the year 2052, if the prevailing rate of deforestation at 3.5% annually is anything to go by.</p>
<h2>Why is forest cover important?</h2>
<p>Forests are very important for the economic development of every nation. They also have environmental, ecological, socio-cultural, scientific and research service functions. </p>
<p>Forests provide numerous goods and services. Some are needed as raw materials – for example wood for building materials, fuel and paper. </p>
<p>Forests also offer natural foods and non-timber products like oilseeds, latexes, gums, resins, rattan, vanilla and game. Forest-based industries such as sawmills, paper mills and furniture industries provide employment and income. </p>
<p>Forest ecosystems offer physical, biological and chemical benefits. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>conserving soil, controlling the timing and volume of water flows, protecting water quality and maintaining aquatic habitats </p></li>
<li><p>preventing disasters like floods and landslides, and moderating winds </p></li>
<li><p>conserving biodiversity </p></li>
<li><p>storing carbon, which mitigates climate change. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The socio-cultural service functions of forests cover nature-based tourism and ecotourism activities. Ecotourism provides a means for people to use the forest without extracting its resources or degrading the environment. Wildlife attracts many visitors and foreign exchange earnings.</p>
<p>In addition, forests help to deepen our understanding of the natural world. Through research, we learn new things about species, habitats and ecosystems. Forest resources are particularly important in medicine, including immunology and other studies of diseases. </p>
<h2>Why is Nigeria’s forest cover being depleted?</h2>
<p>Before the 1950s, the forestry and agriculture sectors <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul-Owombo-2/publication/311869826_Contributions_of_Forestry_Sub-sector_to_the_Nigerian_Economy_A_Co-integration_Approach/links/5c3ef31692851c22a3789e6a/Contributions-of-Forestry-Sub-sector-to-the-Nigerian-Economy-A-Co-integration-Approach.pdf">contributed</a> over 80% of Nigeria’s gross domestic product. This changed after the discovery of oil in the 1950s and early 1960s.</p>
<p>Today, the laws and policies associated with forest administration are obsolete. In addition, supervision, monitoring and surveillance of forest areas is poor. Staffing and provision of basic infrastructure are grossly inadequate. </p>
<p>The principle of sustained yield forestry, when products removed from the forest are replaced by growth, has been abandoned in most forest reserves. Inventory records of resources are insufficient. Local people don’t participate enough in decision-making related to forests. The forestry sector is also affected by corruption, such as misappropriation of funds and <a href="http://repository.ui.edu.ng/handle/123456789/1405">illegal activities</a>.</p>
<p>In Nigeria, primary forests are <a href="http://repository.ui.edu.ng/handle/123456789/1405">cleared</a> extensively. The various state forestry departments have been unable to adequately protect the forest estate. Most forest reserves that were once managed for timber production have become deforested and fragmented. Many have been converted for other land uses. </p>
<p>Large scale agriculture has consumed a significant portion of forested areas. Similarly, <a href="https://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/ajcjs/vol9/iss1/10/">unlawful and indiscriminate logging activities</a> take place in naturally occurring forests. </p>
<p>Urbanisation, which comes with roads, buildings and other infrastructure, is often carried out without proper planning. </p>
<h2>How can this depletion be tackled?</h2>
<p>Based on our <a href="http://80.240.30.238/bitstream/123456789/1405/1/%2816%29%20ui_inpro_amusa_forest_2017.pdf">studies</a> of the Nigerian forests over the years and <a href="https://www.rufford.org/projects/tajudeen-okekunle-amusa/strengthening-monitoring-systems-for-adaptive-management-and-protection-of-forest-elephants-in-omo-forest-reserve-southwestern-nigeria/">lessons</a> from numerous projects carried out, I have the following recommendations:</p>
<p>Most countries have a forestry law. Unfortunately Nigeria’s forest policy is not backed by a code or act. A national Forestry Act could reverse the decline in forest cover. It could give adequate protection and ensure sustainable management of the country’s forest estate.</p>
<p>There is an urgent need to plant and replant trees across the country. The various state governments can collaborate with non-governmental organisations to achieve this. </p>
<p>Reforestation involves replanting trees in areas where forests have been destroyed. Afforestation involves creating new forests on previously non-forested land. These campaigns should plant a diverse range of native tree species. </p>
<p>It’s also crucial to promote sustainable forestry practices. The government should enforce strict regulations against illegal logging and unsustainable timber harvesting. Enforcement can be done using technology such as remote sensors, drones and satellite imagery. It is essential to work with local communities, traditional leaders and NGOs to raise awareness about the importance of forest conservation.</p>
<p>Finally, there should be proper staffing. Adequately trained forest professionals and well equipped guards should be hired to safeguard the forests. Education and training programmes should teach local communities, forest workers and farmers about sustainable forestry methods and the importance of preserving biodiversity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tajudeen Amusa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nigeria’s forest resources have dwindled and are in danger of disappearing in a few decades if nothing is done to save them.Tajudeen Amusa, Associate Professor, Forest Resources Management, University of IlorinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2187532024-03-13T16:44:27Z2024-03-13T16:44:27ZSweden has vast ‘old growth’ forests – but they are being chopped down faster than the Amazon<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581678/original/file-20240313-20-usdjv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4594%2C3449&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Swedish old-growth forest.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ulrika Ervander</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>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 <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2022.979528/full">exceptionally valuable</a> as they tend to host more species, store more carbon, and are <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/acd6a8/meta">more resilient to environmental change</a>.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022EF003221">researching these last relics of natural forest</a> we have found they are being cleared rapidly – at a rate faster even than the Amazon rainforest. </p>
<p>There is no direct monitoring of these forests, no thorough environmental impact assessments and most of the public don’t seem to be aware this is even happening. Other evidence suggests something similar is happening right across the world’s boreal forests.</p>
<p>It can be tricky to know exactly how much old-growth forest there is, since the distinction might not always be clear. However, there is a clear difference between forests that have been “clear-cut” (entirely chopped down) sometime in the past and those that never have. </p>
<p>Clear-cutting started appearing in Sweden in the early 1900s and has been the dominant type of forestry in the country since the 1950s. The uncut forests that predate this time have therefore most likely not been clear-cut and since they are old they can be classified as old-growth forests.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581712/original/file-20240313-22-nlg4ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Logging machine in forest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581712/original/file-20240313-22-nlg4ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581712/original/file-20240313-22-nlg4ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581712/original/file-20240313-22-nlg4ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581712/original/file-20240313-22-nlg4ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581712/original/file-20240313-22-nlg4ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581712/original/file-20240313-22-nlg4ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581712/original/file-20240313-22-nlg4ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Clear-cutting is still the main form of logging in Sweden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lasse Johansson / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our study, we looked specifically at forests in unprotected areas where the trees predated 1880 on average. That’s long before the large-scale adoption of clear-cutting in Sweden and means those forests have likely never been clear-cut.</p>
<p>These unprotected old-growth forests constitute around 8% of the productive forest land in Sweden, that is, the area that is generally favourable for forestry (omitting forests close to the Scandinavian mountain range tree line). This amounts to about 1.8 million hectares of old-growth forest, more than the total wooded area in <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/FOR_AREA_EFA__custom_672302/bookmark/table?lang=en&bookmarkId=2b089c56-a550-4f87-943e-0989dacf605a">many European countries</a>.</p>
<p>This area of unprotected old-growth forest, with the remaining protected old-growth and <a href="https://www.nateko.lu.se/research/ecosystem-ecology/primary-forest-project">primary forests</a>, constitutes a large share of the last known ecosystems of “high naturalness” in the EU.</p>
<h2>What is happening to these old-growth forests?</h2>
<p>Between 2003 and 2019, 20% of all the clear-cut forest in Sweden was old-growth. This means a sizeable share of forest products, such as timber, paper and bioenergy, comes from old trees. The losses to unprotected old-growth forests amount to 1.4% per year, which means they will be lost completely by the 2070s if the trend continues. </p>
<p>To put this in perspective, Sweden’s old-growth forests have been cleared six to seven times faster than the <a href="http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/app/dashboard/deforestation/biomes/amazon/increments">Brazilian Amazon forest</a> between 2008 and 2023. (Of course, given the size of the Amazon, the total amount of cleared forest is much larger there). </p>
<p>While our study, shockingly enough, appears to be the only of its kind across the boreal region, there is some research showing that old-growth forests are also harvested in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112719313611">Canada</a>. Additional anecdotal evidence further suggests the unchecked loss of old-growth forests to forestry operations in <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2014/09/30/russia-is-running-out-of-forest-a39951">other</a> <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/tale-two-forests-tour-through-canadas-boreal">boreal</a> <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/issue-with-tissue-2-report.pdf">regions</a> .</p>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>The European Commission has drafted <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/documents-register/detail?ref=SWD(2023)62&lang=en">guidelines</a> for all countries to map and protect all remaining old-growth and primary forests. This would be a good start. </p>
<p>But ultimately, 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. This would also help us understand the implications for carbon storage, for other plants and animals that live in these forests, and the humans that use them. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, this is a large and difficult task. Yet this might be one of our last chances to protect and recover large areas of natural forests. Logging old-growth forests now will delay their recovery for centuries.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 30,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218753/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anders Ahlström receives funding from the Swedish Research Council and EU H2020. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pep Canadell receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program - Climate Systems Hub.</span></em></p>Research suggests these forests could disappear by the 2070s.Anders Ahlström, Associate Professor, Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund UniversityPep Canadell, Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Environment; Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2140102024-03-08T14:01:57Z2024-03-08T14:01:57ZHow we’re breathing new life into French forests through green corridors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573401/original/file-20240205-15-peliih.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C40%2C5439%2C3587&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A pine plantation and hedgerow as seen from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexandre Changenet, 2023</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the summer of 2008, during a family holiday road trip, we passed by the Aquitaine region in southwestern France. As we drove through a sprawling woodland, a mesmerizing sight unfolded before my eyes: a meticulously ordered army of trees, standing tall and proud. It could have been an army regiment classified by age.</p>
<p>This uniformity – in stark contrast to the wild and varied Mediterranean forests I was accustomed to – left me utterly captivated. Beneath the leafy canopy, the undergrowth seemed sparse, with only the occasional glimpse of heather and its discreet flowers, repeating like an infinite copy-paste.</p>
<p>I immediately thought that if I were a wild animal, this forest might not be the most stimulating place to call home. There was little biomass to sustain life, and while the simplified food chain offered few competitors, there were no companions, either. The woods felt monotonous.</p>
<h2>A European plan to revive thousands of acres</h2>
<p>Fast forward to last April, I returned to the same location, this time accompanied by more than 100 experts from <a href="https://forest-restoration.eu/">SUPERB</a>, an ambitious 20 million euro project funded by the Horizon programme to restore thousands of hectares of forest landscape across Europe.</p>
<p>The initiative, which relies on 12 forests including the Aquitaine site, will go some way in making good on the EU’s Nature Restoration bill, which commits the bloc to restoring at least 30% of degraded habitats by 2030, 60% by 2040 and 90% by 2050. It will also provide policy-makers with critical insights into the continent’s wildlife, life support systems and carbon sequestration capacity.</p>
<p>Spanning <a href="https://nouvelle-aquitaine.cnpf.fr/sites/socle/files/cnpf-old/30_foret_landes_gascogne_1.pdf">1 million hectares of planted forests</a>, the Aquitaine site plays an important part in the local economy, with 90% of its plantations private. Historically, the landowners here had thrived on long-term thinking and patience. Trees took their time to grow, but the rewards were bountiful. In the harvest, the first trees to be cleared are typically used for the manufacture of pulp and paper. Small trees are for pallets and packaging, while bigger trees are exploited for structural wood, beams or panelling parquet.</p>
<p>For generations, locals had employed top-notch forest management techniques, yielding high returns. But the forest and its wood-based economy are now under threat. During my week there, I realised that what had once appeared orderly and disciplined had by then struck me as odd and unbalanced. With time, relentless production had depleted the soil and flora. The climate was also growing more arid by the day. Landowners complained of increasingly frequent natural calamities – wildfires, pest outbreaks, and destructive windstorms.</p>
<p>I was there with colleagues to check on the restoration progress and learn from local scientists’ restoration experience. In our conversations, one word echoed repeatedly: <em>resilience</em> – the ability to rebound after disturbances, regardless of their origin. Another word for it when it comes to forest management is <em>biodiversity</em>, the dry term we scientists use for thriving wildlife. Since December 2021, SUPERB has been on a mission to bring it back to the woods of Aquitaine.</p>
<h2>Life through green corridors</h2>
<p>To revive dull, homogeneous nature, one typically has to mess it up, or at least according to our human eyes. At several levels: that of the landscape, by ensuring that forests, pastures and agricultural land rotate and balance one another out; at the species level, so that a multitude of trees, shrubs, and herbs can provide shelter for wildlife; and at the population level, where even large numbers of trees of the same species can react differently to environmental challenges, thereby maximising their survival chances.</p>
<p>However, this poses economic and logistical challenges. Unevenly aged trees and different tree species can hardly be harvested simultaneously, and large machinery face access difficulties. This is where SUPERB’s hedgerows come in. Working across 20 000 hectares, our team has spent the past months planting 10 km-long hedgerows to connect pockets of existing broad-leaf species, such as oaks. The idea is to form a physical barrier to increase resilience to pests and diseases and potentially other threats that may increase with a warming planet such as winds, storms, wildfires and drought.</p>
<h2>Swaying resistant landlords</h2>
<p>While many landowners are already committed to planting mixed hedgerows around their pine plantations, others are more prudent, and will need strong evidence to adopt this practice that costs money and breaks with tradition.</p>
<p>Scientists from French partners, including INRAE and the European Institute of Planted Forests, did their best to reassure them. Throughout the week, they had three drones scan the landscape from above, revealing the contrast between homogeneous pine forests and diverse hedgerows. On the ground, our team encountered traps for insects, pitfall traps for snakes, microhabitats for lizards, tree caves for bats, and audio recording and camera traps for other organisms. Even the soil’s diversity was examined through DNA analysis of its hidden microorganisms.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580226/original/file-20240306-28-u8jo2s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580226/original/file-20240306-28-u8jo2s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580226/original/file-20240306-28-u8jo2s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580226/original/file-20240306-28-u8jo2s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580226/original/file-20240306-28-u8jo2s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580226/original/file-20240306-28-u8jo2s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580226/original/file-20240306-28-u8jo2s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580226/original/file-20240306-28-u8jo2s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Upper panel: A natural forest. Middle panel: a forest intensively managed for wood production (far from its natural state). Bottom panel: A forest managed with ‘closer to nature’ methods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.36333/fs12">Larsen et al., 2022/European Forest Institute</a>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the pursuit of understanding ecosystem and bolstering resilience, much remains to be uncovered. While we await a complete understanding, the <a href="https://efi.int/publications-bank/closer-nature-forest-management">“closer to nature” management approach</a>, which seeks to “prioritize ecological integrity, biodiversity and sustainable practices over intensive human interventions” is gaining traction, emulating what nature does best. Yet translating this knowledge into actionable management plans for the forest managers is the other area that SUPERB is working on.</p>
<p>As the coordinator of the SUPERB project, I had the privilege of visiting all its demonstration sites, from woods in Castille in Leon to the alpine landscapes of the Vindelälven-Juhttatahkka biosphere in Sweden, down to the mountainous region of Vysočina and North Moravia in Czech Republic. Each forest brought its own set of challenges such as bark-beetle attacks, fragmented trees, wildfires, and abandoned lands. It became evident that customized approaches were necessary to address restoration, even when facing similar problems.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is the result of The Conversation’s collaboration with <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine">Horizon</a>, the EU research and innovation magazine. In June, the author published <a href="https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/horizon-magazine/europe-seeks-flourishing-forests-through-restoration">an article</a> with the magazine.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214010/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madga Bou Dagher a reçu des financements de Horizon Europe 2020 for SUPERB project. </span></em></p>The SUPERB project, part of the EU’s Horizon programme, aims to restore thousands of hectares of forest landscape across Europe.Madga Bou Dagher, Professor in Forest genetics, European Forest InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243922024-03-01T13:54:55Z2024-03-01T13:54:55ZThe world’s business and finance sectors can do much more to reverse deforestation – here’s the data to prove it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578638/original/file-20240228-18-y5cg7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rainforest jungle in Borneo, Malaysia, is destroyed to make way for oil palm plantations</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/deforestation-aerial-photo-rainforest-jungle-borneo-1098811376">Rich Carey/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big corporations could drive a worldwide shift towards more <a href="https://forest500.org/sites/default/files/forest_500_financial_institution_selection_methodology_2022.pdf">sustainable supply chains</a> that limit damage caused by deforestation. But progress is being slowed down by weak or non-existent commitments to ensure that supply chains for commodities such as soy, palm oil and beef have not contributed to tropical deforestation, according to analysis recently published by the environmental organisation <a href="https://globalcanopy.org/about-us/">Global Canopy</a>.</p>
<p>Based on ten years of <a href="https://forest500.org/publications/2024-a-decade-of-deforestation-data/">data</a>, the <a href="https://forest500.org/">Forest 500</a> report assessed 350 companies, from high-street supermarkets and food producers that might use soy or beef in their supply chains to firms using tropical timber to build furniture. It also looked at 150 financial institutions that provide <a href="https://forest500.org/publications/2023-watershed-year-action-deforestation/">US$6.1 trillion</a> (£4.8 trillion) of investment to these companies each year. </p>
<p>Nearly one-third of the assessed companies still haven’t committed to avoiding deforestation when trading in commodities such as beef and leather, palm oil, soy, timber and paper pulp. </p>
<p>But progress varies depending on the product. While a majority (76%) of companies assessed for palm oil have a deforestation commitment, 65% of those assessed for beef do not. Conversion to beef pasture is driving a surge in deforestation in Brazil’s Cerrado savannah where, last year, deforestation increased <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68272643">by 43%</a>. </p>
<p>New laws, such as the <a href="https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/forests/deforestation/regulation-deforestation-free-products_en">EU Deforestation Regulation</a> and <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/forest-act">US Forest Act</a>, aim to prevent trade in products that contribute to illegal deforestation. But these <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/the-cerrado-crisis-brazils-deforestation-frontline/">may not protect habitats such as the Cerrado savannah</a>, for example, which <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68272643">falls out of scope of the new EU regulation</a> because the trees aren’t tall enough to count as forest.</p>
<p>Unless deforestation regulations are strengthened to stop trade in products that have caused the loss of any type of vital natural habitat, companies will not stop trading in products such as beef that are sourced from forests like the Cerrado savannah. </p>
<p>In the UK, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/supermarket-essentials-will-no-longer-be-linked-to-illegal-deforestation">proposed regulations</a> will stop trade in products associated with illegal deforestation, but not those defined as legal under local law. Regulation has a part to play in halting deforestation, but only if it includes all conversion of natural habitats, both legal and illegal, and includes regulation of the finance sector.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Short green trees and brown grass burning with flames and smoke" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Cerrado forest vegetation in Brazil is being burnt to make way for livestock farming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/burning-cerrado-vegetation-typical-biome-central-2033322188">Sergio Willian fotos/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>International collaborations such as the <a href="https://forestclimateleaders.org/#about">Forest and Climate Leaders Partnership</a> seek to address government and public sector ambition. But steps to reduce deforestation from within the <a href="https://accountability-framework.org/">private sector</a> are just as crucial, because global trade in forest commodities drives loss. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/what-are-drivers-deforestation">greatest drivers</a> of tropical forest loss are conversion to cropland and pasture, building of infrastructure such as mines and roads, and logging for timber. <a href="https://theconversation.com/forests-are-vital-to-protect-the-climate-yet-the-world-is-falling-far-behind-its-targets-216703">Climate change and wildfires</a> add further pressures, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8622">degrading forests</a>. </p>
<p>Trade in products such as coco, coffee, palm oil, soybeans, beef and leather, timber and wood pulp all expose companies to deforestation risk. The raw trade value of these products – defined as “freight on board” by <a href="https://comtradeplus.un.org/">UN Comm Trade</a> – in 2022 alone was more than US$32 billion.</p>
<p>It’s hard to move away from deforestation to make valuable products when the practices are supported by <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/06/15/trillions-wasted-on-subsidies-could-help-address-climate-change">huge subsidies</a>. Those to the soy, palm oil and beef industries support <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/06/15/trillions-wasted-on-subsidies-could-help-address-climate-change">14% of annual global forest loss</a>. The annual funding for forests is <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/landscapes/forests/pathways-report-summary">less than 1%</a> that which funds environmentally harmful subsidies, so progress in reducing deforestation is undermined by an enormous financial gap. This needs to be closed in order to start financially incentivising forest protection. </p>
<p>Human rights issues and deforestation go hand-in-hand because many Indigenous peoples and local communities are <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-10/WWF-Forest-Pathways-Report-2023.pdf">denied land rights to their forests</a>. It is vital that companies ensure their supply chains do not exacerbate land rights denial – but here the new report highlights a global blind spot. </p>
<p>Only 1% of Forest 500 companies had a policy for all of the human rights issues relating to at least one of the highest-risk commodities they were assessed for. And most of the companies assessed (91%) did not have a published commitment to ensuring that all rights-based conflicts are resolved before they finalise new developments or acquisitions in their supply chains.</p>
<h2>Global forest goals</h2>
<p>2023 was a landmark year for the planet’s forests. For the first time, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cop26-world-leaders-summit-on-action-on-forests-and-land-use-2-november-2021/world-leaders-summit-on-action-on-forests-and-land-use">global goal</a> to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 was formally adopted <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma2023_L17_adv.pdf">by the UN</a>. </p>
<p>Yet despite everything forests do for <a href="https://theconversation.com/forests-are-vital-to-protect-the-climate-yet-the-world-is-falling-far-behind-its-targets-216703">nature, people and the climate</a>, forest loss continues almost unabated. In 2022, an area of forest <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?9899941/Forest-Pathways-Report-2023">the size of Denmark</a> was lost. The new report shows there is still a huge gap between ambition and action. </p>
<p>There is no legally binding international framework convention on forests, so most forest commitments are voluntary. <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/markets/deforestation_conversion_free/">Advice to companies</a> on how to accelerate and scale up deforestation and conversion-free supply chains is widespread, but the <a href="https://forest500.org/analysis/insights/major-companies-and-financial-institutions-are-persistently-ignoring-their-role-in-driving-deforestation/">Forest 500 assessment</a> concludes that the private sector isn’t taking voluntary action fast enough.</p>
<p>Only 3% of Forest 500 companies are fully and publicly reporting deforestation in their supply chains, and <a href="https://forest500.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Forest500_Annual-Report-2024_Final.pdf">63% fail to publish adequate evidence</a> of the implementation of their deforestation commitments. This makes it difficult for consumers to be sure that the products they buy are not contributing to any form of forest loss.</p>
<p>As the report concludes, new regulations to address deforestation must be ambitious and cover both legal and illegal deforestation. They must also address the conversion of natural ecosystems for forest commodities that result in environmental destruction, and any associated human rights abuses. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 30,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224392/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Gagen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recently published report sheds light on how 350 big companies and 150 financial institutions are falling behind with goals to halt and reverse deforestation.Mary Gagen, Professor of Physical Geography, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2225992024-02-26T05:03:51Z2024-02-26T05:03:51ZSecrets in the canopy: scientists discover 8 striking new bee species in the Pacific<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577494/original/file-20240222-16-pcdtt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4000%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Dorey Photography</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After a decade searching for new species of bees in forests of the Pacific Islands, all we had to do was look up. </p>
<p>We soon found <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2024.1339446/full">eight new species</a> of masked bees in the forest canopy: six in Fiji, one in French Polynesia and another in Micronesia. Now we expect to find many more. </p>
<p>Forest-dwelling bees evolved for thousands of years alongside native plants, and play unique and important roles in nature. Studying these species can help us better understand bee evolution, diversity and conservation.</p>
<p>Almost <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-02626-w">21,000 bee species are known to science</a>. Many more remain undiscovered. But it’s a race against time, as the twin challenges of habitat loss and climate change threaten bee survival. We need to identify and protect bee species before they disappear forever.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577774/original/file-20240225-24-qvx9ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of research students using stepping stones to cross a creek in the rainforest while carrying sampling nets on short poles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577774/original/file-20240225-24-qvx9ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577774/original/file-20240225-24-qvx9ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577774/original/file-20240225-24-qvx9ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577774/original/file-20240225-24-qvx9ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577774/original/file-20240225-24-qvx9ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577774/original/file-20240225-24-qvx9ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577774/original/file-20240225-24-qvx9ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Searching for bees in the rainforest on Vanua Levu, formerly known as Sandalwood Island, the second largest island of Fiji.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Dorey Photography</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Introducing the new masked bees</h2>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/brv.12947">Pollinators abound in forests</a>. But scientific research has tended to focus on bees living closer to the ground.</p>
<p>We believe this sampling bias is replicated across much of the world. For example, another related Oceanic masked bee, <em>Pharohylaeus lactiferus</em> (a cloaked bee), was recently found in the canopy <a href="https://theconversation.com/phantom-of-the-forest-after-100-years-in-hiding-i-rediscovered-the-rare-cloaked-bee-in-australia-156026">after 100 years in hiding</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577776/original/file-20240225-30-ni8m63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Closeup of one of the new masked bees showing the yellow markings on its face" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577776/original/file-20240225-30-ni8m63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577776/original/file-20240225-30-ni8m63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577776/original/file-20240225-30-ni8m63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577776/original/file-20240225-30-ni8m63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577776/original/file-20240225-30-ni8m63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577776/original/file-20240225-30-ni8m63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577776/original/file-20240225-30-ni8m63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This masked bee was collected from a canopy-flowering mistletoe near Mount Nadarivatu on Viti Levu, Fiji.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Dorey Photography</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4674.1.1">first decade of bee sampling</a> in Fiji turned up only one bee from the genus <em>Hylaeus</em>. This bee probably belonged in the canopy so we were very lucky to catch it near the ground. Targeted attempts over the next few years, using our standard short insect nets, failed to find any more. </p>
<p>But this changed when we turned our attention to searching the forest canopy. </p>
<p>Sampling in the canopy is physically challenging. Strength and skill are required to sweep a long, heavy net and pole through the treetops. It’s quite a workout. We limit our efforts to the edges of forests, where branches won’t tangle the whole contraption.</p>
<p>By lifting our gaze in this way, we discovered eight new bee species, all in the genus <em>Hylaeus</em>. They are mostly black with stunning yellow or white highlights, especially on their faces – hence the name, masked bees. </p>
<p>They appear to rely exclusively on the forest canopy. This behaviour is striking and has rarely been identified in bees before (perhaps because few scientists have been looking for bees up there). </p>
<p>Because the new species live in forests and native tree tops, they’re likely to be vulnerable to land clearing, cyclones and climate change. </p>
<p>More work is needed to uncover the secrets hidden in these dense tropical treetops. It may require engineering solutions such as canopy cranes and drones, as well as skilful tree-climbing using ropes, pulleys and harnesses.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/move-over-honeybees-aussie-native-bees-steal-the-show-with-unique-social-and-foraging-behaviours-200536">Move over, honeybees: Aussie native bees steal the show with unique social and foraging behaviours</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Michener’s missing links</h2>
<p>The journey of bees across the Pacific region is a tale of great dispersals and isolation.</p>
<p>Almost 60 years ago, world-renowned bee expert <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/787658">Charles Michener described</a> what was probably the most isolated masked bee around, <em>Hylaeus tuamotuensis</em>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577779/original/file-20240225-16-iay0de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Searching for bees on Fiji’s highest peak, Mount Tomanivi, here two researchers are picking a path through dense undergrowth while carrying nets on short poles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577779/original/file-20240225-16-iay0de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577779/original/file-20240225-16-iay0de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577779/original/file-20240225-16-iay0de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577779/original/file-20240225-16-iay0de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577779/original/file-20240225-16-iay0de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577779/original/file-20240225-16-iay0de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577779/original/file-20240225-16-iay0de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fiji’s highest peak, Mount Tomanivi, is home to unique bee species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Dorey Photography</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The specimen was found in French Polynesia. At the time, Michener said that was “entirely unexpected”, because the nearest relatives were, as the bee flies, 4,000km north in Hawaii, 5,000km southwest in New Zealand, and 6,000km west in Australia. </p>
<p>So how did it get there and where did it come from?</p>
<p>Our research helps to answer these questions. We found eight new <em>Hylaeus</em> species including one from French Polynesia. Using genetic analysis and other methods, we found strong links between these species and <em>H. tuamotuensis</em>. </p>
<p>So Michener’s bee was probably an ancient immigrant from Fiji, 3,000km away. A journey of that magnitude is no mean feat for bees smaller than a grain of rice.</p>
<p>Of course, there are <a href="https://geoscienceletters.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40562-016-0041-8">more than 1,700 islands in the Pacific</a>, which can serve as stepping stones for bees on their long journeys. </p>
<p>We don’t yet know how many new <em>Hylaeus</em> species might exist in the South Pacific, or the routes they took to get to their island homes. But we suspect there are many more to be found.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/phantom-of-the-forest-after-100-years-in-hiding-i-rediscovered-the-rare-cloaked-bee-in-australia-156026">Phantom of the forest: after 100 years in hiding, I rediscovered the rare cloaked bee in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Our Pacific emissaries</h2>
<p>The early origins of Fijian bees – both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03721426.2020.1740957">ground-dwelling <em>Homalictus</em></a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2012.10.018">forest-loving <em>Hylaeus</em></a> – can be traced to the ancient past when Australia and New Guinea were part of one land mass, known as Sahul. The ancestors of both groups then undertook epic oceanic journeys to travel from Sahul to the furthest reaches of the Pacific, where they diversified. But the <em>Hylaeus</em> travelled furthest, by thousands of kilometres.</p>
<p>These little emissaries have similarly brought together researchers across the region. We resolved difficulties sampling and gathering knowledge by working with people across the Pacific, including Fiji, French Polynesia, and Hawaii. It shows what can be accomplished with international collaboration. </p>
<p>Together we are making great strides towards understanding our shared bee biodiversity. Such collaborations are our best chance of discovering and conserving species while we can.</p>
<p><em>We would like to thank Ben Parslow and Karl Magnacca for their contribution to this article. We would further like to thank our collaborators and their home institutions, the Hawiian Department of Land and Natural Resources, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, University of the South Pacific, the South Australian Museum and Adelaide University.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James B. Dorey has received funding for this work from The Playford Trust as a PhD and Honours scholarship recipient, Flinders University through the AJ and IM Naylon PhD Scholarship, and the Australian Government through the New Colombo Plan . He is affiliated with both Flinders University and the University of Wollongong.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy-Marie Gilpin is affiliated with the School of Science and Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University. Funding to publish this work was in part provided by Western Sydney University. Amy-Marie is also a member of the IUCN Wild Bee Specialist Group Oceania. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivia Davies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By lifting their gaze to the treetops rather than poking around on the ground, researchers discovered eight new species of masked bees.James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of WollongongAmy-Marie Gilpin, Lecturer in Invertebrate Ecology, Western Sydney UniversityOlivia Davies, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210852024-02-22T20:50:27Z2024-02-22T20:50:27ZHow advanced genetic testing can be used to combat the illegal timber trade<p>According to <a href="https://www.interpol.int/Crimes/Environmental-crime/Forestry-crime">Interpol</a>, the organization dedicated to facilitating international police co-operation, between 15 per cent and 30 per cent of the world’s traded timber comes from illegal sources. This is an estimated annual value of US$51-152 billion dollars. </p>
<p>Illegal logging has serious consequences for the environment, the climate and the local livelihoods of the people who depend upon the affected forests. In turn, local governments are faced with losses in revenue, rising corruption and decreasing timber prices. These make it even more difficult for the legal forestry sector to remain competitive. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/illegal-logging-in-africa-is-a-threat-to-security-202291">Illegal logging in Africa is a threat to security</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Even in Canada, customers are unwittingly supporting this theft by buying timber with false declarations. In the face of such issues, Canadian researchers are currently developing a <a href="https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.891853/publication.html">traceability system</a> employing genomic identification technologies to help tackle the trade in illegal timber. </p>
<h2>Stemming the flow</h2>
<p>To help address poaching, the United States expanded the pre-existing <a href="https://www.fws.gov/law/lacey-act">Lacey Act in 2008</a>. Originally designed to control the illegal trade of <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/lacey-acts-effectiveness">wildlife</a>, it was adapted to help tackle the trade in illegally harvested wood. The 2008 amendments to the Lacey Act decreased the importation of illegally harvested wood into the U.S. by approximately 32 to 44 per cent. </p>
<p>In Canada, similar regulations have been put in place to avoid the exploitation of species at risk including the <a href="https://www.laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/W-8.5/index.html">Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act</a>. But how do we know if the declarations of a wood product are accurate or correctly reported? </p>
<p>In general, identification methods can be categorized into three groups: anatomical, analytical or molecular biological techniques — each with its <a href="https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.21518.79689">own set of advantages and limitations</a>. </p>
<p>Identification methods which use the aid of <a href="https://doi.org/10.46830/wrirpt.21.00067">microscope technology</a> look for distinct characteristics of the wood anatomy including tissues and cells. It is also the group of methods most commonly used.</p>
<p>However, this method requires trained specialists, the appropriate equipment and can typically only provide meaningful conclusions at the <a href="https://www.biologyonline.com/dictionary/genus">genus level</a>. In addition, wood anatomy cannot tell us where a piece of wood comes from. </p>
<h2>Looking to genetics</h2>
<p>This is where genomics come into play. To determine the species identity and the geographic origin of a logged tree, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/35016000">researchers take advantage of evolution</a>. </p>
<p>A few key factors make genetic identification possible. </p>
<p>Firstly, there are clear genetic differences between distinct <em><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2771874/#:%7E:text=We%20define%20a%20genetic%20species,from%20the%20Biological%20Species%20Concept.">species</a></em>. Secondly, the closer the relationship between individuals — in this case trees — the more genetically similar they are, while the more removed the individuals are the less genetic information is shared.</p>
<p>Therefore, it is possible to assign an individual to a “local population” based on its genetic fingerprint, sharing parts of its genetic makeup with that population and, consequently, <a href="https://pubs.cif-ifc.org/doi/abs/10.5558/tfc2018-010">also the specific region where it originates from</a>. This method is called population genetics. </p>
<p>The power of population genetics lies in its ability to identify groups of individuals that share a certain amount of genetic information that can be used to assign individuals to a species or a geographic region. The same methods can be used for humans to find unknown relatives or trace back the ethnic origin of your ancestors. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weakening-australias-illegal-logging-laws-would-undermine-the-global-push-to-halt-forest-loss-172770">Weakening Australia's illegal logging laws would undermine the global push to halt forest loss</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To reliably assign individuals, a variety of genetic markers is needed, varying between species and local populations. </p>
<p>In Canada, the first successful use of genetic material to conduct forensic testing on trees was pioneered by geneticist Eleanor White who succeeded in <a href="https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/pubwarehouse/pdfs/5177.pdf">tracing a wood log directly to the specific stump of an 800-year-old cedar tree in Western Canada</a> left behind after its illegal felling.</p>
<p>White’s success demonstrates the power of genomic identification in regulating the timber trade.</p>
<h2>Developing new systems</h2>
<p>Genomic sequencing in combination with genetic data analyses gained public traction during the COVID-19 pandemic, as these were used to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18314-x">identify an outbreak of a new virus variant and trace its origin</a>.</p>
<p>Current research in wood forensics is using similar tools to assign an individual to a source population with high accuracy. Since genetic analyses can be costly, genetic databases of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10297">previously studied species</a> are compiled and used as test data to determine the best and most reliable analytical method.</p>
<p>The aim is to create a simple traceability system for timber products that border officials can implement quickly and easily. This should help stop the sale of illegally harvested timber and hold those responsible to account. </p>
<p>The long-term goal is to make it more difficult to sell illegally harvested timber in Canada and thus contribute to the protection of valuable forests. In addition, traceability can certify areas in Canada which are sustainably managed, making it easier for consumers to support sustainable forest management practices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Zacharias receives funding from Génome Québec. </span></em></p>Effective use of genomic identification could revolutionize the control of the illegal timber trade.Melanie Zacharias, Postdoctoral researcher in forest genetics, Université LavalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2174302024-02-20T13:20:50Z2024-02-20T13:20:50ZCarbon offsets bring new investment to Appalachia’s coal fields, but most Appalachians aren’t benefiting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571772/original/file-20240128-15-bsgb8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C1305%2C840&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For decades, railroad tracks carried coal from eastern Tennessee to power plants in the eastern U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/appvoices/6853913378/in/album-72157629262715216/">Appalachian Voices</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Central Appalachia is home to the <a href="https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/offsets/overview.pdf">third-largest concentration of forest carbon offsets</a> traded on the California carbon market. But while these projects bring new investments to Appalachia, most people in <a href="https://doi-org.utk.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/03066150.2022.2078710">Appalachia are not benefiting</a>.</p>
<p>The effect of this new economic activity is evident in the <a href="https://storymaps.com/stories/2f4984877e0d42cdbc424d107eefc3ba">Clearfork Valley</a>, a forested region of steep hills and meandering creeks on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. </p>
<p>Rural communities here once relied on coal mining jobs. As the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2021.100990">mines shut down</a>, with the last closing <a href="https://opensourcecoal.org/df_coal_production.php">in 2022</a>, the valley was left with thousands of acres of forests and strip-mined land but fewer ways to make a good living.</p>
<p><iframe id="AacNw" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/AacNw/7/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Today, corporate landowners and investment funds have placed most of that forest land into carbon offset projects – valuing the trees for their ability to absorb carbon dioxide emissions to help protect the climate. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/wall-street-firm-makes-a-1-8-billion-bet-on-forest-carbon-offset-11667390624">carbon offset projects can be lucrative</a> for the landowner, with proceeds that can run into the millions of dollars. Companies subject to California’s carbon emissions rules are willing to pay projects like these to essentially <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/compliance-offset-program">cancel out, or offset</a>, the companies’ carbon emissions. However, my research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2022.2078710">few local residents</a> are benefiting. </p>
<p>The projects are part of <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2021-04/losing-ground-final-4-15-21.pdf">a wider</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12210">growing trend</a> of investor-owners of rural land making money but providing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1328305">little local employment, local investment or community involvement</a> in return.</p>
<h2>Few local jobs, little economic benefit</h2>
<p>The rise of carbon forest offset projects in Appalachia has coincided with the historic decline of the coal economy. </p>
<p>Central Appalachia lost 70% of its coal jobs from 2011 to 2023 as its <a href="https://opensourcecoal.org/df_coal_production.php">coal production fell by 75%</a> in that same period. As corporate landowners looked for new revenue streams, they found a burgeoning forest carbon offset market after California instituted a <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/cap-and-trade-program/about">forest carbon offset protocol</a> in 2011.</p>
<p>Much of the Clearfork Valley was originally owned by the American Association, a British coal corporation that <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p009853">accumulated the land in the 1880s</a>. That property passed between other coal companies before NatureVest, a <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/who-we-are/how-we-work/finance-investing/naturevest/">climate change-driven investment firm</a> owned by The Nature Conservancy, created an investment fund to purchase the land in 2019. </p>
<p>The previous owner, a forestland investment company, had established carbon offsets on that land in 2015, making <a href="https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/protocols/usforest/forestprotocol2015.pdf">a 125-year commitment</a> to retain or grow the forest carbon stock. When NatureVest purchased the land in 2019, it generated <a href="https://www.environmental-finance.com/content/awards/sustainable-investment-awards-2020/winners/impact-fund-of-the-year-the-nature-conservancys-sustainable-forestry-fund.html">at least US$20 million in proceeds</a> from the sale of additional offsets. The details of <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/cap-and-trade-program/program-data/summary-market-transfers-report">such transactions are typically private</a>, but offset sales can be structured in a number of ways. They might be one-time payments for existing credits, for example, or futures contracts for the potential of additional credits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A map shows large areas of forest in several states that are on the carbon market." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571770/original/file-20240128-25-lydydm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571770/original/file-20240128-25-lydydm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571770/original/file-20240128-25-lydydm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571770/original/file-20240128-25-lydydm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571770/original/file-20240128-25-lydydm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571770/original/file-20240128-25-lydydm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571770/original/file-20240128-25-lydydm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest carbon offset projects in Central Appalachia that are on the California carbon market. The Clearfork Valley is on the Kentucky-Tennessee border in the lower left.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://webmaps.arb.ca.gov/ARBOCIssuanceMap/">California Air Resources Board, ESRI</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The investment fund is attempting to demonstrate that <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/kentucky/stories-in-kentucky/cumberland-forest">managing land to help protect the climate</a> can also generate revenue for investors. </p>
<p>In Appalachia, offset projects largely involve “improved forestry management.” These offsets <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16380">pay landowners to sequester</a> carbon in trees – additional to what they would have pulled in without the offset payment – while still allowing them to produce timber for sale. In practice, this often means letting trees stand for <a href="https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/VA-Carbon-Sequestration-Infographic.pdf%22%22">longer rotations before cutting for timber</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00984-2">Recent research</a>, however, indicates that the carbon storage of improved forestry management projects may be getting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15943">overcounted on the California market</a>, the largest compliance offset market in the Americas. <a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/insider-4-reasons-why-jurisdictional-approach-redd-crediting-superior-project-based">Other approaches to carbon offsets</a> could produce better outcomes for people and the climate.</p>
<p>And while the landowners and investors profit, my research, including dozens of interviews with residents, has also found that former mining <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2022.2078710">communities in this valley have seen little return</a>. </p>
<p>The Nature Conservancy has offered <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/priority-landscapes/appalachians/stories/cumberland-forest-community-fund/">support to local communities</a>. But while the organization operates <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/priority-landscapes/appalachians/stories/cumberland-forest-community-fund/">a small grant program</a> from coal mining and gas drilling royalties it receives from the land, the investment in the local economy has been relatively small – <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/priority-landscapes/appalachians/stories/cumberland-forest-community-fund/">roughly $377,000</a> in the three states since 2019. Furthermore, while <a href="https://mtassociation.org/energy/middlesboro-community-center-adds-solar/">some communities have benefited</a>, these investments <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/priority-landscapes/appalachians/stories/cumberland-forest-community-fund/">have largely bypassed</a> struggling former coal communities in the Clearfork Valley in Tennessee. </p>
<p>Looking for other revenue sources on these lands, by 2022, The Nature Conservancy had also leased access to nearly <a href="https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/Cumberland_Forest_2022_Impact_Report.pdf">150,000 acres of its Cumberland Forest Project</a>, including parts of the Clearfork Valley, to state agencies and outdoor recreation groups. As a result, permits and fees are often now required to enter much of the forestland.</p>
<p>As one interviewee told my co-author for our forthcoming book, “For three generations my family has been able to walk and use that land, but now I could be arrested for entering it without a permit.” </p>
<h2>The rise of TIMOs and climate ‘rentierism’</h2>
<p>While a century ago many of the landowners in Appalachia were coal companies and timber companies, today <a href="https://wvpolicy.org/who-owns-west-virginia-in-the-21st-century-2/">they are predominantly</a> <a href="https://doi-org.utk.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/0896920510378764">financialized timber investment management organizations, or TIMOs</a>. TIMOs are financial institutions that manage timberlands to generate returns for institutions, such as endowments and pension funds, and private investors. While NatureVest is more diversified than a TIMO, its timberland investments operate in a similar fashion.</p>
<p>The financial ownership of timberlands is part of the much wider trend of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/SER/mwi008">financialization of the United States economy</a>. Wall Street-based investors have become major owners of all sectors of the U.S. economy since the 1970s, from <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501750083/fields-of-gold/">agriculture</a> and <a href="https://www.scielo.br/j/gp/a/JdQdqWNHdn67pNLCJvkmnFr/?lang=en">manufacturing</a> to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ruso.12210">natural resources</a>.</p>
<p>Financial profits, however, often do not entail job creation or investments in infrastructure in the surrounding communities. Yet the investor-owned timberlands in Central Appalachia do generate <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/wall-street-firm-makes-a-1-8-billion-bet-on-forest-carbon-offset-11667390624">millions of dollars in revenue for their investors</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The hills above a home have been strip mined, where forests once stood." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571771/original/file-20240128-29-8ffil5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571771/original/file-20240128-29-8ffil5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571771/original/file-20240128-29-8ffil5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571771/original/file-20240128-29-8ffil5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571771/original/file-20240128-29-8ffil5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571771/original/file-20240128-29-8ffil5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571771/original/file-20240128-29-8ffil5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Homes below a coal strip mine in Campbell County, Tennessee, home to part of the Clearfork Valley.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/appvoices/7000037829/in/album-72157629262715216/">Appalachian Voices via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Political economists have diagnosed the trend of falling employment that accompanies increasing economic activity as partially the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/705396">result of growing rentierism</a>.</p>
<p>Rentierism is a term for <a href="https://doi-org.utk.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/0308518X19873007">generating income predominantly from rents</a> as opposed to income from production that employs people. Rural communities have acutely felt the effects of <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/products/871-rentier-capitalism">increasing rentierism in various sectors since the 1970s</a>.</p>
<p>Researchers have noted <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920510378764">growing trends of rentierism in forestland management</a>. Many TIMOs seek new revenue streams from timberlands outside of wood products and timbering, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1328305">such as in conservation easements</a>. As firms such as <a href="https://c3newsmag.com/private-capital-is-funding-conservation-across-the-country/">NatureVest seek to generate income from controlling carbon stocks or conservation resources</a>, there is now a growing climate rentierism.</p>
<h2>Rural resentment and a crisis of democracy</h2>
<p>A robust body of research in <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691191669/the-left-behind">sociology</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=759xDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT8&ots=yOy_PiDU9P&sig=u67Pv8JrCjPN2c3DaHORhJgVXi4#v=onepage&q&f=false">political science</a> shows how the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.10.045">hollowing out of rural North American economies</a> has fed into a kind of <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo22879533.html">rural resentment</a>. Trust in government and democracy is particularly low in rural North America, and not only because of economic woes. As <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300215359/for-profit-democracy/">sociologist Loka Ashwood documents</a>, it is also because many rural residents believe that the government helps corporations profit at the expense of people.</p>
<p>Carbon offsets in Appalachia, unfortunately, fit within these troubling trends. Government regulation in California generates sizable revenue for corporate landowners, while the rural communities see themselves locked out of the economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabe Schwartzman received funding from the National Science Foundation. He is a board member of the Southern Connected Communities Project (SCCP), a non-profit based in East Tennessee, and former board member of Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM). </span></em></p>Large parts of Appalachia’s forests, once owned by coal companies, now make money for investors by storing carbon. But the results bring few jobs or sizable investments for residents.Gabe Schwartzman, Assistant Professor of Geography and Sustainability, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2193632024-02-13T18:30:40Z2024-02-13T18:30:40Z‘Fortress’ conservation policies threaten the food security of rural populations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575435/original/file-20240213-28-bvlney.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5725%2C3819&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pine trees reflected in smooth water of the lake. Waterlogged valley in the snowy Rocky Mountains.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Barriers created by “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2005.9666319">fortress conservation</a>” — as in the near-total sectioning off of land for conservation without human interference — are threatening important dietary diversity for the up to 1.5 billion people around the world <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00776-z">who rely on wild foods</a>, from bushmeat to wild vegetables and fruit. </p>
<p>Conservation, especially when modelled on notions of “pristine nature” — environments untouched by human influence — can create obstacles by limiting access to important food sources. We must shift from strict fortress conservation to more integrated, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104822">sustainable use of rural landscapes</a> if we are to achieve both biodiversity conservation and dietary outcomes. </p>
<p>Policymakers must take this into account and design policies that better inform global, regional and national commitments to food security and nutrition — especially in the context an ever-changing and unpredictable climate. </p>
<p>These policies must recognize people’s rights of access to these landscapes to ensure dietary diversity in rural settings. Policies for <a href="https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/hlpe/hlpe_documents/HLPE_Reports/HLPE-Report-11_EN.pdf">sustainable forestry</a> are also a key component of sustainable food systems.</p>
<h2>Settling down</h2>
<p>Human societies were nomadic for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2019.102488">majority of our history</a>. In turn, traditional diets were mostly comprised of wild foods, both plants and animals, that were harvested from the surrounding environment. </p>
<p>However, over time, communities became increasingly sedentary and relied more and more on foods that were cultivated, rather than those collected from the wild. </p>
<p>This process dramatically accelerated in the last century with the <a href="https://www.treehugger.com/green-revolution-history-technologies-and-impact-5189596">Green Revolution</a> beginning in the 1940s, characterized by the increased dominance of monoculture agriculture. This shift is the greatest driver of forest and other habitat loss globally, resulting in the <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC64895">substantial simplification of our diets</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tractor sprays pesticides on a soybean field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575072/original/file-20240212-26-7iq9ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575072/original/file-20240212-26-7iq9ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575072/original/file-20240212-26-7iq9ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575072/original/file-20240212-26-7iq9ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575072/original/file-20240212-26-7iq9ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575072/original/file-20240212-26-7iq9ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575072/original/file-20240212-26-7iq9ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tractor sprays pesticides on a soybean field. Monoculture farming can produce high yields, but at the cost of extreme fragility to external climatic and environmental shocks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, we have since learned that biodiverse wild and naturalized species are integral in rural food consumption, contributing to diverse diets, better nutrition and overall health and well-being, often for the poorest members of society. In other words, diversity in diets is linked with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00091-2">better nutrition and improved overall health</a>.</p>
<p>Up to 1.5 billion people globally <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2020.00029">depend on wild foods for nutrition and dietary diversity, particularly in the tropics</a>. Building policies that protect people’s rights to access these landscapes is of paramount importance to ensure such dietary diversity in many rural settings.</p>
<p>We must devote attention to people living in rural areas around the planet, where their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605322000916">access to wild foods</a> — including those found in forests — has become limited. That’s cutting off important sources of healthy food and nutrition.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-culturally-appropriate-diets-can-be-a-pathway-to-food-security-in-the-canadian-arctic-209575">How culturally appropriate diets can be a pathway to food security in the Canadian Arctic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Global initiatives to set aside land for biodiversity conservation can compromise such access and thus significantly reduce dietary diversity. </p>
<p>Current commitments, such as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02048-2">30 x 30 initiative</a>, in the name of conservation can result in the annexation of land and curtail the rights and access to diverse food sources by local people, despite <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0100-6">evidence that locally-led conservation can play an integral role in improving both ecological and human welfare</a>.</p>
<h2>Local stewards</h2>
<p>It is increasingly recognized that those who benefit from access — mostly Indigenous Peoples and local communities — are the best stewards of that land. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-food/about-right-food-and-human-rights">Food</a> is a fundamental human right, recognized by many international treaties and nation states. However, land annexation in the name of conservation, and loss of access to the natural resources they contain, continues unabated. </p>
<p>The major issue is that the notion of “pristine nature” does not exist in most landscapes, both tropical and temperate. Indeed, most environments are more a <a href="https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12322-260206">manifestation of human use and management than the product of natural forces alone</a>. The recognition of how humans have shaped and promoted biodiversity-rich landscapes is often missed in the implmentation of conservation. </p>
<p>It’s time for action on the evidence that forests and tree-based landscapes <a href="https://www.iufro.org/fileadmin/material/publications/iufro-series/ws33/ws33.pdf">can (and must be) a small but integral part of the solution to the global problem of food security and nutrition</a>. In essence, forests and trees should play a role in global food security strategies.</p>
<p>The role of wild foods in contributing to the United Nations’ <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/55601EBA11ED5027EF2901A3AE017744/9781108486996c2_48-71.pdf/sdg_2_zero_hunger_challenging_the_hegemony_of_monoculture_agriculture_for_forests_and_people.pdf">Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger, has also been underscored</a> and there is considerable <a href="https://www.fao.org/interactive/sdg2-roadmap/en/">emerging evidence</a> on just how sustainable tree-based wild food systems could contribute to the overall 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. </p>
<p>Yet little real progress has been made in recognizing this at a functional or policy level, acknowledging the fundamental contribution of wild foods to dietary diversity. </p>
<p>The discourse of achieving global food security, with a focus on monoculture crops and industrial agriculture with all its environmental and nutritional deficiencies, remains dominant. This is resulting in continuing habitat loss, primarily within forests and other tree-based systems. </p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>The recent <a href="https://www.cop28.com/en/food-and-agriculture">Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action</a> at the COP28 climate summit goes some way to recognize the importance of “smallholders, family farmers, fisherfolk and other producers and food workers.” However, there is no mention of the role of wild foods in rural nutrition, nor the role that forests and trees play in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2017.01.012">supporting agriculture</a> through ecosystem service provision. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/flipping-indigenous-regional-development-in-newfoundland-upside-down-lessons-from-australia-218298">Flipping Indigenous regional development in Newfoundland upside-down: lessons from Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This must change to allow sustainable use initiatives to play a critical role in complementing and supporting diverse and nutritious diets for the rural poor — without compromising biodiversity goals or climate change mitigation strategies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219363/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Sunderland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Integrating local and Indigenous knowledge into conservation can help to support diverse diets without compromising biodiversity goals.Terry Sunderland, Professor in the Faculty of Forestry, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2204222024-01-21T19:03:14Z2024-01-21T19:03:14ZIt is time to draw down carbon dioxide but shut down moves to play God with the climate<p>The global effort to keep climate change to safe levels – ideally within 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures – is moving far too slowly. And even if we stopped emitting CO² today, <a href="https://stao.ca/what-would-happen-to-the-climate-if-we-stopped-emitting-greenhouse-gases-today/#:%7E:text=If%20we%20stop%20emitting%20today,was%20normal%20for%20previous%20generations.">the long-term impacts</a> of the gas already in the air would continue for decades. For these reasons, we will soon have to focus not only on halting but on reversing global warming.</p>
<p>We can do that in two ways. The first is by “<a href="https://drawdown.org/drawdown-foundations">drawdown</a>” – strengthening natural processes on Earth that withdraw CO² from the atmosphere. The second is through vast experiments with the climate known as <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/what-climate-engineering#:%7E:text=Also%20known%20as%20%22geoengineering%2C%22,prepare%20for%20now%20unavoidable%20impacts.">geo-engineering</a>, some of which sound like science fiction, and could be extremely dangerous if ever tried.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-973" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/973/534c98def812dd41ac56cc750916e2922539729b/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>The dangers of some forms of geo-engineering</h2>
<p>Geo-engineering proposals to arrest climate change range from the seemingly sensible – <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/urban-heat-can-white-roofs-help-cool-the-worlds-warming-cities">painting our roofs and roads white</a> – to the highly speculative: <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/41903/one_atmosphere.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">solar radiation modification</a>, or putting mirrors in space to reflect some of the Sun’s heat away from Earth. Probably the most <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/13/what-is-solar-geoengineering-sunlight-reflection-risks-and-benefits.html">commonly proposed form of geo-engineering</a> involves putting sulfur into the stratosphere to dim the power of the sun. </p>
<p>The natural <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1997/fs113-97/">1991 eruption</a> of the Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines showed the effects of sulfur in action. The eruption <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/1510/global-effects-of-mount-pinatubo">measurably</a> cooled the Earth’s surface for almost two years.</p>
<p>But we don’t have to wait for an erupting volcano: all we need do is <a href="https://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/RobockStratAerosolGeo.pdf">add some sulphur</a> to the emissions of the world’s airline fleet, and release it once planes are in the stratosphere. The sulphur layer, which would also reflect some of the Sun’s heat back to space, would be a relatively inexpensive global cooling mechanism, instantaneous in its effect and implementable right now.</p>
<p>Yet this approach does nothing to remove CO² from the atmosphere, or to reduce
the <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/ocean-coasts/ocean-acidification#:%7E:text=Because%20of%20human%2Ddriven%20increased,the%20ocean%20becomes%20more%20acidic.">rising acidity</a> of the oceans. It’s like a Band-Aid over a festering sore. And, beyond its cooling effect, its impact on the climate system as a whole is unknown: no one to my knowledge has modelled the effects of using the jet fleet in this way.</p>
<p>No international treaty exists to regulate such experiments. In April 2022, the US
start-up company, Make Sunsets, <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/24/1066041/a-startup-says-its-begun-releasing-particles-%20into-the-atmosphere-in-an-effort-to-tweak-the-climate">released weather balloons</a> designed to reach the stratosphere, carrying a few grams of sulphur particles. There was no public scrutiny or scientific monitoring of the work. The company is already trying to sell “cooling credits” for future flights that could carry larger volumes of sulphur.</p>
<p>And what if climate change brings <a href="https://www.economist.com/china/2023/07/13/china-is-obsessed-with-food-security-climate-change-will-challenge-it">mass famine</a> and civil disobedience to China? It is already <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/06/china-modified-the-weather-to-create-clear-skies-for-political-celebration-study">seeding clouds</a> to make rain on a massive scale. China might think it is doing the right thing by putting sulfur into the stratosphere. But that decision might lead to war with other countries. What if this form of geoengineering <a href="https://www.csis.org/blogs/new-perspectives-asia/india-and-atmospheric-sulfate-injection-double-edged-sword">affected the monsoon</a> in India and caused famine? We just don’t know what the climatic and political impacts would be.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-laggard-to-leader-why-australia-must-phase-out-fossil-fuel-exports-starting-now-219912">From laggard to leader? Why Australia must phase out fossil fuel exports, starting now</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Drawdown’s potential to store carbon</h2>
<p>Drawdown, by contrast, involves <a href="https://drawdown.org/drawdown-foundations">withdrawing CO²</a> from the atmosphere and storing it in other planetary organs, such as rocks, oceans or plants. Drawdown is much longer term than geoengineering, and most initiatives are only in the research and development stage. The most advanced and practical, by far, is forest <a href="https://www.oneearth.org/protection-of-primary-forests-is-priority-but-reforestation-is-also-crucial/">protection and reafforestation</a>.</p>
<p>Today humans emit about <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/14/bill-gates-concepts-to-understand-the-climate-crisis.html">51 billion tonnes of CO²</a> a year. Protecting and regenerating forests draws down <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2020.00058/full">2 billion tonnes a year</a>. Other approaches, such as <a href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage/direct-air-capture">direct air capture</a> of CO², draw down much smaller volumes. </p>
<p>So forest protection and reafforestation is our best bet for getting us closer to limiting warming to 1.5°C. A <a href="https://www.wur.nl/en/newsarticle/diverse-forests-hold-very-large-carbon-potential.htm#:%7E:text=New%20study%20estimates%20that%20natural,better%20manage%20and%20restore%20biodiversity.">recent paper</a> in the Nature journal argues we could draw down as much as 226 gigatonnes by allowing existing forests in areas where few humans live to recover to maturity, and by regrowing forests in areas where they have been removed or fragmented.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-homes-can-be-made-climate-ready-reducing-bills-and-emissions-a-new-report-shows-how-219113">Australian homes can be made climate-ready, reducing bills and emissions – a new report shows how</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We should not ignore other drawdown pathways, however. Seaweed is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723023203">a promising option</a> for drawing down a billion tonnes or so of CO² by 2050. But we need a lot more scientific research to understand how to do that, and what its wider impacts might
be. Today only one commercial kelp farm exists – <a href="https://kelp.blue/namibia/">Kelp Blue</a>, off the coast of Namibia, where four hectares of kelp are not only storing carbon but are used to make biodegradable food packaging and crop stimulants.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2448-9">Silicate rocks</a>, which are common in many places, including Victoria’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/olcanic-centre-distribution-Macedon-Trentham-and-Western-District-Volcanic-Provinces_fig1_261958672">Western
District</a>, also offer great hope. Once the rocks are crushed, a kilogram of a mineral they contain, <a href="https://eos.org/articles/can-these-rocks-help-rein-in-climate-change">olivine</a>, will sequester 1.5 kilograms of CO² from the atmosphere within a few weeks of being spread on a farm field or put onto a beach.</p>
<p>The crushing speeds up a natural sequestering process of thousands of years. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972106054X">Field trials conducted in Brazil</a> and <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0715">other countries</a> show using crushed rocks on crops can bring another benefit – significant increases in the yields of corn, cocoa and many other crops.</p>
<p>The problem is that the way we quarry and transport rocks today creates a lot of fossil fuel emissions. Once a farm is more than a few hundred kilometres from the quarry most of the benefit is gone. So until we can decarbonise transport and industrial energy, the benefit of silicate rocks will be minimal.</p>
<p>A process known as “direct air capture” sucks CO² out of the air and either puts it deep into rock strata or uses it for greenhouses or as the basis of concrete, plastic and other products that can sequester carbon long term. <a href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage/direct-air-capture">Nineteen plants</a> using this technology are already operating around the world, including in Switzerland, the US and Iceland. But again, a lot of industrial capacity and a clean energy to run the plants are needed to get the value.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/green-growth-or-degrowth-what-is-the-right-way-to-tackle-climate-change-218239">Green growth or degrowth: what is the right way to tackle climate change?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What the Albanese government should do</h2>
<p>For these reasons, the Albanese government should focus its drawdown efforts on forest protection and regrowth. This could be a theme of the UN climate conference Australia is <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/sprawling-and-costly-can-australia-host-cop31-in-just-two-years-20231212-p5eqqm">bidding to co-host</a> with Pacific nations in 2026. Our temperate forests contain <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/article/2022/march/in-20-years-of-studying-how-ecosystems-absorb-carbon-heres-why-were-worried-about-a-tipping-point-of-collapse#:%7E:text=For%20example%2C%20every%20hectare%20of,of%20Mediterranean%20woodland%20or%20shrubland.">more carbon per hectare</a> than almost anywhere on Earth. Stopping old-growth logging would be a magnificent contribution to arresting climate change.</p>
<p>The government should also back research and development on seaweed and silicate rocks so that the country’s huge resources can be responsibly deployed in future. Finally, Australia must push urgently for a global treaty to restrain sulphur geoengineering.</p>
<p>Today governments are busy just trying to reduce emissions and haven’t looked closely at drawdown and geoengineering. But things are moving fast, and it’s time to start.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-new-dawn-becoming-a-green-superpower-with-a-big-role-in-cutting-global-emissions-216373">Australia's new dawn: becoming a green superpower with a big role in cutting global emissions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220422/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Flannery is Ambassador for RegenAqua, which uses seaweed and river grass to clean up wastewater before it flows out to sea and on to the Great Barrier Reef. He consults for the not-for-profit environmental charity, Odonata. He is Chief Councillor and Founding Member of the Climate Council, Governor at WWF-Australia, and sits on the board of the Kelp Forest Foundation, a philanthropic entity associated with Kelp Blue.
</span></em></p>To fight global warming we will soon have to try to remove carbon dioxide from the skies or find ways to reflect the Sun’s heat. Such radical paths must be examined, but risky experiments avoided.Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2175822024-01-21T08:55:58Z2024-01-21T08:55:58ZCongo’s blackwater Ruki River is a major transporter of forest carbon - new study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559590/original/file-20231115-29-kv00ye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C3888%2C2892&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">River Ruki. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Matti Barthel</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Congo Basin of central Africa is well known for its network of rivers that drain a variety of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Congo-Basin">landscapes</a>, from dense tropical forests to more arid and wooded savannas. Among the Congo River’s large tributaries, the Ruki is unique in its extremely <a href="https://www.iflscience.com/why-the-ruki-may-be-the-worlds-darkest-river-71206">dark colour</a>, which renders the water opaque below a few centimetres’ depth. </p>
<p>This large blackwater river caught the attention of our carbon biogeochemistry research team when we visited its confluence with the Congo River at the city of Mbandaka. Mbandaka is a small city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, located about 600km upstream from Kinshasa on the Congo River. The area around Mbandaka is known as the Cuvette Centrale and is characterised by its vast low-lying topography, much of which floods during the rainy season and results in extensive swamp forests.</p>
<p>As we watched the placid dark water of the Ruki flow by, we wondered just how much carbon this river was transporting and where it came from. To answer these questions, we decided to measure the carbon in the Ruki for one year to account for seasonal changes. </p>
<p>The results of this <a href="https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/lno.12436">study</a> show that the Ruki is a major contributor of dissolved carbon to the Congo River, and that the majority of this carbon is sourced from the leaching of forest vegetation and soils. These results also suggest that the way in which calculations are made about how much carbon tropical forests accumulate might be off the mark – perhaps slightly overestimated.</p>
<p>These findings are important because rivers are major conduits of carbon from land to ocean and atmosphere, supplying organic matter to downstream ecosystems and carbon dioxide to the air. It is important to quantify how much carbon they are moving, where it is coming from, and where it ends up. Such accounting helps scientists understand how different ecosystems function, what role they play in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_cycle">carbon cycle</a>, and how they might respond to future or ongoing human perturbations such as climate or land-use change.</p>
<h2>The heart of the forest</h2>
<p>The Ruki River lies at the centre of the Congo Basin. It drains a uniquely homogeneous 188,800km² of pristine lowland and swamp forests. Since climate, vegetation, soils, geology and the concentration of human impacts vary widely across Earth’s surface, it’s uncommon for a watershed of this size to have such uniform land cover. There are likely no other such uniform watersheds of this size on earth.</p>
<p>This means we had an opportunity to pinpoint how a specific land cover influences the quantity and composition of organic material leached from decomposing plants and soils and carried by rainwater to river channels. Knowing this, we can “unmix” the signals measured in the Congo River and better ascertain the differences in carbon export between the many tributaries and land covers of the basin.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/lno.12436">found</a> that Ruki supplies 20% of the dissolved carbon in the Congo River though it makes up only 5% of the Congo’s watershed by area. This contribution is so high because the Ruki’s water is extremely concentrated in dissolved organic matter. In fact, it is significantly richer in dissolved carbon than even the Amazon’s Rio Negro (“Black River”), which is famous for its black colour also stemming from <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hyp.1291">high concentration of organics</a>. </p>
<p>Water with very high concentrations of organic matter signals neither a good nor bad thing. It just means lots of carbon is contained in the water.</p>
<p>Because the Ruki watershed is so flat, rainwater drains slowly and has plenty of time to leach organic material from its dense vegetation. It’s like leaving multiple bags of tea to steep in water over a long period of time. </p>
<p>One of the reasons we wanted to know where these organic compounds were originating from is that large areas of the Ruki are underlain by enormous tracts of peat-like soils. These organic-rich soils have accumulated over hundreds to thousands of years from the buildup of partially decomposed plant matter. </p>
<p>If this peat was being leached or eroded into the river, through some form of disturbance, it could be <a href="https://peatlands.org/peatlands/peatlands-and-climate/">released</a> as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and compound the greenhouse effect, much like the unearthing and combustion of fossil fuels. </p>
<p>Our radiocarbon isotopic measurements of the dissolved carbon indicate that there is very little peat carbon entering the river (none of it is very old), and that the dissolved carbon is sourced instead from forest vegetation and recently formed soil.</p>
<p>This is good news for now, but it’s something to keep an eye on if periods of drought or human activity disturb these carbon-rich peat soils. </p>
<h2>Balancing the forest sink</h2>
<p>Why does it matter if the Ruki transports a large amount of carbon?</p>
<p>One answer is that the carbon lost from terrestrial ecosystems to rivers can determine whether forests are taking up more carbon from the atmosphere (sinks) than releasing it (source) to the atmosphere. Most assessments of the balance (carbon coming in versus carbon going out of a forest) fail to account for the carbon that moves laterally to rivers. </p>
<p>In the case of the Ruki, the high amount of carbon that is contained in the river per unit area of the watershed suggests that this lateral movement of carbon from the Congo’s lowland forests comprises a significant proportion of the carbon balance, that is, the difference between what is coming in from photosynthesis and what is returned via respiration. </p>
<p>Thus, tropical forests like those around the Ruki might not accumulate quite as much carbon as we once thought. Further research is required to pin down whether this is the case. But our work on the Ruki already indicates that areas drained by such blackwater rivers may be particularly prone to carbon accounting errors like this.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217582/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Travis Drake received funding from the Swiss National Science Fund.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johan Six received funding from Swiss National Science Fund. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matti Barthel receives funding from Swiss National Science Fund.</span></em></p>The Ruki River supplies dissolved carbon from forest vegetation and soils to the Congo River.Travis Drake, Postdoctoral Researcher, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ZurichJohan Six, Professor of Sustainable Agrosystems, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ZurichMatti Barthel, Research Technician, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ZurichLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2207712024-01-19T13:40:44Z2024-01-19T13:40:44ZOld forests are critically important for slowing climate change and merit immediate protection from logging<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570228/original/file-20240118-23-ojgpd7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C13%2C2323%2C1893&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An old-growth forest of noble fir trees at Marys Peak in Oregon's Coast Range.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Beverly Law</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Forests are an essential part of Earth’s operating system. They reduce the buildup of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and land degradation <a href="https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/5301/2023">by 30% each year</a>. This slows global temperature increases and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4811-2022">resulting changes to the climate</a>. In the U.S., forests take up <a href="https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-04/US-GHG-Inventory-2023-Main-Text.pdf">12% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions annually</a> and store the carbon long term in trees and soils.</p>
<p>Mature and old-growth forests, with larger trees than younger forests, play an outsized role in accumulating carbon and <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/mature-and-old-growth-forests-tech.pdf">keeping it out of the atmosphere</a>. These forests are especially <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/mature-and-old-growth-forests-tech.pdf">resistant to wildfires and other natural disturbances</a> as the climate warms.</p>
<p>Most forests in the continental U.S. have been harvested multiple times. Today, just 3.9% of timberlands across the U.S., in public and private hands, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2737/WO-GTR-97">are over 100 years old</a>, and most of these areas hold relatively little carbon compared with their potential. </p>
<p>The Biden administration is moving to <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/04/27/2022-09138/strengthening-the-nations-forests-communities-and-local-economies">improve protection for old-growth and mature forests</a> on federal land, which we see as a welcome step. But this involves regulatory changes that will likely take several years to complete. Meanwhile, existing forest management plans that allow logging of these important old, large trees remain in place.</p>
<p>As scientists who have spent decades studying <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=J2KWqAoAAAAJ&hl=en">forest ecosystems</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/William-Moomaw">the effects of climate change</a>, we believe that it is essential to start protecting carbon storage in these forests. In our view, there is ample scientific evidence to justify an immediate moratorium on logging mature and old-growth forests on federal lands. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZdEIqV5QswE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Remote sensing data from space is a new tool for estimating forest growth and density.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Federal action to protect mature and old-growth forests</h2>
<p>A week after his inauguration in 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that set a goal of <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/executive-order-on-tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad/">conserving at least 30%</a> of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 to address what the order called “a profound climate crisis.” In 2022, Biden recognized the climate importance of mature and old-growth forests for a healthy climate and <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/04/27/2022-09138/strengthening-the-nations-forests-communities-and-local-economies">called for conserving them</a> on federal lands.</p>
<p>Most recently, in December 2023, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it was <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/12/20/2023-27875/land-management-plan-direction-for-old-growth-forest-conditions-across-the-national-forest-system">evaluating the effects</a> of amending management plans for 128 U.S. national forests to better protect mature and old-growth stands – the first time any administration has taken this kind of action. </p>
<p>These actions seek to make existing old-growth forests more resilient; preserve ecological benefits that they provide, such as habitat for threatened and endangered species; establish new areas where <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/mature-and-old-growth-forests-tech.pdf">old-growth conditions</a> can develop; and monitor the forests’ condition over time. The amended national forest management plans also would prohibit logging old-growth trees for mainly economic purposes – that is, producing timber. Harvesting trees would be permitted for other reasons, such as thinning to reduce fire severity in hot, dry regions where fires occur more frequently. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman rests her hand on the trunk of an enormous tree, looking up toward its crown." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest biologist Beverly Law with an old-growth Douglas fir in Corvallis, Oregon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Beverly Law</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Remarkably, however, logging is hardly considered in the Forest Service’s <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/mature-and-old-growth-forests-tech.pdf">initial analysis</a>, although studies show that it causes greater carbon losses than wildfires and pest infestations. </p>
<p>In one analysis across 11 western U.S. states, researchers calculated total aboveground tree carbon loss from logging, beetle infestations and fire between 2003 and 2012 and found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00326-0">logging accounted for half of it</a>. Across the states of California, Oregon and Washington, harvest-related carbon emissions between 2001 and 2016 averaged <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab28bb">five times the emissions</a> from wildfires.</p>
<p>A 2016 study found that nationwide, between 2006 and 2010, total carbon emissions from logging were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-016-0066-5">comparable to emissions from all U.S. coal plants</a>, or to direct emissions from the entire building sector. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of a furry animal with small rounded ears" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pacific fishers (<em>Pekania pennanti</em>) are small carnivores related to minks and otters. They live in forests with large, mixed-tree canopy covers, mainly on federal land on the West Coast. A subpopulation in the southern Sierra Nevada is listed as endangered.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/9PufBo">Pacific Southwest Forest Service, USDA/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Logging pressure</h2>
<p>Federal lands are used for multiple purposes, including biodiversity and water quality protection, recreation, mining, grazing and timber production. Sometimes, these uses can conflict with one another – for example, <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R43429">conservation and logging.</a>.</p>
<p>Legal mandates to manage land for multiple uses do not explicitly consider climate change, and federal agencies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3286">have not consistently factored climate change science</a> into their plans. Early in 2023, however, the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/">Council on Environmental Quality</a> directed federal agencies to consider the effects of climate change when they <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/09/2023-00158/national-environmental-policy-act-guidance-on-consideration-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-climate">propose major federal actions</a> that significantly affect the environment. </p>
<p>Multiple large logging projects on public land clearly qualify as major federal actions, but many thousands of acres have been <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/36/220.6">legally exempted</a> from such analysis. </p>
<p>Across the western U.S., <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00326-0">just 20% of relatively high-carbon forests</a>, mostly on federal lands, are protected from logging and mining. A study in the lower 48 states found that 76% of mature and old-growth forests on federal lands <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2022.979528">are vulnerable to logging</a>. Harvesting these forests would release about <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/land11050721">half of their aboveground tree carbon</a> into the atmosphere within one or two decades. </p>
<p>An analysis of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2023AV000965">152 national forests</a> across North America found that five forests in the Pacific Northwest had the highest carbon densities, but just 10% to 20% of these lands were protected at the highest levels. The majority of national forest area that is mature and old growth is not protected from logging, and <a href="https://www.climate-forests.org/worth-more-standing">current management plans</a> include logging of some of the largest trees still standing. </p>
<h2>Letting old trees grow</h2>
<p>Conserving forests is one of the most effective and lowest-cost options for managing atmospheric carbon dioxide, and mature and old-growth forests do this job most effectively. Protecting and expanding them does not require expensive or complex energy-consuming technologies, unlike some other <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-oil-industrys-pivot-to-carbon-capture-and-storage-while-it-keeps-on-drilling-isnt-a-climate-change-solution-171791">proposed climate solutions</a>.</p>
<p>Allowing mature and old-growth forests to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00027">continue growing</a> will remove from the air and store the largest amount of atmospheric carbon in the critical decades ahead. The sooner logging of these forests ceases, the more climate protection they can provide.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/staff/richard-birdsey/">Richard Birdsey</a>, a former U.S. Forest Service carbon and climate scientist and current senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p><em>This is an update of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-biden-administration-has-called-for-protecting-mature-us-forests-to-slow-climate-change-but-its-still-allowing-them-to-be-logged-199845">an article</a> originally published on March 2, 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220771/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beverly Law receives funding from the Conservation Biology Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Moomaw receives funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
</span></em></p>President Biden has called for protecting large, old trees from logging, but many of them could be cut while the regulatory process grinds forward.Beverly Law, Professor Emeritus of Global Change Biology and Terrestrial Systems Science, Oregon State UniversityWilliam Moomaw, Professor Emeritus of International Environmental Policy, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189012024-01-03T13:43:07Z2024-01-03T13:43:07ZCoast redwood trees are enduring, adaptable marvels in a warming world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566348/original/file-20231218-29-3j3gwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5000%2C3742&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Looking up toward redwoods' crowns in Redwood Regional Park, Oakland, Calif.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-up-the-trunks-of-large-redwood-trees-in-a-grove-at-news-photo/1368056629">Gado/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Coast redwoods – enormous, spectacular trees, some reaching nearly 400 feet, the tallest plants on the planet – thrive mostly in a narrow strip of land in the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/coast-redwood.htm">Pacific Northwest of the United States</a>. Most of them grow from southern Oregon down into northern California, snugged up against the rugged Pacific coast. </p>
<p>They have grown by slowly responding to moisture and rich alluvial soil over millennia, combined with a genetic payload that pushes them to the upper limits of tree height. They are at risk – down to perhaps 70,000 individuals, falling from at least a half-million trees before humans arrived – but that’s not a new story, for we are all at risk. </p>
<p>Redwoods, like all trees, are engineered marvels. People don’t tend to think of natural things as “structures,” leaving that term to stand in for buildings, bridges and dams. But although trees were not built by humans, they didn’t just happen. They have come into their own through the inexorably turning wheels of natural selection and evolution, responding to environmental pressures, genetic drift and mutation. </p>
<p>They even have <a href="https://theconversation.com/redwood-trees-have-two-types-of-leaves-scientists-find-a-trait-that-could-help-them-survive-in-a-changing-climate-179812">two kinds of leaves</a> that help the trees adapt to both wet and dry conditions. They are born to change, just as humans are born to change.</p>
<p>Evolution is usually a very slow process, although sometimes it’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15583">surprisingly quick</a>. New, intense pressures of a warming and changing climate are speeding things up. </p>
<p>I teach environmental humanities and history courses at Caltech and work as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gXSGq_4AAAAJ&hl=en">senior curator</a> at <a href="https://huntington.org">The Huntington</a> – a research institution in nearby San Marino. It includes one of the world’s most renowned botanical gardens, comprising more than 130 acres and visited by over a million people annually. </p>
<p>Researchers and horticulturists at the botanical gardens are thinking about trees, and how to integrate them into larger landscapes, in new ways. Our approach to climate change resilience, our increased reliance on technologies like geographic information systems, and our new engagements with local communities all continue to shape our attitudes about trees. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vsHrBTUHYJE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The nonprofit Archangel Tree Archive in Michigan is cloning iconic old-growth tree species, including redwoods and giant sequoias, to create a genetic archive and provide new trees for planting.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Redwood communities</h2>
<p>There are differences as well as similarities between human-made edifices and trees. A structure or building typically is a sort of island unto itself, separate from its neighbors; in contrast, the coast redwood is an ecosystem with enormously broad consequences for other life forms.</p>
<p>Life is folded in and among the redwoods, below and within and about them. The trees are integrators, bringing together many life forms. Some of these life forms rely on the tree; others on occupants in and around the tree. </p>
<p>The coast redwood hosts so many different ecological interactions that it’s faintly ridiculous. Consider <a href="https://californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/a.vagrans.html"><em>Aneides vagrans</em>, the wandering salamander</a>, which usually spends its entire life high in the canopy, but sometimes must jump out to escape predators. Without wings or gliding, it falls for as long as two full minutes, only to land perfectly unharmed on the ground.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tbLFbyjVLYY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">High-speed video shows that ground-dwelling salamanders seem helpless during freefall in a vertical wind tunnel, while arboreal salamanders maneuver confidently. This suggests that the tree-dwellers have adapted to routine falls, and perhaps use falling as a way to quickly move around in tree canopies.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It took scientists dropping these creatures into a wind tunnel and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.033">filming them with high-speed cameras</a> to understand why they didn’t end up as a wet splat on the forest floor. As it turns out, the salamander’s body shape does the work, with a torso that’s just sufficiently flattened, and large feet with long toes, that create just enough drag and balance for a soft landing.</p>
<p>Redwoods are so large that one reportedly was found to house a <a href="https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/misc/ag_654/volume_1/picea/sitchensis.htm">Sitka spruce (<em>Picea sitchensis</em>)</a>, 8 feet tall, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/02/14/climbing-the-redwoods">growing far off the ground</a> within the larger tree. Redwoods also have served for millennia as nesting habitat for huge <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/California_Condor/overview#">California condors (<em>Gymnogyps californianus</em>)</a>, whose wingspan is nearly 10 feet. A big bird needs a big home. </p>
<p>There’s also a place for the tiny, living side by side with all of the largeness tucked in the complex, secret interstices of these trees. Nestled into extensive <a href="https://www.savetheredwoods.org/blog/fern-mats-create-entire-ecosystems-high-in-the-redwood-canopy/">mats of ferns</a> that grow high up in redwood canopies, researchers find <a href="https://www.savetheredwoods.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf_camann.pdf">aquatic crustaceans called copepods</a> that normally would live in larger bodies of water. No one knows how they got into the trees, but the fern mats trap enormous quantities of moisture from rain and fog, creating wetlands in the sky. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CHJCb4xjSHM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Enduring but not static</h2>
<p>Even species as enduring as coast redwoods are <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/coast-redwoods-v-climate-change.htm">affected by climate change</a>. Diminished moisture stresses the trees, making them grow with less vigor. New fire dangers put them at risk, and more frequent floods erode the big trees’ footing. But redwoods also are adapting.</p>
<p>A 2018 survey of nine large redwood trees found a total of 137 species of lichen growing on the trees, including several that were new to science. One was <a href="https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.30.22271"><em>Xylopsora canopeorum</em></a>, whose specific name celebrates the canopy where it was discovered. </p>
<p>This lichen seems to be unique to the warmer and drier forests in California’s Sonoma and Santa Cruz counties, in the southern part of coast redwoods’ range. This is an exciting finding, for it provides evidence that new forms of life – ecosystem partners – may be evolving in sync with trees that are also evolving in the face of climate change. </p>
<p>Scientists are finding more new organic redwood partners every year. Since these trees are so networked and interconnected, the sum is greater than its parts and isn’t easy to quantify. </p>
<p>As I write in my forthcoming book, “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Twelve-Trees/Daniel-Lewis/9781982164058">Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future</a>,” there’s something congregational about the redwoods in their groves, like “a group of worshippers, petitioners standing solemnly, upright before an even higher power than themselves: the calculus of wind, rain, sun, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and time.” Experiencing them stimulates one’s senses with scent, sight and sound, along with a tincture of the most essential ingredient of all – memory. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566355/original/file-20231218-29-c631u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dirt trail runs past redwoods toward a fogged-in vista." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566355/original/file-20231218-29-c631u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566355/original/file-20231218-29-c631u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566355/original/file-20231218-29-c631u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566355/original/file-20231218-29-c631u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566355/original/file-20231218-29-c631u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566355/original/file-20231218-29-c631u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566355/original/file-20231218-29-c631u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fog moves into the Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve south of San Francisco. Redwoods obtain a large share of their water supply from fog.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/UbmKk4">Justin Dolske/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>New territory</h2>
<p>A pair of redwoods grow just outside my office at the Huntington, which is some 700 miles south of the coast redwood’s usual range. I’ve resisted giving names to this duo, although many giant redwoods have monikers like Adventure, Brutus, Nugget, Paradox and Atlas – most named by the scientists who first quantified their extreme heights.</p>
<p>The redwoods outside my window are perhaps 100 feet tall – puny by comparison to their northern brethren. But they are healthy, and will continue to be shaped by their immediate environments. They’ve traveled far to get to here, planted more than a half-century ago by an earlier generation of horticulturalists, and they’re thriving in their new home. We should all be so lucky.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218901/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Lewis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Redwoods grow in networks that house unique communities of plants and animals high in the air. They offer life lessons about adapting over time.Daniel Lewis, Lecturer in History, California Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2173512023-12-17T13:41:42Z2023-12-17T13:41:42ZIf a tree burns in Canada’s unmanaged forest, does anyone count the carbon?<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/if-a-tree-burns-in-canadas-unmanaged-forest-does-anyone-count-the-carbon" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Earlier this fall, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01005-y">a commentary</a> in the journal <em>Nature Communications, Earth & Environment</em> argued for a change to the implementation of the Paris Agreement’s reporting mechanisms. The authors called for all countries to report carbon emissions and removals taking place across their <em>entire</em> territories, not just <a href="https://natural-resources.canada.ca/climate-change-adapting-impacts-and-reducing-emissions/climate-change-impacts-forests/carbon-accounting/inventory-and-land-use-change/13111">within so-called “managed” lands</a> (as is presently the case).</p>
<p>However, this poses a challenge here in Canada, as there is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2013-0041">deep uncertainty about the total carbon flux (balance of emissions and captures) in Canada’s “unmanaged” land</a>. </p>
<p>I echo calls for the Government of Canada to scale up and improve its greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring <a href="https://gml.noaa.gov/annualconference/abs.php?refnum=50-230424-C">and modelling across Canada’s <em>entire</em> territory</a>, and to report these findings in a much more open and transparent manner as part of its annual National GHG Inventory. </p>
<h2>Differentiating between managed and unmanaged land</h2>
<p>Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, member countries are expected to <a href="https://unfccc.int/topics/land-use/workstreams/land-use--land-use-change-and-forestry-lulucf/reporting-of-the-lulucf-sector-by-parties-included-in-annex-i-to-the-convention">report GHG emissions and removals</a> taking place as a result of human activities. However, within the LULUCF (or Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry) sector, it is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0283-x">not always clear what constitutes an <em>anthropogenic</em> influence</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/GPG_LULUCF_FULLEN.pdf">guidance provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)</a> has been to delineate between “managed” and “unmanaged” lands, and to focus GHG reporting on the former since these are areas under substantive human influence. While a number of countries make use of this distinction, the portion of land in Canada that is unmanaged is truly significant — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-018-0095-3">equivalent to about 69 per cent of the country’s total land area</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.506002/publication.html">Canada’s National GHG Inventory</a> does contain information about the carbon flux within managed lands, or lands comprised mostly of managed forest. There is currently around 232 million hectares of managed forest in Canada, however, this leaves roughly 715 million hectares of land in Canada which is technically unmanaged — all of which are unaccounted for in the National GHG Inventory.</p>
<p>What’s more, while Canada does track emissions from natural disturbances (such as in a forest fire) occurring in managed areas, it does not actually report these disturbances to the UN as part of its LULUCF emissions, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/land-based-greenhouse-gas-emissions-removals.html">based on the claim that these are not anthropogenic</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quebecs-hardwood-trees-could-move-north-heres-how-that-could-affect-the-boreal-forest-landscape-218397">Québec's hardwood trees could move north. Here's how that could affect the boreal forest landscape</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While there is a logic to separating these out, there is a substantial difference to Canada’s total LULUCF emissions, depending on whether or not they are included. For instance, if natural disturbances are included in the tally, Canada’s managed land is typically a net <em>source</em> of carbon, while if they are not included, Canada’s managed land is <a href="https://natural-resources.canada.ca/our-natural-resources/forests/state-canadas-forests-report/16496">typically a net carbon sink</a>.</p>
<p>The underlying problem, however, is the lack of clear and transparent information about GHG emissions and removals in Canada’s unmanaged lands. </p>
<h2>Estimates vary widely</h2>
<p>Earlier this summer, during Canada’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/wildfire-season-2023-wrap-1.6999005">unprecedented wildfire season</a>, I asked the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Canada (NRCAN) for historical information about the net Carbon flux in unmanaged lands. I was surprised to learn that NRCAN does not yet have this data. </p>
<p>What NRCAN does have is a <a href="https://natural-resources.canada.ca/climate-change/climate-change-impacts-forests/carbon-accounting/carbon-budget-model/13107">very robust carbon budget modelling tool</a>, and thanks to this, some preliminary (unverified) estimates of wildfire emissions in unmanaged forests.</p>
<p>Wildfire emissions estimates for unmanaged forests are indeed a step in the right direction (as wildfires account for the bulk of emissions from natural disturbances), but there still remains a majority of unmanaged land which is not forested — including, for instance, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145212">vast peatlands which are also subject to wildfires</a>. </p>
<p>No GHG emissions of any type occurring in unmanaged lands are currently being tracked or reported within the National GHG Inventory process.</p>
<p>There have been various efforts to quantify these emissions, yet estimates vary considerably, with some data sets limited to forest lands, and others looking at the full national territory. </p>
<p><a href="https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/1093/2023/essd-15-1093-2023.pdf">One recent estimate</a> used 16 different “Dynamic Global Vegetation Models,” and found that over the 20-year period from 2000-2020 unmanaged forests sequestered on average about 189 Megaton CO2 per year. </p>
<p>However, the <a href="https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/14/4811/2022/">Global Carbon Project’s estimates of “atmospheric inversions”</a> suggests there may be orders of magnitude more carbon removal in Canada’s unmanaged land.</p>
<p>The size of the discrepancy between these estimates is puzzling. While one obvious explanation comes down to the former model using intact forests as a proxy for unmanaged land, and the latter model including all of Canada’s unmanaged land area, <a href="https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/963/2023/">scientists believe there may be more to this discrepancy</a>.</p>
<h2>A need for further research and better reporting</h2>
<p>It is unfortunate that Canada has no publicly stated estimate of the country’s total carbon flux. This is important information to help track whether Canada’s landmass is sequestering enough CO2 to offset natural disturbances, or whether the latter are outweighing the former. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/carbon-removal-is-needed-to-achieve-net-zero-but-has-its-own-climate-risks-217355">Carbon removal is needed to achieve net zero but has its own climate risks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is essential that the Government of Canada enhance its <a href="https://gml.noaa.gov/annualconference/abs.php?refnum=50-230424-C">current efforts in land-based carbon flux analysis</a>, and that such data and analysis is reported to the public in a more clear and transparent way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217351/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan M. Katz-Rosene does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Current greenhouse gas inventories in Canada only consider “managed” lands. This must change before we can truly understand the scale of Canada’s carbon emissions.Ryan M. Katz-Rosene, Associate Professor, School of Political Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2198942023-12-15T19:26:46Z2023-12-15T19:26:46ZPaying people to replant tropical forests − and letting them harvest the timber − can pay off for climate, justice and environment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565848/original/file-20231214-23-sya0my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C14%2C3300%2C2183&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Planting trees on deforested lands in Panama.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://stri.si.edu/facility/agua-salud">Jorge Aleman/Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tropical forest landscapes are home to millions of <a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/worlds-transformed-indigenous-peoples-health-changing">Indigenous peoples</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0905455107">small-scale farmers</a>. Just about <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/11/10/9698574/africa-diversity-map">every square meter of land</a> is spoken for, even if claims are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00847-w">not formally recognized by governments</a>.</p>
<p>These local landholders hold the key to a valuable solution as the world tries to slow climate change – restoring deforested tropical landscapes for a healthier future.</p>
<p>Tropical forests are <a href="https://eos.org/editors-vox/why-tropical-forests-are-important-for-our-well-being">vital to Earth’s climate and biodiversity</a>, <a href="https://phys.org/news/2023-06-football-pitch-tropical-forest-lost.html">but a soccer field-size area</a> of mature tropical forest is burned or cut down about every 5 seconds to clear space for crops and cattle today.</p>
<p>While those trees may be lost, the land still has potential. Tropical forests’ combination of year-round sunshine and high rainfall can lead to high growth rates, suggesting that areas where tropical forests once grew could be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501639">valuable sites for reforestation</a>. In fact, a host of <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement">international agreements</a> and <a href="https://www.bonnchallenge.org/">declarations</a> envision just this.</p>
<p>For reforestation projects to make a dent in climate change, however, they have to work with and for the people who live there.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=t3-IBx0AAAAJ&hl=en">forest</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6fq4FOEAAAAJ&hl=en">ecologists</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5SejyLsAAAAJ&hl=en">involved in</a> tropical forest restoration, we have been studying effective ways to compensate people for the ecosystem services flowing from their land. In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43861-4">new study</a>, we show how compensation that also allows landholders to harvest and sell some of the trees could provide powerful incentives and ultimately benefit everyone.</p>
<h2>The extraordinary value of ecosystem services</h2>
<p>Tropical forests are celebrated for their extraordinary biodiversity, with their preservation seen as <a href="https://eos.org/editors-vox/why-tropical-forests-are-important-for-our-well-being">essential for protecting life on Earth</a>. They are reservoirs of vast carbon stocks, slowing down climate change. However, when tropical forests are cleared and burned, they release <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1354">copious amounts of carbon dioxide</a>, a greenhouse gas that drives climate change.</p>
<p>Programs <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0705503104">offering payments</a> for <a href="https://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.html">ecosystem services</a> are designed to help keep those forests and other ecosystems healthy by compensating landholders for goods and services produced by nature that are often taken for granted. For example, forests <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR013956">moderate stream flows and reduce flood risks</a>, support <a href="https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en?details=ca9433en#">bees and other pollinators</a> that benefit neighboring croplands, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1155121">help regulate climate</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Deforested hills seen from the air, with the light green coloring of newly planted saplings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565819/original/file-20231214-21-2o4y9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565819/original/file-20231214-21-2o4y9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565819/original/file-20231214-21-2o4y9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565819/original/file-20231214-21-2o4y9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565819/original/file-20231214-21-2o4y9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565819/original/file-20231214-21-2o4y9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565819/original/file-20231214-21-2o4y9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tropical forests burned or clear-cut can be restored, like these newly planted (upper left) and naturally regrowing (lower right) watersheds at Agua Salud in Panama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marcos Guerra/Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In recent years, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2023.958879">cottage industry</a> has grown up around paying people to reforest land for the carbon it can hold. It has been driven in part by corporations and other institutions looking for ways to meet their commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions by paying projects to reduce or prevent emissions elsewhere.</p>
<p>Early iterations of projects that pay landholders for ecosystem services <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2015.06.001">have been criticized</a> for focusing too much on economic efficiency, sometimes at the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biu146">expense of social and environmental concerns</a>.</p>
<p>Win-win solutions – where environmental and social concerns are both accounted for – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/701698">may not be the most economically efficient</a> in the short term, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/nrm.12219">they can lead to longer-term sustainability</a> as participants feel a sense of pride and responsibility for the project’s success. </p>
<p>That longer-term sustainability is essential for trees’ carbon storage, because many decades of growth is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10311-023-01598-y">required to build up stored carbon</a> and combat climate change. </p>
<h2>Why timber can be a triple win</h2>
<p>In the study, we looked at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43861-4">ways to maximize all three priorities</a> – environmental, economic and social benefits – in forest restoration, focusing on infertile land.</p>
<p>It may come as a surprise, but most soils in the tropics are <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-7-1515-2010">extraordinarily infertile</a>, with concentrations of phosphorus and other essential nutrients an order of magnitude or more lower than in crop-producing areas of the northern hemisphere. This makes restoring tropical forests through reforestation <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/phantom-forests-tree-planting-climate-change">more complex</a> than simply planting trees – these areas also require maintenance.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Looking up from the base of a tall tree toward its crown and the sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565865/original/file-20231214-29-d2seiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565865/original/file-20231214-29-d2seiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565865/original/file-20231214-29-d2seiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565865/original/file-20231214-29-d2seiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565865/original/file-20231214-29-d2seiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565865/original/file-20231214-29-d2seiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565865/original/file-20231214-29-d2seiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Species like <em>Terminalia amazonia</em>, valuable for commercial logging, can grow quickly, storing carbon in their wood as they grow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://stri.si.edu/facility/agua-salud">Andres Hernandez/Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our study we used some 1.4 million tree measurements taken over 15 years at the <a href="https://stri.si.edu/">Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute</a>’s <a href="https://stri.si.edu/facility/agua-salud">Agua Salud</a> site in Panama to project carbon sequestration and potential timber revenues. We looked at naturally regrowing forests, native tree species plantations and an effort to rehabilitate a failed teak plantation by planting high-value native trees known to grow on low-fertility soils <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2022.925877">to test routes to profitability</a>.</p>
<p>One set of solutions stood out: We found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/701698">giving landholders</a> both payments for carbon storage and the ability to generate revenue through timber production on the land could lead to vibrant forests and financial gains for the landholder.</p>
<p>It may seem counterintuitive to suggest timber harvesting when the goal is to restore forests, but allowing landholders to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-022-09906-0">generate timber revenue</a> can give them an incentive to protect and manage planted forests over time.</p>
<p>Regrowing trees on a deforested landscape, whether natural regrowth or plantations, is a net win for climate change, as trees take <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01379-4">vast amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere</a>. New forests that are selectively logged or plantations that are harvested in 30 to 80 years can help slow climate change while the world cuts emissions and expands carbon capture technologies.</p>
<h2>Reliable payments matter</h2>
<p>The structure of the payments is also important. We found that reliable annual carbon payments to rural landlords to regrow forests could match or surpass the income they might otherwise get from clearing land for cattle, thus making the transition to raising trees possible.</p>
<p>When cash payments are based instead on measurements of tree growth, they can vary widely year to year and among planting strategies. With the costs involved, that can stand in the way of effective land management to combat climate change.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three charts, all rising swiftly in the first 10 years but then declining." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565623/original/file-20231213-15-x4pbb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565623/original/file-20231213-15-x4pbb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565623/original/file-20231213-15-x4pbb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565623/original/file-20231213-15-x4pbb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565623/original/file-20231213-15-x4pbb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565623/original/file-20231213-15-x4pbb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565623/original/file-20231213-15-x4pbb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A chart of three different types of forest restoration shows how variable payments for carbon storage would be if they were based on measured growth rather than average growth over 30 years. When payments decline over time, the incentive to nurture and protect those forests disappears. The blue line represents a flat payment of US$130 per hectare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43861-4">Agua Salud/Smithsonian Institution</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Using flat annual payments instead guarantees a stable income and will help encourage more landholders to enroll. We are now using that method in Panama’s Indigenous <a href="https://stri.si.edu/story/indigenous-reforestation">Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca</a>. The project pays residents to plant and nurture native trees over 20 years.</p>
<h2>Shifting risk to buyers of carbon offsets</h2>
<p>From a practical perspective, flat annual carbon payments and other cost-sharing strategies to plant trees shift the burden of risk from participants to carbon buyers, often companies in wealthy countries.</p>
<p>The landholders get paid even if actual growth of the trees falls short, and everyone benefits from the ecosystem services provided.</p>
<p>While win-win solutions may not initially appear to be economically efficient, our work helps to illustrate a viable path forward – where environmental, social and economic objectives can be met.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219894/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jefferson S. Hall receives funding from the US government via the Smithsonian Institution, Stanly Motta, Frank and Kristin Levinson, the Hoch family, U-Trust, and the Mark and Rachel Rohr Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Sinacore receives funding from the Mark and Rachel Rohr Foundation, Stanly Motta, Frank and Kristin Levinson, the Hoch family, and the Smithsonian.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michiel van Breugel receives funding from Singapore’s Ministry of Education and the Future Cities Lab Global Program of the ETH-Singapore Centre, which is funded by National Research Foundation Singapore.</span></em></p>It might seem counterintuitive to suggest timber harvesting when the goal is to restore forests, but that gives landholders the economic incentive to protect and manage forests over time.Jefferson S. Hall, Staff Scientist and Director, Agua Salud Project, Smithsonian InstitutionKatherine Sinacore, Postdoctoral Fellow, Agua Salud Project, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Smithsonian InstitutionMichiel van Breugel, Associate Professor of Environmental Science, National University of SingaporeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2176342023-12-07T16:19:33Z2023-12-07T16:19:33ZBillions have been raised to restore forests, with little success. Here’s the missing ingredient<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564271/original/file-20231207-29-l6900w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6720%2C4476&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cropped-photo-african-american-farm-worker-2183118243">Yaroslav Astakhov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Protecting and restoring forests is one of the cheapest and most effective options for mitigating the carbon emissions heating Earth. </p>
<p>Since the third UN climate change summit, held in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, different mechanisms have been trialled to raise money and help countries reduce deforestation and restore degraded forests. First there was Kyoto’s clean development mechanism, then the UN-REDD programme initiated at COP13 in Bali in 2008. Voluntary carbon market schemes came into effect after COP21 in Paris in 2015, but all met with limited success. </p>
<p>In some cases, these schemes <a href="https://gspp.berkeley.edu/assets/uploads/page/Quality-Assessment-of-REDD+-Carbon-Crediting-EXECUTIVE-SUMMARY.pdf">interfered</a> with communities that have tended and nurtured forests for generations, restricting their access to the forest for fuel, grazing and food. Meanwhile, deforestation has proceeded under the aegis of global markets hungry for beef, palm oil <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-supply-chains-are-devouring-whats-left-of-earths-unspoilt-forests-198625">and other commodities</a>.</p>
<p>The world is far off track to reduce deforestation to zero by 2030, or meet its target of restoring over 350 million hectares.</p>
<p>At the current climate talks, COP28 in Dubai, Brazil has proposed a “tropical forests forever fund” with an outlay of US$250 billion, which would <a href="https://www.cop28.com/en/news/2023/12/COP28-Galvanizes-Finance-and-Global-Unity-for-Forests-and-the-Ocean">pay countries</a> to conserve or expand their forests. But how can the world be confident that the result will be different this time?</p>
<p>The work of one academic, Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom, can tell us why previous efforts to restore forests have failed – and what a more effective approach might look like.</p>
<h2>Bundles of rights</h2>
<p>Nearly 295 million people in developing countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America live on land that has been identified as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-01282-2#:%7E:text=Forest%2520landscape%2520restoration%2520that%2520prioritizes,environmental%2520justice%2520and%2520sustainable%2520development.">ripe for forest restoration</a>. The right to extract timber or plant trees ultimately lies with the state in these places, so it is up to the state to set targets for increasing tree coverage or how much carbon the land stores, regardless of how it affects the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/70/11/947/5903754">communities living there</a>.</p>
<p>Over 73% (about 3 billion hectares) of global forested land is <a href="https://www.fao.org/forest-resources-assessment/2020/en/">under state control</a>. One of the arguments for allowing governments to retain ownership of these forests, including the right to manage them, is the notion of the “tragedy of the commons”: in the absence of an all-powerful governing entity, people will overuse shared resources.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three rangers in military-style uniforms standing in a tropical forest thicket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564286/original/file-20231207-23-c896oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564286/original/file-20231207-23-c896oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564286/original/file-20231207-23-c896oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564286/original/file-20231207-23-c896oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564286/original/file-20231207-23-c896oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564286/original/file-20231207-23-c896oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564286/original/file-20231207-23-c896oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Strict state control is not always a recipe for success in conservation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kibale-forest-uganda-oct-26-2017-1518063899">JordiStock/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, Ostrom’s work on the commons in forests, fishing grounds and grazing pastures shows that communities tend to protect and sustainably use common resources – provided they have rights, tenure, and the ability to decide rules for managing them.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01863-6">study</a> examined forest commons in 15 tropical countries, where governments own the forest but have allowed local communities informal or customary rights of use and management. The authors noted that these forest commons had a high variety of tree species, and offered enough fodder and fuel wood to sustain livelihoods in the local community. The wealth of biomass in these forests indicated a lot of carbon was also being stored.</p>
<p>These findings seem to affirm that forests used and managed by Indigenous and rural communities can support global objectives for carbon and biodiversity, while meeting the needs of local people.</p>
<p>Ostrom’s research identified five important <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3146375?origin=crossref">bundles of rights</a> that allow communities to sustainably manage a parcel of land in such commons. These are: access, withdrawal, management, exclusion, and alienation. </p>
<p>Access and withdrawal rights are the minimum required for communities to go into a forest and collect timber, flowers, leaves and grasses for their subsistence and to sell commercially. The most important of these rights, at least in terms of forest restoration, is management rights, including the right to decide where and what type of trees to plant in order to restore a forest.</p>
<p>But Ostrom found that these rights are worthless unless imbued with secure “<a href="https://www.fao.org/publications/card/en/c/c6ded0bb-c052-5802-9659-b93746c82019/">tenure</a>” – in other words, confidence that land users would not be arbitrarily deprived of their rights over particular parcels of land.</p>
<p>Attempts by governments to provide partial management rights to local communities in recent decades have <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26393067?seq=8">disappointed</a> when it comes to restoring forests. For example, India has attempted to revive degraded forests since 1991 through its joint forest management programme, which offers partial rights to communities that are invited to help prepare a management plan. But without legally binding rights or secure tenure, this approach has shown <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344909002274">limited success</a>.</p>
<p>In contrast, India’s forest rights act 2006, the first of its kind globally, provided local communities that had traditionally used an area of forested land with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934123001685?casa_token=zZCXQa7V2yoAAAAA:sRJJ2wisUYVvAx-FagvRHcnfmioWoaUOQgyGYm3t808u_67LNIpcBV6YUk7_I2ASTNVim8E2FQ">full management rights and secure tenure</a>. The result has been restored forests and communities benefiting from increased sales of bamboo and tendu (leaves for rolling tobacco), <a href="https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/18/special-articles/implementation-community-forest-rights.html">improving livelihoods</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women making bidi cigarettes out of tendu leaves." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564287/original/file-20231207-29-iy7909.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564287/original/file-20231207-29-iy7909.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564287/original/file-20231207-29-iy7909.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564287/original/file-20231207-29-iy7909.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564287/original/file-20231207-29-iy7909.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564287/original/file-20231207-29-iy7909.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564287/original/file-20231207-29-iy7909.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indian women making bidi, traditional handmade cigarettes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/burhanpur-madhya-pradesh-india-05-jan-1903477321">Parikh Mahendra N/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Empower forest communities</h2>
<p>To restore Earth’s forests and mitigate climate change, states should devolve management rights to the communities in these land parcels and grant them secure tenure.</p>
<p>But how should these commons be governed? Ostrom’s many years of research are, again, a useful guide. She <a href="https://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/elinor-ostroms-8-principles-managing-commmons/index.html">advocated</a> for clear boundaries defining the community’s rights, rules for forest use, the rights of all members of a community to participate in making those rules (including women and marginal communities), collective decision-making on managing resources, effective monitoring, graduated sanctions for rule violations, conflict resolution mechanisms, and a nested governance structure when multiple communities have rights over the same resources.</p>
<p>There are clear limitations on Indigenous and forest-dependent communities to access the finance that might aid them in their restoration work. Brazil’s proposed fund, and existing climate finance mechanism such as REDD+ and the green climate fund, must be made accessible to these forest communities. This would be easier if they had secure rights and tenure, with a clear set of management rules.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 20,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217634/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dhanapal Govindarajulu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When forest communities have secure rights and tenure, the results can be miraculous.Dhanapal Govindarajulu, Postgraduate Researcher, Global Development Institute, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2173552023-12-06T21:59:33Z2023-12-06T21:59:33ZCarbon removal is needed to achieve net zero but has its own climate risks<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/carbon-removal-is-needed-to-achieve-net-zero-but-has-its-own-climate-risks" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>As delegates gather in Dubai <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/conferences/un-climate-change-conference-united-arab-emirates-nov/dec-2023/about-cop-28#:%7E:text=COP%2028%20is%20an%20opportunity,is%20already%20happening%20and%20ultimately">at the COP28 climate conference</a> — with the aim to ratchet up ambition towards meeting the goals of the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement">Paris Agreement</a> — a key component of these efforts are <a href="https://zerotracker.net/">countries’ pledges</a> to achieve net-zero emissions around mid-century. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_AnnexVII.pdf">Net-zero carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions</a> refers to a balance between CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere and CO₂ removals from the atmosphere, such that the net effect on CO₂ levels in the atmosphere is zero. It is often assumed that if such a balance is achieved, the net effect on climate would also be zero. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop28-climate-summit-just-approved-a-loss-and-damage-fund-what-does-this-mean-218999">COP28 climate summit just approved a 'loss and damage' fund. What does this mean?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, in a recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01862-7">paper in <em>Nature Climate Change</em></a>, we show that unless we consider a number of other factors — such as permanence of carbon stored in vegetation and soils, changes in the reflectivity of landscapes and the full suite of greenhouse gases emitted — balancing CO₂ emissions with removals will not achieve the intended climate goal.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_AnnexVII.pdf">Carbon dioxide removal</a> (CDR) refers to human activities that deliberately remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere. CDR can leverage either natural or technological systems, though in either case, it must be additional to the CO₂ removal that is driven by passive <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/carbon-sources-and-sinks/">carbon sinks</a> already at work, such as existing forests. </p>
<p><a href="https://cdrprimer.org/read/chapter-2">Examples of CDR</a> include planting trees on previously deforested or unforested lands, producing bio-energy and capturing and storing the emitted carbon, fertilizing the ocean to stimulate biological production and capturing CO₂ directly from the air through chemical and technological means.</p>
<h2>What are the potential problems?</h2>
<p>For CDR to balance the climate effects of CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel burning, it needs to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41242-5">result in permanent carbon storage</a>, meaning that the carbon must remain undisturbed for centuries to millennia. However, carbon stored in trees is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz7005">vulnerable to natural disturbances</a> such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41854-x">droughts</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27225-4">wildfires</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06777">insect outbreaks</a> and other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12558">biotic disturbances</a> and could be re-released much sooner. </p>
<p>Carbon sequestered and stored in <a href="https://ecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/31382-marine-heat-wave-impacts-world-s-largest-seagrass-carbon-stores">seagrass meadows</a> or mangrove forests, for example, is re-released following marine heat waves. Any reversals in land-use and management decisions can also affect the permanence of carbon stored by CDR. </p>
<p>Several CDR approaches, when deployed at a large-scale, affect fluxes of energy and water at the Earth’s surface, resulting in so-called <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2022.756115/full?mc_cid=84ae26d1c7&mc_eid=8249944246">“biogeophysical” effects</a> on climate that are in addition to the effects of CO₂ sequestration. </p>
<p>For example, large-scale planting of trees in agricultural areas or grasslands results in a reduction of how well the land surface is able to reflect sunlight, and therefore leading to a <a href="https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/14/629/2023/">warming effect</a>. This effect is particularly strong in regions with seasonal snow cover, where the darker colour of trees reduces the high reflectivity of snow. </p>
<p>Deployment of a range of CDR methods can also result in increased emissions of nitrous oxide and methane, two powerful greenhouse gases. For instance, bio-energy with carbon capture and storage and reforestation require the use of nitrogen fertilizers, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2018.11.033">enhances nitrous oxide emissions</a>. </p>
<p>Restoration of coastal ecosystems, such as seagrass meadows or mangrove forests, can also result in an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64094-1">increase in methane and nitrous oxide emissions</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/geoengineering-sounds-like-a-quick-climate-fix-but-without-more-research-and-guardrails-its-a-costly-gamble-with-potentially-harmful-results-211705">Geoengineering sounds like a quick climate fix, but without more research and guardrails, it's a costly gamble − with potentially harmful results</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Because of the potential impermanence of carbon stored by CDR, and biogeophysical and other greenhouse gas effects, balancing emissions of CO₂ with CDR might not always result in the intended climate outcome. </p>
<p>For example, balancing fossil-fuel emissions with CO₂ removal through large-scale reforestation can result in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01862-7">higher global warming</a> compared to a case where the fossil fuel emissions are eliminated. This asymmetry could lead to exceeding temperature limits set by the Paris Agreement.</p>
<h2>What to do about it?</h2>
<p>For the reasons above, greenhouse gas accounting, and policies designed to offset greenhouse gas emissions, need to consider the full suite of climate effects of the proposed CDR to ensure intended climate goals are not compromised.</p>
<p>CDR approaches with short carbon storage time scales, or at high risk of natural and/or anthropogenic disturbance (like in fire-prone regions), should not be used to balance fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions. </p>
<p>For carbon removal that targets carbon stores at lower risks of disturbance, it is crucial that net-zero protocols also require an excess amount of CDR as an insurance in the event of carbon losses. </p>
<p>Similarly, CDR approaches that result in biogeophysical effects or release gases such as methane and nitrous oxide upon deployment risk fully negating the climate benefit of carbon sequestration and should be excluded as a means of balancing fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions. </p>
<p>In cases where biogeophysical effects or the release of GHGs partly counter the climate benefit of carbon sequestration, an additional amount of CDR is also required to compensate these effects. The measures used to establish equivalency between CO₂ emissions and removals, and biogeophysical and GHG effects, need to be rigorous and grounded in science. </p>
<h2>Emissions reductions remain primary</h2>
<p>Nature-based climate solutions that are not suitable for balancing fossil-fuel emissions because of a high risk of carbon losses — and/or large biophysical or GHG effects — may still be appropriate to deploy <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2019.0120">because of benefits</a> other than climate change mitigation. That includes preserving or restoring biodiversity and increasing the resilience of landscapes. </p>
<p>If deployed in addition rather than as an alternative to fossil-fuel emission reductions, these <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00391-z">solutions can still have climate benefits, even if relatively temporary</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop28-how-7-policies-could-help-save-a-billion-lives-by-2100-212953">COP28: How 7 policies could help save a billion lives by 2100</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Carbon dioxide removal <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/chapter/summary-for-policymakers/">will be needed</a> to balance emissions that are difficult to eliminate and increase the odds of meeting the Paris Agreement climate goal. </p>
<p>However, while CDR can play a crucial role in climate change mitigation, the current uncertainty around its full effects underscores the need to prioritize reducing emissions as rapidly and as much as possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsten Zickfeld receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Environment and Climate Change Canada's Climate Action and Awareness Fund and Microsoft.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pep Canadell receives funding from the Australian National Environmental Science Program.</span></em></p>Carbon capture and sequestration can play a role in limiting warming but the nuances of its application are far more complicated than just planting trees. Getting it wrong could make warming worse.Kirsten Zickfeld, Distinguished Professor of Climate Science, Simon Fraser UniversityPep Canadell, Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Environment; Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2167012023-12-04T13:27:46Z2023-12-04T13:27:46ZNew England stone walls lie at the intersection of history, archaeology, ecology and geoscience, and deserve a science of their own<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562785/original/file-20231130-25-3xzmdr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C0%2C1800%2C1191&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A typical New England stone wall in Hebron, Conn.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert M. Thorson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The abandoned fieldstone walls of New England are every bit as <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-stone-walls-became-a-signature-landform-of-new-england-180983250/">iconic to the region</a> as lobster pots, town greens, sap buckets and fall foliage. They seem to be everywhere – a latticework of dry, lichen-crusted stone ridges separating a patchwork of otherwise moist soils.</p>
<p>Stone walls can be found here and there in other states, but only in New England are they nearly ubiquitous. That’s due to a regionally unique combination of hard crystalline bedrock, glacial soils and farms with patchworks of small land parcels. </p>
<p>Nearly all were built by European settlers and their draft animals, who scuttled glacial stones from agricultural fields and pastures outward to fencelines and boundaries, then tossed or stacked them as lines. Though the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Long_Deep_Furrow.html?id=Hn-5AAAAIAAJ">oldest walls</a> date to 1607, most were built in the agrarian century between the American Revolution and the cultural shift toward cities and industry after the Civil War. </p>
<p>The mass of stone that farmers moved in that century staggers the mind – an estimated <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/Sermons-in-Stone/null">240,000 miles (400,000 kilometers)</a> of barricades, most stacked thigh-high and similarly wide. That’s long enough to wrap our planet 10 times at the equator, or to reach the Moon on its closest approach to Earth.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BwPUy6kjISv/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\u0026igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Natural scientists have been working to quantify this phenomenon, which is larger in volume than the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall in Britain and the Egyptian pyramids at Giza combined. This work began in 1870 and generated the U.S. government’s 1872 <a href="https://www.primaryresearch.org/stonewalls/fencesurvey.pdf">Census of Fences</a>. Today, scientists are using <a href="https://stonewall.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/534/2014/03/Johnson-and-Ouimet-2014-Rediscovering-the-lost-archaeological-landscape-of-southern-New-England-using-airborne-LiDAR.pdf">a technique called LiDAR</a>, or light detection and ranging, to <a href="https://granit.unh.edu/pages/nh-stone-walls">measure and map</a> stone walls across New England.</p>
<p>Being <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ElExWMsAAAAJ&hl=en">a geologist</a>, I’m interested in walls as landforms that are distinctive to the region, created during the lead-up to the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/11/1187125012/anthropocene-crawford-lake-canada-beginning">Anthropocene</a> epoch – a time when human agency dominates all others. I’ve written about the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/stone-by-stone-9780802776877/">history of stone walls</a> and how to <a href="https://stonewall.uconn.edu/books-2/exploring-stone-walls/">interpret them in the field</a>, and developed the <a href="https://stonewall.uconn.edu/about-swi/mission-and-purpose/">Stone Wall Initiative</a> to draw public attention to their importance in New England. Now, I’m working with students and colleagues to develop a formal interdisciplinary science of stone walls that will help researchers understand and preserve them.</p>
<h2>Dens and pathways</h2>
<p>My brother-in-law enjoys his backyard wall in Lee, New Hampshire, mainly for its aesthetic, historic and literary ambiance. The wild things living in his neighborhood depend on it as unique habitat. </p>
<p>To lichens and moss, the wall’s dry stones are surfaces where plants can’t compete. For plants, such walls are edges that separate patches of ground into zones that are sunny or shady, windward or leeward, uphill or downhill, wetter or drier. Stone walls offer small mammals porous volumes in which to live their furtive lives. Predators use the walls as hunting blinds and travel corridors.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CdEgCxhvYBv/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Just for fun, my brother-in-law installed a motion-activated, infrared video camera on his backyard wall to see who was using the wall and how. On June 21, 2023, the summer solstice, he <a href="https://stonewall.uconn.edu/author/rmt02003/">filmed a bobcat (<em>Lynx rufus</em>)</a> hiding behind it and then using it as an elevated pathway.</p>
<p>The more we researchers learn about New England’s abandoned stone walls, the more we realize that they transcend and obliterate the narrow treatments of our scholarly disciplines. These archaeological artifacts are so ubiquitous that they have become a geological landform that in turn creates a novel ecological habitat. These walls also are literary icons, historic sites and spiritual oracles, as Robert Frost recognized when he penned “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44266/mending-wall">Mending Wall</a>,” on an <a href="https://www.robertfrostfarm.org/">old farm</a> in Derry, New Hampshire. </p>
<p>But despite their importance, never have the stone walls of New England been technically defined, classified and given a common terminology in a peer-reviewed journal. They fell, it seems, through disciplinary cracks. </p>
<p>My initial step toward changing this situation was writing a mini-monograph in 2023 for the journal Historical Archaeology on the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-023-00432-0">Taxonomy and Nomenclature for the Stone Domain in New England</a>.” Its goal is to coalesce the study of these stone walls into an interdisciplinary science by following the precedents of other disciplines – most notably, the 18th-century <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/taxonomy">Linnaean taxonomy</a> that biologists still use today. Here’s how that approach works:</p>
<h2>Defining and classifying</h2>
<p>Understanding the stone walls of greater New England scientifically requires starting with a technical definition that is based on field criteria rather than tradition or inference. There are many kinds of historical stone features – waste piles, cairns, scatters, lines, kilns, gravestones, cobbles, patios and more. The goal is to isolate walls as a set of objects within this larger domain. </p>
<p>For example, a definition can require that each wall be composed of stone; composed of particles, rather than one enormous slab; continuous; elongated; and sufficiently high. Without such explicit criteria, one person’s wall is another’s elongated pile, and one person’s waste heap is another’s <a href="https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/9781634990493">sacred site</a>.</p>
<p>It’s nice when descriptions and classifications can be loose and flexible, as with genres of music, styles of fashion, and disciplines within academia. These are typologies, bins, pigeonholes. But to make scientific sense of the world, researchers need to convert descriptions into precise definitions and use them in binary, rule-driven classifications. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/search?query=taxonomy">These are taxonomies</a>.</p>
<p>Every field of science requires its own language. Chemists group <a href="https://sciencenotes.org/periodic-table-groups-and-periods/">elements with similar properties</a>, like halogens and noble gases. Biologists divide life forms into <a href="https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/biological-classification/611149">domains, kingdoms, phyla and smaller groups</a> with shared characteristics. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing biological classification of domestic dogs and the larger biological groups to which they belong." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This graphic shows how biologists use taxonomy to name, describe and classify one subspecies, domesticated dogs (<em>Canis lupus familiaris</em>), and relate that subspecies to larger groups such as carnivores, mammals and animals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Figure_20_01_05.png">CNX Open Stax/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Terms in stone wall science involve the size, shape, composition, source and arrangement of stones; the vertical and horizontal structures of tiers, courses and terminations; and their topographic settings on the landscape. </p>
<p>Stone wall classification begins with the stone domain – the entire constellation of historical stone objects. From there, we carve out a distinct class of stone walls that’s separate from other rock assemblies, like concentrations and lines, as well as notable individual stones, like <a href="https://seeplymouth.com/listing/plymouth-rock/">Plymouth Rock</a>. Then, using diagnostic criteria, we divide the class walls into five families – free-standing, flanking, supporting, enclosing and blocking – and break them down further into types, subtypes and variants within <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-023-00432-0">a new taxonomy</a>. </p>
<h2>What stone walls can tell us</h2>
<p>At this stage, my students, colleagues and I are just beginning to pair stone wall science with LiDAR techniques at the scale of villages. Tantalizing spatial patterns are emerging. </p>
<p>Different types of walls occur in predictable arrangements. For example, we commonly find well-built double walls near cellar holes, with simpler single walls at further distance and waste piles beyond those. Such patterns provide an independent source of primary documentary evidence that researchers can use to interpret past cultural behaviors, above and beyond the written documents of history and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Small_Things_Forgotten">much smaller artifacts</a> of excavation-based archaeology. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4YAIq-Whttg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Many of New England’s forests stand on land that used to be family farms. Stone walls in these forests mark former boundaries.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such spatial patterns can also be used for ecological interpretations. For example, a bobcat is more likely to hunt along a normal single wall than other subtypes because it has the required stability and height to support the cat and sufficient void space for prey to live in. </p>
<p>These structures – these elevated drylands – are in some ways analogous to the region’s wetlands, which also are landforms that farmers created or <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/books/book/751/chapter-abstract/3902909/Colonial-impacts-to-wetlands-in-Lebanon?redirectedFrom=fulltext">significantly modified</a> as they settled the land in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, since the 1990s, wetlands have earned a <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/4766/wetlands-characteristics-and-boundaries">robust science</a>, a solid <a href="https://www.epa.gov/wetlands">legal framework</a> and excellent <a href="https://www.nawm.org/">management protocols</a>. </p>
<p>In my view, the time has come to do the same for New England’s stone walls. These dryland structures are so ubiquitous, massive and unique relative to other habitats that it’s high time for natural scientists to give them the respect they deserve.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert M. Thorson created and coordinates the Stone Wall Initiative, an online resource on the historic stone walls of New England. He is an advocate for their conservation and management, and a frequent public speaker on this topic for land trusts, historical societies, environmental non-profits, public libraries, and “friends of…” organizations. </span></em></p>New England has thousands of miles of stone walls. A geoscientist explains why analyzing them scientifically is a solid step toward preserving themRobert M. Thorson, Professor of Earth Science, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172762023-12-03T22:34:14Z2023-12-03T22:34:14ZA home among the gum trees: will the Great Koala National Park actually save koalas?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562344/original/file-20231129-19-cefvw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C81%2C6016%2C3926&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s a visionary idea: a national park for koalas. Conceived <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/central-queensland/great-koala-national-park-promised-to-midnorth-coast/news-story/1319b864127035b9e1e4c514fd495f37">over a decade ago</a>, the idea gained prominence after Labor took the idea to three successive elections in New South Wales. Now they’re in office and have finally begun putting commitment to action. </p>
<p>The original idea is simple: a park stretching from Grafton to Kempsey in northern NSW, drawing in over 300,000 hectares of state forest and existing national parks. Covering prime koala habitat, the park would be a safe haven for the <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/biodiversity/threatened/species/koalas/listing-under-national-environmental-law">now-threatened koala</a> as its numbers on the east coast dwindle. </p>
<p>But will it be enough to save the koala from extinction?</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-1002" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/1002/ec7a3888f31e786241375bd3a0f02ed7d5ad4d42/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>A park with logging and plantations?</h2>
<p>Since the idea was canvassed, the megafires of the 2019–2020 summer have affected more than a third of the proposed park, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/stopping-koala-extinction-is-agonisingly-simple-but-heres-why-im-not-optimistic-141696">killed many hundreds</a> – or even thousands – of koalas. Even so, policy is driven by the original park boundaries and koala population data collected before the fires. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558714/original/file-20231109-21-lli6wh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="burned koala in tree" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558714/original/file-20231109-21-lli6wh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558714/original/file-20231109-21-lli6wh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558714/original/file-20231109-21-lli6wh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558714/original/file-20231109-21-lli6wh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558714/original/file-20231109-21-lli6wh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558714/original/file-20231109-21-lli6wh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558714/original/file-20231109-21-lli6wh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The megafires of the Black Summer hit tree-dwelling koalas hard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When you see the phrase “state forest” on a map, it means logging is usually allowed. In National Parks, of course, it’s not. </p>
<p>The Great Koala National Park covers a number of state forests, where logging has continued. </p>
<p>In 2018, the previous state government extended the state’s Regional Forest Agreement logging laws for <a href="https://theconversation.com/proposed-nsw-logging-laws-value-timber-over-environmental-protection-97863">another twenty years</a>. But this extension did not consider the impacts of climate change on forest management, meaning logging levels were not reduced to reflect changing environmental conditions. </p>
<p>In fact, the government went the other way, loosening logging rules to permit larger trees to be cut while koala management prescriptions were weakened. The removal of natural habitat trees up to 140cm diameter were permitted. If a koala was sighted in a tree, that tree could still be removed if the koala moved on.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://timcadman.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/why-the-nsw-governments-provisional-koala-park-will-not-save-koalas/">ongoing calls from scientists</a> and citizens, the current state government has allowed logging in the proposed park to continue largely unchecked.</p>
<p>Even when the government has intervened, it has been too little, too late. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-12/nsw-government-stops-timber-harvesting-koala-hubs/102844954">recent suspension of logging</a> of 8,000 hectares of forest in <a href="https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/native-forestry/protecting-koala-hubs-in-proposed-great-koala-national-park-assessment-area">so-called koala “hubs”</a> with high population density will not be enough to offset the damage from ongoing logging. Worse, some of the hubs have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/13/greens-and-environmentalists-question-initial-plan-to-pause-logging-in-just-5-of-nsws-promised-koala-park">already been logged</a>. </p>
<p>When you look at the <a href="https://wnc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=86ef6455e6774815843e4209852a7da7&utm">provisional park boundary</a> – which includes the hubs – you can see all plantations inside the park are excluded. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-koala-when-its-smart-to-be-slow-187003">Friday essay: the koala – when it's smart to be slow</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This, too, doesn’t make much sense. That’s because koalas, as eucalyptus leaf-eating specialists, actually like hardwood plantations. Similarly, many areas now zoned as plantation were never actually logged and replanted. Instead, they’re a mix of <a href="https://timcadman.wordpress.com/2023/06/02/letter-to-the-prime-minister-nsw-premier-and-ministers-on-plantation-conversion/">original native forest and regrowth</a>, or mixed species of local stock indistinguishable from the natural forests of the region. </p>
<p>These plantations are mostly on prime soils on the coast and consist of moist eucalypt forest and rainforest – ideal food and habitat for the koalas. </p>
<p>But when these areas are clearfelled, they are usually replaced with monoculture coastal blackbutt, which koalas do not like to eat. </p>
<p>As a result, these plantation areas – whether real or just on the map – are critical to the integrity of the park. Koalas cannot read maps, and do not understand human zoning. If their habitat in plantations is cleared, they die – just as we’ve seen in Victoria, where deaths of koalas in blue gum plantations have made <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-16/cape-bridgewater-koala-deaths-bryants-forestry-and-earthmoving/103112004">national news</a>. </p>
<h2>Bring the plantations into the park</h2>
<p>As Victoria and Western Australia fast-track the end of native forest logging, New South Wales has so far not followed suit. </p>
<p>But this may change, as efforts grow <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/20/labor-native-forest-logging-environment-action-network-lean">within the federal Labor party</a> to end native forest logging altogether. </p>
<p>If this happens, where will we get timber from? The obvious answer is from plantations. The problem for the NSW Labor government is that the plantations on the mid north coast are prime koala habitat. </p>
<p>For a koala-protecting National Park to actually protect koalas, it must be based on the identification and reservation of high value habitat – such as hardwood plantations. </p>
<p>If we leave all plantations out, some of the best habitat in the park will continue to be logged. Without plantations, the park will be filled with holes, severing critical corridors and hampering the movement of koalas. </p>
<h2>What should we do?</h2>
<p>We have to restore the areas lost to logging and the Black Summer bushfires and flag more forested areas for inclusion – especially unburnt habitat. </p>
<p>And the government has to end logging within the proposed park area. If we want a viable alternative, the government should begin new plantations outside the park area and buy out existing logging contracts inside the park. Logging and koalas do not mix. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558717/original/file-20231109-19-12y66q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="aerial photo of logged area with intact forest behind" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558717/original/file-20231109-19-12y66q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558717/original/file-20231109-19-12y66q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558717/original/file-20231109-19-12y66q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558717/original/file-20231109-19-12y66q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558717/original/file-20231109-19-12y66q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558717/original/file-20231109-19-12y66q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558717/original/file-20231109-19-12y66q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inside the proposed park, many areas of prime koala habitat have already been logged. This shows Tuckers Nob State Forest after logging.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google/Airbus</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We should give up on the idea of protecting koala “hubs”. Instead, we should prioritise the protection of koala populations unaffected by fire and in untouched forest areas wherever they are, whether inside or outside of these hubs. </p>
<p>Every bit of habitat on public land should be ruled in, as this is what counts, not zoning. Local communities – not just the forest industry and environment groups – need to be included in negotiations. The government should also consider community efforts to seek <a href="https://greaterkoalapark.org/about-2/">World Heritage protection</a> for these forests. </p>
<p>If the proposed park is to live up to the “Great” in its name, it has to be as big and as well connected as possible. Ruling out some of the best koala habitat in the area is not a great place to start.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/proposed-nsw-logging-laws-value-timber-over-environmental-protection-97863">Proposed NSW logging laws value timber over environmental protection</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Cadman is an environmental researcher and community member who lives within the footprint of the proposed koala reserve. As a local resident, he is a Friend of Kalang Headwaters and engages in science-driven advocacy on matters relating to koala management and forestry.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danielle Clode does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For the proposed Great Koala National Park to actually help koalas, logging should stop and plantations should be added to the park.Tim Cadman, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow with the Law Futures Centre and the Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law, Griffith UniversityDanielle Clode, Associate Professor (adjunct) in Creative Writing, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166062023-11-30T19:03:19Z2023-11-30T19:03:19ZCan we sustainably harvest trees from tropical forests? Yes – here are 5 ways to do it better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562613/original/file-20231130-29-eyet8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C24%2C5423%2C3607&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/diverse-amazon-forest-seen-above-tropical-2072628056">Panga Media, Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Logging typically <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8622">degrades tropical forests</a>. But what if logging is carefully planned and carried out by well-trained workers? </p>
<p>While public campaigns to end logging dominate both the popular press and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06187-1">high-profile science journals</a>, a transition from “timber mining” to evidence-based “managed forestry” is underway. Given <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac102">poor logging practices are likely to continue</a> in about 500 million hectares of tropical forest, efforts to promote responsible forestry deserve more attention. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.climatelinks.org/resources/opportunities-reduce-tropical-forest-degradation-and-mitigate-climate-change">our new report</a> we recommend five ways to improve tropical forest management. This work was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Forest Service International Program.</p>
<p>Fortunately, these practices are compatible with management for non-timber forest products such as fruits, fibres, resins and medicinal plants, as well as biodiversity conservation. They would also reduce carbon emissions and increase carbon removal in cost-effective ways. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fire-is-consuming-more-than-ever-of-the-worlds-forests-threatening-supplies-of-wood-and-paper-216643">Fire is consuming more than ever of the world's forests, threatening supplies of wood and paper</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Five ways to improve forest fates</h2>
<p>Research shows <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2014.07.003">biodiversity is mostly retained</a> in well managed, selectively logged forests. Especially if <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12446">hunting is controlled</a> and lower-impact logging practices are employed, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00242.x">carbon stocks remain high</a>.</p>
<p>Harvesting 5–10% of the trees does temporarily reduce the total amount of carbon stored in the forest, but these stocks recover quickly if damage to young trees and soils is kept to a minimum.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562570/original/file-20231129-31-kfjej9.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3019%2C4028&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a high-vis vest and hard hat stands alongside a giant tree in a tropical forest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562570/original/file-20231129-31-kfjej9.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3019%2C4028&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562570/original/file-20231129-31-kfjej9.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562570/original/file-20231129-31-kfjej9.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562570/original/file-20231129-31-kfjej9.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562570/original/file-20231129-31-kfjej9.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562570/original/file-20231129-31-kfjej9.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562570/original/file-20231129-31-kfjej9.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Managed well, tropical forests can be a sustainable source of timber.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claudia Romero</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here are five ways to smooth the transition from “timber mining” and clear-felling to managed forestry featuring selective harvesting: </p>
<p><strong>1. Improve logging practices.</strong> Planned harvest operations – carried out by trained workers suitably rewarded for the proper application of lower-impact logging practices – result in less soil erosion, fewer worker injuries, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2019.02.004">half the carbon emissions</a> of conventional logging. </p>
<p><strong>2. Waste less wood.</strong> Workers can be trained to maximise the recovery of wood from harvesting and processing. For instance, if trees are felled properly, stumps are low and fewer logs are broken. </p>
<p><strong>3. Allow time to recover.</strong> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119440">Sustaining timber yields</a> often requires leaving forests alone for longer between harvests (reducing harvest freqency) and/or limiting the amount that can be harvested per unit area. Harvest intensity (that is, the numbers of trees or volumes of timber harvested per unit areas) can be reduced by increasing the distance between harvestable trees or by increasing the minimum size of trees that can be felled. </p>
<p>Either restriction reduces short-term profits, but ensures there will be timber to harvest in the future. Fortunately, these changes also reduce carbon emissions from managed forests, for which there should be compensation from carbon market investors seeking to compensate for their own emissions. </p>
<p><strong>4. Protect young trees.</strong> If we protect and foster the growth of small trees, they will grow to a suitable size for the next harvest. This is especially important in forests that have been disturbed by previous logging. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121038">Liberating the future crop from woody vines</a> (lianas) is a relatively cheap way to augment future timber yields and double the rate at which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere. </p>
<p><strong>5. Plant more trees.</strong> In areas that lack natural regeneration of commercial tree species, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2017.09.005">enrichment planting</a> can help. If these planted trees are regularly tended for several years, growth and carbon sequestration rates can be substantial.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562571/original/file-20231130-25-b2y5xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Aerial photo of logging in rainforest showing stark deforestation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562571/original/file-20231130-25-b2y5xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562571/original/file-20231130-25-b2y5xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562571/original/file-20231130-25-b2y5xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562571/original/file-20231130-25-b2y5xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562571/original/file-20231130-25-b2y5xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562571/original/file-20231130-25-b2y5xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562571/original/file-20231130-25-b2y5xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest management provides an alternative to deforestation and forest degradation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/deforestation-aerial-photo-logging-malaysia-rainforest-1408605185">Rich Carey, Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indonesia-is-suppressing-environmental-research-it-doesnt-like-that-poses-real-risks-202629">Indonesia is suppressing environmental research it doesn't like. That poses real risks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Managed forestry has multiple carbon benefits</h2>
<p>The carbon benefits of all five mechanisms described here are additional. That means they wouldn’t have happened in the absence of the intervention. </p>
<p>So carbon markets should support the transition away from exploitative timber mining once responsible forest management is accepted as a legitimate land use. </p>
<p>Managed forestry also creates jobs for professionals and supports a stable workforce. In contrast, carbon projects based on stopping logging run the risk of sending loggers elsewhere. </p>
<h2>From exploitation and degradation to forest management</h2>
<p>The long-awaited transition from tropical forest exploitation <a href="https://doi.org/10.17528/cifor/005766">to responsible forest management</a> requires support from governments, the private sector, and society as a whole. </p>
<p>Governments will need to enforce their laws. Failing to do so will starve their economies of tax revenue. Meanwhile the glut of illegal timber keeps log prices at a rock bottom low. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562603/original/file-20231130-29-f47ae5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo in a tropical forest, looking up at the treetops against the sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562603/original/file-20231130-29-f47ae5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562603/original/file-20231130-29-f47ae5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562603/original/file-20231130-29-f47ae5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562603/original/file-20231130-29-f47ae5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562603/original/file-20231130-29-f47ae5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562603/original/file-20231130-29-f47ae5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562603/original/file-20231130-29-f47ae5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This forest near Gabon in the Congo Basin shows natural regeneration with a young tree growing to fill a gap left by logging.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claudia Romero</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Forest industries need to recognise the benefits of investing in all aspects of forestry including the maintenance of productive timber stands. </p>
<p>Society also needs to support forestry by ensuring the supply of well-trained young foresters. Unfortunately, the common misconception of forest management as a synonym for forest degradation reduces the appeal of the profession to young environmentalists.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.5849/jof.15-018">closure of so many undergraduate forestry degrees</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/f14081644">outside of Brazil</a>, coupled with increased focus on plantations rather than natural forests, makes it hard to find trained and motivated people to support the transition to responsible forest management. But it will be worth the effort, because responsible forest management promises financial, environmental and social benefits. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/giant-old-trees-are-still-being-logged-in-tasmanian-forests-we-must-find-ways-of-better-protecting-them-211670">Giant old trees are still being logged in Tasmanian forests. We must find ways of better protecting them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis E Putz was funded to write this report by the US Agency for International Development and the US Forest Service International Program.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claudia Romero received funding from the United States Agency for International Development and the United States Forest Service International Program to complete this report. </span></em></p>We argue for an orderly transition from ‘timber mining’ to managed forestry in the tropics. Here’s a five-step plan to improve forest fates, with benefits for the climate, biodiversity and people.Francis E Putz, Research Professor, University of the Sunshine CoastClaudia Romero, University of the Sunshine CoastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2164882023-11-30T12:20:37Z2023-11-30T12:20:37ZGhana’s shea industry is not taking care of the women behind its growth<p>Ghana’s shea industry has a rich history. Shea – <em>nkuto</em>, <em>karite</em>, <em>galam</em> in some west African languages – is deeply embedded in the culture and tradition of the country’s northern regions. It is often considered a woman’s crop – women pick the fruit and extract its “butter” – and has acquired the name “woman’s gold” because rural women earn income from its sale. </p>
<p>The crop is not just locally important, though. Shea butter, derived from the nuts of the shea tree, has become a global commodity. It is used widely as an ingredient in the confectionery, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/shea-butter-market">report</a> by Future Markets Insights values the global shea butter market at US$2.75 billion. It’s expected to reach US$5.58 billion in 2033. In Ghana, shea is one of the <a href="https://www.gepaghana.org/export-statistic/non-traditional-export-statistics-2022/">top</a> export commodities. According to the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, the export of shea butter was <a href="https://www.gepaghana.org/export-statistic/non-traditional-export-statistics-2022/">estimated</a> to be worth US$92.6 million (38,792 tonnes) in 2022 and kernels US$20 million (36,162 tonnes) in 2021. </p>
<p>In spite of shea’s global prominence, primary actors in this sector aren’t reaping the benefits from these exports. Rural women, who are the primary producers, are also the <a href="https://sun.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma998897791203436&context=L&vid=27US_INST:27US_V1&lang=en&search_scope=Combined&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,shea%20butter&offset=0">lowest earners</a> in the shea value chain, with an annual income of about US$234 per capita.</p>
<p>The reasons behind this were the subject of my <a href="https://sun.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma998897791203436&context=L&vid=27US_INST:27US_V1&lang=en&search_scope=Combined&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,shea%20butter&offset=0">PhD dissertation</a>. I discovered that the shea environment was poorly regulated and “empowerment” policies had actually enabled poverty. </p>
<h2>Importance of shea</h2>
<p>Economically, shea has gained international prominence stemming from its properties and value. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Specifications-of-whole-and-processed-shea-butters_tbl1_272022836">Stearin</a>, a creamy fat, is used industrially as a cocoa butter equivalent in chocolate production and confectionery. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Specifications-of-whole-and-processed-shea-butters_tbl1_272022836">Olein</a> is used to make cosmetics.</p>
<p>Socially, activities in the shea industry confer on women a level of respect and power that they do not possess in other economic sectors. It’s also an area where women pass on indigenous knowledge from one generation to another by observing and participating in shea activities.</p>
<p>Shea trees also <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/12/12/1740">provide</a> carbon sinks and storage, improve soil fertility and promote better yields in agroforestry systems. </p>
<p>The shea industry is potentially a vehicle for economic development, environmental sustainability, gender empowerment and social progress.</p>
<h2>Shea policies</h2>
<p>These benefits are not all being realised, however.</p>
<p>Structural adjustment reforms were implemented in Ghana in the late 1980s and early 1990s to address economic woes. The shea export policy devised within that framework has been <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-modern-african-studies/article/abs/market-reforms-and-the-state-the-case-of-shea-in-ghana/E0584FCC3B95AF6A2026A14F7840C4F8">identified</a> as a watershed moment for the problems inherent in the industry. The state’s involvement in the economy was reduced, and this created the conditions for continued gender inequality and exploitation. The plight of women in the shea industry was not helped, either, by long-held gender norms and cultural underpinnings in northern Ghana.</p>
<p>Successive governments and institutions over the years have sought to revamp the industry through regulatory policies and interventions. A chapter of my <a href="https://sun.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma998897791203436&context=L&vid=27US_INST:27US_V1&lang=en&search_scope=Combined&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,shea%20butter&offset=0">PhD thesis</a> conducted in 2017 analysing the yearly budget statements from 2002 to 2017 noted the government’s knowledge of the persistent challenges of rural women. </p>
<p>These challenges relate to quality control and standardisation. Others are the lack of fair-trade practices, limited access to direct markets and resources, and challenges in land tenure and resource management. </p>
<p>Liberalising the shea market was expected to promote economic growth through reducing trade barriers and encouraging foreign investment. However, a downside was the breakdown of social contracts, leading to a “gold rush” mentality that prevails when there are no structures and regulations.</p>
<p>The 2008 <a href="http://gis4agricgh.net/POLICIES/GHANA'S%20TREE%20CROPS%20POLICY.pdf">Tree Crops Policy</a> was supposed to support agricultural growth, rural development and food security. A <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/COCOBOD-opens-Shea-office-amale-676131">Shea Unit</a> under the <a href="https://cocobod.gh/">Ghana Cocoa Board</a> was formed in 2011 to develop strategy for the sector. This unit was expected to become a Shea Development Board, responsible for introducing effective production, post-production and marketing initiatives. But it remains under the cocoa board. </p>
<p>The shea industry over time has been a niche where middlemen and women buy shea from rural women at low prices. Price negotiations are done on behalf of rural women on a mostly informal contractual basis. A chapter of my <a href="https://sun.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma998897791203436&context=L&vid=27US_INST:27US_V1&lang=en&search_scope=Combined&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,shea%20butter&offset=0">PhD thesis</a> analysing the cost structure and assigning a value to the unpaid labour of rural women reported the profit margin of a shea nut picker as Gh₵ 8.82 (66 US cents) while a middleman earned Gh₵ 49.5 (US$4) on a 100kg bag of shea nuts. Similarly, a shea butter extractor earned Gh₵ 1.92 (8 cents) while a middleman earned Gh₵ 63.42 (US$6) on a 25kg box of shea butter.</p>
<p>This is aptly captured in an interview:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are always here and we see people troop in for them (shea butter). Because
we don’t understand the English language they always request for Madam. She
directs us to sell to them at a certain amount. We don’t know the buyers. They
are those bringing them, we will just be sitting, and they will tell you that they are to buy shea, there is a buyer in, we will not even see the person. She is going to negotiate with the buyer till they finish buying.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Shea business model</h2>
<p>Even with the best of intentions, desired policy objectives can’t always be reached. It’s necessary to analyse why.</p>
<p>Empowering rural women shea actors to make choices and to transform those choices to desired outcomes must start by recognising them as knowledge producers and involve them as knowledge contributors in policies. Ghana needs to bring all the players in the shea industry together to develop a business model. Primary producers, middlemen, sourcing companies and government should collaborate. </p>
<p>Drawing from <a href="https://www.scirp.org/%28S%28351jmbntvnsjt1aadkposzje%29%29/reference/referencespapers.aspx?referenceid=2591801">lessons</a> on the marketing of cocoa in Ghana, this model should focus on:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>regulation of ceiling and floor prices of shea nuts and butter</p></li>
<li><p>promoting community-based rural producer groups</p></li>
<li><p>capacity building</p></li>
<li><p>quality improvement</p></li>
<li><p>preserving the shea landscape. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>There is also a need for a government instituted shea body to enforce a regulatory framework on the licensing and registration of activities and the promotion of partnerships between actors in the shea supply chain. It’s very important for the various stakeholders to keep working together to minimise undesirable effects of proposed interventions.</p>
<p>Shea is indeed golden. But there are real people living with the impact of weak institutional structures and policy frameworks. The most affected are rural women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abiba Yayah was previously funded by the Trans-disciplinary Training for Resource Efficiency and Climate Change Adaptation in Africa II INTRA-ACP (TRECCAFRICA II). She is currently being funded for a Postdoctoral Fellowship by The Mark Grosjean Post-doctoral Fellow in Political Science at the University of Calgary.</span></em></p>Shea is a key economic crop for poor women in the northern parts of Ghana.Abiba Yayah, Postdoctoral Associate, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2169332023-11-13T21:21:44Z2023-11-13T21:21:44ZQuébec’s summer 2023 wildfires were the most devastating in 50 years. Is the worst yet to come?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557286/original/file-20231027-23-ya6je6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C6%2C2032%2C1066&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Forest fires were mostly started by lightning. Their spread was then exacerbated by a lack of precipitation and abnormally high temperatures.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Victor Danneyrolles)</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After a summer of exceptional wildfires, the return of cooler temperatures and snowy conditions will provide Québec’s forests a brief respite. </p>
<p>But how long will it last? Are events like these <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/quebec-climate-change-wildfires-research-1.6943502">destined to become more frequent?</a></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524152/original/file-20230503-20-rp105s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524152/original/file-20230503-20-rp105s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524152/original/file-20230503-20-rp105s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524152/original/file-20230503-20-rp105s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524152/original/file-20230503-20-rp105s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524152/original/file-20230503-20-rp105s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524152/original/file-20230503-20-rp105s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>This article is part of <em>La Conversation Canada’s</em> series <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca-fr/topics/foret-boreale-138017">The boreal forest: A thousand secrets, a thousand dangers</a></strong></p>
<p><br><em>La Conversation Canada invites you to take a virtual walk in the heart of the boreal forest. In this series, our experts focus on management and sustainable development issues, natural disturbances, the ecology of terrestrial wildlife and aquatic ecosystems, northern agriculture and the cultural and economic importance of the boreal forest for Indigenous peoples. We hope you have a pleasant — and informative — walk through the forest!</em></p>
<hr>
<p>As experts in disturbance dynamics occurring in the boreal environment, we are assessing the fires that occurred in Québec in 2023 to provide insights into their causes and consequences.</p>
<h2>Millions of hectares affected</h2>
<p>According to Québec’s <a href="https://sopfeu.qc.ca/en/">Société de protection des forêts contre le feu</a> (Society for the protection of forests against fire, SOPFEU), nearly 700 fires have burned approximately 5.1 million hectares (equivalent to the territory size of Costa Rica), both north and south of the northern forest limit designated by the province — or the boundary that separates northern Québec forests from the southern forests, where logging is conducted.</p>
<p>At the beginning of October, fifteen of the fires that had started in the summer were still active in western Québec. Three of them, although contained, had burned a total of almost 700,000 hectares within the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/canadian-province-of-quebec-looks-for-international-support-to-fight-over-160-wildfires">intensive protection zone</a>, where the SOPFEU systematically fights all fires. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://sopfeu.qc.ca/lintervention-de-la-sopfeu-dans-les-differentes-zones-de-protection/">northern zone</a>, twelve fires were still under surveillance, some not exceeding 20 hectares, others covering more than a million hectares. Out of the total area burned in 2023 in Québec, three-quarters (3.8 million hectares) were in the northern zone. South of the 50th parallel, within the intensive protection zone, approximately 1.4 million hectares burned, which is more than 80 times the annual average of the past ten years.</p>
<p>When we compare the 2023 fire season to <a href="https://www.donneesquebec.ca/recherche/dataset/feux-de-foret">datasets available since the 1970s</a>, it becomes quite clear that this year was unusual compared to recent decades. Yet, although these fires are impressive and difficult to contain, they are still within the range of “natural variability” observed in previous centuries.</p>
<p>Several <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/WF22090">studies</a> have shown that particularly intense fire cycles were common in Québec during the period from 1910-1920. These were even more common in the 18th and 19th centuries when warm and dry climatic conditions were particularly conducive to forest fires.</p>
<h2>Exceptional weather conditions</h2>
<p>Like historic forest fires, fire outbreaks in Québec in 2023 were fuelled by <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-more-than-doubled-the-likelihood-of-extreme-fire-weather-conditions-in-eastern-canada/">intense weather conditions</a>. Starting in June, after an already dry month of May, a significant increase in fires was observed in the intensive protection zone. The northern zone was affected throughout the three summer months.</p>
<p>These fires were mainly started by lightning. Their spread was then exacerbated by low precipitation and abnormally high temperatures. <a href="https://www.environnement.gouv.qc.ca/climat/faits-saillants/2023/juin.htm">Temperatures exceeded the 1981-2010 average for the month of June by 2.3°C</a>, setting a record for the warmest June recorded in Québec in at least a hundred years.</p>
<p>These exceptional weather conditions were partly influenced by the El Niño phenomenon, a cyclical warming of the Pacific Ocean known for its impact on terrestrial weather conditions. The trend continued into July, which witnessed exceptionally high average temperatures, well above normal (+2.7°C).</p>
<h2>Multiple consequences</h2>
<p>The simultaneous outbreak of numerous fires and their rapid spread have had multiple effects on wildlife, forests, the climate, and human populations.</p>
<p>The fires have altered the structure and composition of vegetation, causing disruption to wildlife habitats as well as <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-wildfires-destabilize-quebec-wildlife-1.6867744">displacement and mortality among animals</a>. As a result, the hunting, fishing and harvesting territories of Indigenous communities have been affected.</p>
<p>In addition to representing a direct threat to public safety, the smoke from the fires caused respiratory problems, leading to <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9791853/quebec-wildfires-more-evacuations-ordered/">the evacuation of thousands of people in several regions of Québec</a>. The deterioration in air quality was felt not only across Canada and the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65828469">United States</a>, but also as far as <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/nasa-quebec-fire-smoke-europe-1.6890108">Europe</a>. Fortunately, evacuations were carried out in time, and casualties were avoided. However, there was some material damage.</p>
<p>In terms of their impact on the climate, large fires released several megatons of carbon dioxide stored in trees and soils, <a href="https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/er-2013-0062">contributing to an increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases</a> (CO<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>4</sub>).</p>
<p>While the fires have had significant consequences, <a href="https://theconversation.com/forest-fires-north-americas-boreal-forests-are-burning-a-lot-but-less-than-150-years-ago-201365">they can sometimes be beneficial for certain organisms</a>. We can consider tree species like jack pine, which depend on fires for regeneration, and numerous animal species that thrive in burned forests.</p>
<h2>What can we expect in the future?</h2>
<p>Québec’s forests have been burning and regenerating cyclically for millennia. However, it is imperative to recognize that these cycles can evolve over time.</p>
<p>The 2023 fire season highlights the urgency of preparing for significant changes in disturbance dynamics, including the possibility of such events recurring more frequently.</p>
<p>As climate change progresses, periods of drought could become more frequent if precipitation fails to compensate for rising temperatures, as observed in the 20th century.</p>
<p>This combination of factors increases the likelihood of an increase in the number, size, and intensity of wildfires.</p>
<p>Such changes threaten the natural regeneration of forests and could lead to the formation of treeless areas, victims of too frequent fires <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2024872118">for vegetation to have time to regenerate</a>.</p>
<p>These conditions could also be exacerbated by the continued expansion of logging. <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-as-canadas-boreal-forests-burn-again-and-again-they-wont-grow-back-the/">Preliminary analyses</a> have shown that more than 300,000 hectares of forests burned in 2023 may not regenerate, mainly due to the effects of logging in recent decades.</p>
<p>The consequences of major forest fires highlight the climate challenges we face. They demonstrate the need to develop mitigation and adaptation measures aimed at protecting vulnerable forest ecosystems and their inhabitants.</p>
<p>It is therefore imperative to learn lessons from the 2023 fire season to strengthen the resilience of forests and communities to climate change and limit damages caused by fires. This involves reducing risk, protecting the most vulnerable areas, and raising awareness among local populations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216933/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yves Bergeron received funding from FRQNT, NSERC and MNRF.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dorian M. Gaboriau, Jonathan Lesven et Victor Danneyrolles ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur poste universitaire.</span></em></p>The forest fires of the summer of 2023 in Québec were devastating. It was the worst year in 50 years. But with climate change, the worst may be yet to come.Dorian M. Gaboriau, Postdoctorant en paléoécologie, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT)Jonathan Lesven, Doctorant en paléoécologie, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT)Victor Danneyrolles, Professeur-chercheur en écologie forestière, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)Yves Bergeron, Professeur écologie et aménagement forestier, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166432023-11-13T19:46:13Z2023-11-13T19:46:13ZFire is consuming more than ever of the world’s forests, threatening supplies of wood and paper<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558977/original/file-20231112-27-mgtyva.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C11%2C3843%2C2573&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Lindenmayer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A third of the world’s forests are cut for timber. This generates <a href="https://doi.org/10.4060/cb9360en">US$1.5 trillion annually</a>. But
wildfire threatens industries such as timber milling and paper manufacturing, and the threat is far greater than most people realise.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-023-01323-y">Our research</a>, published today in the journal Nature Geoscience, shows that between 2001 and 2021, severe wildfires worldwide destroyed timber-producing forests equivalent to an area the size of Great Britain. Severe fires reach the tree tops and consume the forest canopy.</p>
<p>The amount of timber-producing forest burning each year in severe wildfires has increased significantly in the past decade. The western United States, Canada, Siberia, Brazil and Australia have been most affected.</p>
<p>Timber demand is expected to almost triple by 2050. Supplying demand is clearly going to be challenging. Our research highlights the need to urgently adopt new management strategies and emerging technologies to combat the increasing threat of wildfires.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-planet-is-burning-in-unexpected-ways-heres-how-we-can-protect-people-and-nature-213215">Our planet is burning in unexpected ways - here’s how we can protect people and nature</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>We combined global maps of logging activity and severe wildfires to determine how much timber-producing forest was lost to wildfire this century. Between 2001 and 2021, up to 25 million hectares of timber-producing forest was severely burned. The extent of fire has jumped markedly in the past decade, from an average of less than one million hectares a year up to 2015 to triple that since then. </p>
<p>At a national scale, the three countries with the largest absolute wildfire-induced losses of timber-producing forest were Russia, the US and Canada. When it comes to proportion of their forestry land lost, the nations with the highest percentages burnt were Portugal, followed by Australia. </p>
<h2>Why are more forests burning?</h2>
<p>Climate change is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27225-40">major driver of fire weather and fire behaviour</a>. The increased risk of high-severity wildfire is an entirely expected outcome of warmer temperatures and, in some places, reduced rainfall. </p>
<p>However, it remains unclear why so much wood-production forest is being lost, and why the increase in burnt area has been so marked in the past decade. </p>
<p>One possible reason is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12122">logging makes forests more flammable</a>. This has been documented in parts of southeastern Australia, where intact forest always <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01717-y">burnt at lower severity than harvested forest</a> across the entire footprint of the Black Summer fires. Forests that have been subject to thinning also are <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/aec.13096">at risk of high-severity wildfire</a>. </p>
<h2>What does this mean for us?</h2>
<p>Whatever the reason, it is clear these fires in wood-production forests will have profound impacts on global timber supplies and all the industries associated with them. This is a huge problem for society and the environment, because timber demand is expected to triple by 2050, in part to facilitate the transition away from carbon-intensive cement in construction. </p>
<p>In many parts of the world, it typically takes 80–100 years or even longer to grow a tree to a size at which it can be a sawlog for products like furniture and floorboards. So the increased frequency of high-severity wildfire means fewer areas of forest <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/WF20129">will escape fire for long enough</a> to reach timber harvesting age. </p>
<p>This is especially problematic where logging makes forests more prone to burning in a high-severity wildfire.</p>
<p>Furthermore, given the long-term nature of timber production, typically on cutting cycles ranging from 40 years to more than a century, future timber crops will face a very different climate as they mature. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558979/original/file-20231112-17-1qsmgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo of a timber production forest that has been burnt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558979/original/file-20231112-17-1qsmgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558979/original/file-20231112-17-1qsmgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558979/original/file-20231112-17-1qsmgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558979/original/file-20231112-17-1qsmgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558979/original/file-20231112-17-1qsmgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558979/original/file-20231112-17-1qsmgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558979/original/file-20231112-17-1qsmgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Timber production forests such as this, near Marysville in Victoria, are burning before they reach maturity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Lindenmayer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-tasmania-and-victoria-dominate-the-list-of-australias-largest-trees-and-why-these-majestic-giants-are-under-threat-200276">Why Tasmania and Victoria dominate the list of Australia's largest trees – and why these majestic giants are under threat</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Responding to the challenge</h2>
<p>If wood production from forests becomes increasing costly and timber is increasingly hard to source, there may be more pressure from industry and government to log other places, such as tropical forests, with high biodiversity and conservation value. </p>
<p>One way to tackle the problem is to grow more timber in plantations. Plantations already produce <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112722006351">a third of the main forms of wood-producing timber</a> – called industrial roundwood. They do this from just 3% of the area of natural forests. </p>
<p>Well managed plantations can grow a successful timber crop within a couple of decades. This is a lot shorter than the many decades and sometimes even centuries required to grow sawlogs in native forests. Having a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2022.120641">shorter growing time in plantations</a> increases the chances of harvesting trees before they are destroyed in a wildfire. </p>
<p>But plantations, like some logged and regenerated native forests, can be highly flammable. Fire risks need to be carefully managed. That includes planning, to avoid putting neighbouring areas and human communities at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2022.120641">greater risk of being burnt</a>. </p>
<p>Another key strategy to better protect timber resources will be to adopt new technologies to more quickly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade4721">detect and then rapidly suppress ignitions</a> such as those originating from lightning strikes. </p>
<p>Big fires start as small fires. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.5849/forsci.10-096">best time to suppress fires is when they are small</a>, and as soon as ignition occurs. We have been involved in the development of drone fleets and unmanned aerial water and fire suppressant dispensing craft to more quickly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade4721">detect and extinguish wildfires</a>. </p>
<p>New technologies, as well as more, better planned and managed plantations will be crucial in not only protecting forests, but also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade4721">safeguarding the flow of marketable timber</a> and the industries dependent upon them. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-climate-change-is-bringing-bushfires-more-often-but-some-ecosystems-in-australia-are-suffering-the-most-211683">Yes, climate change is bringing bushfires more often. But some ecosystems in Australia are suffering the most</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216643/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Lindenmayer receives funding from the Australian Government and the Victorian Government. He is a Councillor in the Biodiversity Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Bousfield received funding for this research from the Natural Environment Research Council, UK.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Edwards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Satellite data shows wildfires are destroying large areas of timber-producing forests around the world. These fires are becoming more destructive with each passing year.David Lindenmayer, Professor, The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National UniversityChris Bousfield, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of CambridgeDavid Edwards, Professor, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.