Sophisticated models and supercomputers allow researchers to create a high-fidelity map of the Earth’s trees – and show that we’re losing billions of trees a year.
One more California wildfire from last year: getting more dangerous and more expensive.
usfsregion5/flickr
The US West – suffering one of the most damaging wildfire seasons this decade – needs to break with current practices to avert more costly and dangerous wildfires in the future.
High and dry: a water-stressed forest in the US Southwest.
Leander Anderegg
The Renewable Energy Target now includes wood waste from forestry. But a more sustainable use of Australia’s native forests would be to leave them alone and earn carbon credits from the avoided emissions.
Biomass will help meet Australia’s renewable energy target.
David Cootes
The outcry over the government’s plan to allow wood burning from native forests under the revamped Renewable Energy Target belies the fact that woodchips can be useful and sustainable if harvested responsibly.
Healthier than meat, more resilient than crops.
Erik Hersman
With most of the world’s potential farmland already in use, it may be time to start foraging.
Growth industry: forestry will account for much of the carbon reductions under the first round of Emissions Reduction Fund contracts.
CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons
James Whitmore, The Conversation; Michael Hopkin, The Conversation, and Emil Jeyaratnam, The Conversation
The first round of contracts for Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund have been awarded, at an average price of just under A$14 a tonne. How do the numbers stack up, and what projects are the big winners?
Leadbeater’s Possum is dependent on large, old trees that produce hollows for its survival.
David Lindemayer
The Leadbeater’s has been formally listed as critically endangered. But unless clearfelling in the possums’ stronghold stops, it will continue down the road of extinction.
Regional Forest Agreements were supposed to give certainty to both loggers and conservationists. But they haven’t.
Pengo/Wikimedia Commons
The 20-year-old agreements that are supposed to safeguard much of Australia’s forests, are not working. Now they are up for renewal, and it’s time for a complete rethink, writes David Lindenmayer.
Observations from space have shown the world overall is getting greener despite deforestation and drought.
Carl Davies/CSIRO
A new investigation of satellite records reveals that the Earth is getting greener, despite ongoing deforestation in Indonesia and South America.
Criminals the lot of them: that is what people who stand against government plans ‘to rebuild Tasmania’s forestry industry’ could become under the new anti-protest law.
The Workplaces (Protection from Protesters) Bill – locally known as the “anti-protest” bill – was passed by Tasmanian parliament late on Tuesday night. The law was introduced as part of the government’s…
Logging has left Victoria’s mountain ash forests in danger of collapse.
David Blair
Whoever wins power in Victoria’s election tomorrow will no doubt have a long to-do list. Here’s an urgent item: protect the mountain ash forests of the state’s Central Highlands. We have discovered that…
Annual forest fires create one of Indonesia’s mounting number of environmental problems.
EPA/Azwar
Indonesia, one of the biggest forest destroyers in the world, is merging the country’s environment and forestry ministries, to the alarm of some local activists. Activist are concerned that the merger…
The repeal could pave the way for logging in Tasmania’s tall forests, after a six-year moratorium.
TTaylor/Wikimedia Commons
Tasmania’s government has repealed the state’s forestry “peace deal”, removing around 400,000 hectares of forests from reserves across the state and potentially leaving them open to future logging. The…
The Green Army will plant lots of trees: good for mopping up carbon, but not always good for water catchments.
Britta Campion/AAPImage
Should we pick and choose our climate strategies based on how water-wise they are? As our new research published in Climatic Change shows, some activities aimed at tackling greenhouse emissions can also…
Parts of Tasmania’s World Heritage area will not be delisted – but the forests will still need management and protection.
ngaur/Flickr
Tom Fairman, The University of Melbourne and Rod Keenan, The University of Melbourne
The 74,000 hectares of Tasmania’s controversial World Heritage extension will not be delisted as requested by the Tasmanian and federal governments. At the meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee…
Although it may seem counter-intuitive, it would be better if we built buildings from wood than from concrete, brick, aluminium and steel. We use millions of tonnes of these modern materials every year…
Much of Tasmania’s World Heritage has been sculpted by ice. The extension to the area (currently under debate) adds to all these values.
Simon Lieschke/Flickr
The debate around Tasmania’s controversial World Heritage extension, under review this week at international talks in Doha, has centred on forests. But the area includes far more than “just” trees — including…
Cattle drovers have won back the right to graze livestock in the Australian Alps - against scientists’ advice.
AAP Image/Bob Richardson
From reef dredging, to shark culling, to opening old-growth forests to logging, environmental policies are leaving Australia’s wildlife exposed to threats. The reason, we propose, is that society and government…