Forests

Analysis and Comment (43)

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If deforestation is cut down, the world’s forests could act as a large net sink for carbon emissions. Flickr/sobriquet.net

Explainer: how much carbon can the world’s forests absorb?

By Peter Reich, University of Western Sydney

You are walking through the bush when you see an enormous tree trunk, tens of metres long, lying across the forest floor. Imagine you and several dozen friends lifting it by hand. Now you’ve literally…
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Forests and forestry are both important to Victorians: the government should keep an eye on them. lizardstomp/Flickr

Victorian law change abandons native forests to loggers

By Lisa Caripis, University of Melbourne

At the end of this month, the Victorian Parliament is expected to pass a Bill giving industry long-term control of timber resources in Victoria’s native forests. The government says the changes are important…
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Any agreement to end the forest ‘wars’ should neither prop up a failing industry nor shut down dissent. AAP Image/Matthew Newton

Tasmanian Forests Agreement: liberal society needs an alternative

By Andrew Macintosh

Fred Gale’s article, Tasmanian Forests Agreement: deeply flawed, worth backing, provides interesting insights into the views of one segment of the Tasmanian community that supports the Tasmanian Forest…
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Whose opinion of this forest is most important? The Tasmanian Forests Agreement has decided. Sarah Caulfield

Tasmanian Forests Agreement: deeply flawed, worth backing

By Fred Gale, University of Tasmania

On April 30 2013, Tasmania’s Parliament passed the Tasmanian Forests Agreement, with the aim of ending one of the world’s longest-running forestry conflicts. The deal “locks up” a further half-million…
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Giant eucalypts like this swamp gum (Eucalyptus regnans) tower over an understory of rainforest plants, and are dependent on fire for their survival. Flickr/freelancing god

We need to think about fire in Tasmania’s forests

By David Bowman, University of Tasmania

Forest activist Miranda Gibson’s 15-month stay up a giant eucalypt has been interrupted by bushfire. Meanwhile Tasmania’s forestry peace deal, now being considered in the state’s upper house, has drawn…
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Victoria’s alpine forest is burning more often, changing the landscape and reducing its ability to store carbon. AAP Image/Australian Workers Union

Ash to ashes – what could the 2013 fires mean for the future of our forests?

By Tom Fairman, University of Melbourne

In the high country of Victoria, firefighters are presently battling a large bushfire that is moving through the forests south of Harrietville and past the second highest mountain in Victoria, Mt. Feathertop…
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Logging of Mountain Ash doesn’t make the sustainable forestry grade. lizardstomp/Flickr

Victorian forestry is definitely not ecologically sustainable

By David Lindenmayer

By any scientific yardstick, forestry operations in Victoria cannot be regarded as ecologically sustainable. Much of the attention of politicians, policy makers and the general public has been on the tall…
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If Victoria keeps logging the way it is, the Leadbeater’s Possum is doomed. ccdoh1/flickr

Sending Leadbeater’s Possum down the road to extinction

By David Lindenmayer

We have studied the effects of current widespread clear-felling in Victoria’s Mountain ash forests for almost three decades. Clear-felling now loses large amounts of money for the state of Victoria, degrades…
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Foresters and farmers have an 8000-year history of dealing with climate variation and providing food and provisions – they may have climate change solutions. Ollivier Girard/CIFOR

Climate change action needs forests and farms working together

By Peter Holmgren, Centre for International Forestry Research

The UNFCCC COP-18 in Doha worked overtime to finally agree not to disagree. The Secretariat was quick to make a release that declares success and highlights four results: Amendment of the Kyoto Protocol…
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Research is clear on the value of the Tarkine’s rainforest, but does it matter to human society? Rob Blakers

Tarkine a question of values: mines versus ancient rainforest

By Jamie Kirkpatrick, University of Tasmania

In Australia, we ride on the open cut mine’s back. In the island state of Tasmania, there is a medium size-class open cut mine (928 hectares) with 210 hectares of settling ponds, from which iron nodules…
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Sure, the Tasmanian Forests Agreement isn’t perfect, but do you have a more sustainable way to stop the forest wars? Matthew Newton/AAP

Give sustainability a chance: Tasmanian Forests Agreement in perspective

By Fred Gale, University of Tasmania

The signatories to the Tasmanian Forests Agreement (TFA) have spent more than two years trying to square the circle of forest conflict in Tasmania. The deal they brokered deserves prima facie respect…
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Brigalow trees are vital for soil health and erosion control. They’re only just recovering from 19th century clearing. Why does the Queensland Government have it in for them? Arthur Chapman

Queensland land-clearing changes threaten trees farmers need

By Kat Grigg and Jason Halford

The Queensland State Government has recently proposed changes to the Vegetation Management Act 1999. Under the planned reforms, landowners will be able to clear and thin out vegetation using self-assessable…
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Bumping into a jaguar in Mexico’s cloud forest could soon be a thing of the past. Kjersti Holmang/Wikimedia Commons

Head in the clouds: reserves won’t save Mexico’s forest

By Rocio Ponce-Reyes

The chances of being roared at by a jaguar in a Mexican cloud forest are already low, but that is precisely what happened to me during a recent fieldwork expedition. I was very lucky to see a jaguar close…
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The recent climate-related deaths of tracts of Western Australian forest go beyond a green issue. George Matusick

Western Australia’s catastrophic forest collapse

By George Matusick, Murdoch University; Giles Hardy, Murdoch University, and Katinka Ruthrof, Murdoch University

Recent, unprecedented, climate-driven forest collapses in Western Australia show us that ecosystem change can be sudden, dramatic and catastrophic. These collapses are a clear signal that we must develop…
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Knocking down forests and planting palm oil makes sense in Asia. Providing alternative income sources for villagers could make it less attractive. Simon J. Rowntree

Forestry, economic development & climate change in Asia: resolving the tension

By Paul McShane, Monash University

Reducing poverty in developing countries through economic development is often contrary to addressing climate change. In countries like Indonesia, many of the strongest drivers of the economy – palm oil…
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Land of the snow gums: Australian forests are dynamic. Flickr/SplaTT

Australia’s vast and dynamic forest cover: a bird’s-eye view

By Rod Keenan, University of Melbourne

Forests spark emotional debates in Australia. Much of the rhetoric is about saving “the last of Tasmania’s wild forests” or how we must “stop logging in Australian native forests”. Australian forests…
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Negotiations are easier if activists are left out, but the results won’t last. Rainforest Action Network

An agreement no one agrees on: Tasmanian forest solution in crisis

By Fred Gale, University of Tasmania

The Tasmanian forests agreement is hanging by a thread. Political parties have reverted to their old adversarial ways, people who should be getting a say have been excluded from the process, and the large…
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There are dark days ahead for Australian forests if renewable energy plan gets the nod. jwbenwell/Flickr

Oakeshott’s call for wood-powered electricity means more logging

By Judith Ajani

We are poised at a pivotal moment for native forests, the wood products industry and climate change. Australia is moving away from a damaging native forestry industry – and a damaging conflict over its…
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Food comes from forests: surely that’s worth talking about? CIFOR

Ignoring forests won’t bring Rio+20’s ‘future we want’

By Louis Verchot, Centre for International Forestry Research

In June 2012 around 40,000 participants are expected to attend one of the most important environmental gatherings in a generation – Rio+20. A draft agenda has been released, bearing the slogan “The Future…
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Could more plantations help reduce emissions? It depends if they’re done right. esagor

Forest carbon and the Durban climate conference

By Tim Cadman, Griffith University

DURBAN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE: One of the topics under discussion at Durban is the role carbon farming and other forestry measures could have in reducing emissions. With the possibility that negotiations…
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Primary forest is best for biodiversity, but we should also look at second-best. cknara/Flickr

Original and the best: nothing beats primary forests for biodiversity

By Bill Laurance, James Cook University

We live in an age of vanishing rainforests. Half of the world’s tropical forests have disappeared since World War II and roughly another 10 million hectares are being felled each year — the equivalent…
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In the game of economic and environmental chess, Gunns’s position is looking precarious. ChessAmmo.com

Gunns heading for its Tasmanian endgame

By Fred Gale, University of Tasmania

In chess, the endgame takes place when only a handful of pieces are left on the board. In close games, the players must select the best move available to avoid being checkmated. Gunns – Tasmania’s “forest…
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The peace package will have to work hard to bring forestry workers into the modern economy. Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Can Tasmania’s forest deal secure ‘peace’ for workers?

By Jacki Schirmer, University of Canberra

The recently announced $276 million Tasmanian forest agreement agreement sets out to end the war between loggers and conservationists. But the war has been bitter, and forest industry workers have often…
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Certifying timber gives some level of certainty that forest products are sustainable. CIFOR/Flickr

Forest certification: a small step towards sustainability

By Phillip Lawrence

It can be hard to know whether the forest products you buy have been produced sustainably. Forestry certifications were established to give a bit more certainty, but what do they really mean? When you…
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The trees are falling, but is anyone listening? NatureNut3/flickr

The Tasmanian Forest Agreement: too close to collapse?

By Fred Gale, University of Tasmania

Political scientists now commonly distinguish between ‘government’ and ‘governance’. The former refers to a hierarchical institution while the latter captures the idea of a general process of social steering…
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Planting trees on farmland can offset emissions, but does it add up? Fabio Strozzi/flickr

Trees or crops: will carbon farming be the end of agriculture?

By Phil Polglase, CSIRO

Planting trees in cleared agricultural landscapes is one way for the land use sector to help offset emissions of atmospheric carbon dioxide. But will it displace agriculture? Establishing trees is a robust…
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Will the prematurely released Agreement bring peace in Tasmania’s forest wars? Rainforest Action Network/flickr

Deal or no deal? Reflections on Tasmania’s forest agreement

By Fred Gale, University of Tasmania

A great deal of head scratching will take place in Canberra and Hobart in the coming days as politicians and bureaucrats try to make sense of last week’s Signatories Agreement for Tasmania’s forests…
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Who wouldn’t walk away from an agreement that locks Tasmania into a backward future? ialla/Flickr

Pulping Tasmania’s future

By Peter Kanowski

The peace talks underway about Tasmania’s forests are as rich in ironies and paradoxes as Tasmania’s old-growth forests are in carbon. The current direction of the peace talks locks Tasmania into a pulpwood…
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What all the fighting is for. epidemiks/Flickr

Is the Tasmanian forest agreement collapsing?

By Fred Gale, University of Tasmania

On 18 May 2011, The Wilderness Society suspended its participation in Tasmania’s forest peace talks. Is this the beginning of the end for these negotiations? Perhaps, but only because the solution emerging…
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Trees provide services to cities that far outstrip their cost. Tim Parkinson/flickr

Sustainable cities need trees, not freeways

By Jamie Kirkpatrick, University of Tasmania

As we worry about where we will put Australia’s ever-increasing population, urban trees are becoming collateral damage. So how much are our trees worth to us? According to Melbourne City Council, they…

Research Briefs (23)

Climate linked with bark beetle outbreaks

US Forest Service and University of Idaho

An increase in mountain pine beetle outbreaks in North America has been linked with climate change. A study of the number…

Goats in trees threaten Moroccan forests

University of California Davis

Abedellah Aboudrare/Ecole Nationale d'Agriculture photo The increasing demand for Morocco’s edible argan oil is providing…

A canopy view of climate change

University of Nottingham

A touring art installation has used real-time data collected from the canopies of trees to raise awareness about the environmental…

Carbon released from forest growth

University of Cambridge

Dead plant material known as litterfall provides energy to soil microorganisms, leading to a release of stored soil carbon…

Participants (238)