Forests: An Endangered Resource

[kassy]

Scientists discover what types of forests store CO2 best

Forests help mitigate carbon dioxide emissions by capturing it. To make the most of this natural phenomenon, an international team of scientists led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has defined which types of forests can store the most carbon and under what conditions.

...

Two opposing hypotheses are at the basis of their work.

A first hypothesis suggests that species diversity would allow for denser stacking and niche compartmentalisation that would favour the abundance of trees within a forest. This abundance would increase the forest’s carbon storage capacity.

According to the other hypothesis, it is not diversity that allows tree abundance but the availability of energy substrate. Areas with higher energy content allow more trees to thrive per unit area and thus increase carbon recapture.

In order to determine which hypothesis is most likely, the researchers used inventory data from forests on five continents. Their conclusion is clear: species diversity is optimal for equatorial and tropical rainforests, but in forests in cold or dry regions it is the abundance of trees rather than their diversity that favours CO2 recapture.

...

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/scientists-discover-what-types-of-forests-store-co2-best/46161820

[kassy]

B.C. just cut back logging limits on Haida Gwaii. But is it enough to protect these ancient, carbon-rich forests?

B.C.’s chief forester has cut back logging limits on Haida Gwaii, protecting goshawk nesting habitat and cedar for Indigenous cultural use, but critics are calling for a moratorium on harvesting some of the world’s most carbon-rich forests.

The archipelago of more than 150 islands off B.C.’s northwest coast is home to ancient cedar, spruce and hemlock forests and many plants and animals not found anywhere else. Its incredible biodiversity has earned it the moniker “the Galapagos of the North.”

Decades of intensive logging on the archipelago decimated those forests and led to conflicts that ultimately resulted in the 1988 establishment of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site, a protected area of nearly 1,500 square kilometres. But beyond the boundaries of the conservation area and other protected areas on the islands, clearcut logging continues.

Lisa White-Kuuyang, a Haida weaver from Old Masset and long-time advocate for protecting old-growth forests on the islands, said continuing to clear cut Haida Gwaii forests threatens Haida culture and the sustainability of the archipelago’s unique ecosystem.

“The disrespectful devastation to the land is not acceptable,” she told The Narwhal.

Suzanne Simard, a forest ecologist and professor at the University of British Columbia, agreed.

“These super-rich carbon areas from Northern California to Alaska should be just de facto preserved if we have any hope at all of trying to meet our global carbon targets,” she said. “As soon as we start cutting these forests, it’s like we’re just blowing a big hole into our ability to meet any of that.”

Last month’s decision by B.C.’s chief forester set the total annual allowable cut for the three main commercial logging areas on Haida Gwaii at 776,000 cubic metres, enough to fill 20,000 logging trucks. Those trees will come from 15 per cent of the archipelago and most of them will come from old-growth forests. The majority of the trees cut on Haida Gwaii are shipped by barge to mills on the Lower Mainland or directly overseas.

and more on:
https://thenarwhal.ca/haida-gwaii-bc-logging-limits-2020/

[gerontocrat]

Indonesia has not treated the Melanesians of Papua well. The forest destruction is but one example.

And even the Forestry Stewardhip Commission (FSC)  is a bad joke. My brother, a good few years back, was in the Philippines having set up a Forestry NGO there (occasionally a dangerous occupation). He always reckoned that the FSC existed mainly to provide cover to the bad guys.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-54798452
The burning scar: Inside the destruction of Asia’s last rainforests

A Korean palm oil giant has been buying up swathes of Asia's largest remaining rainforests. A visual investigation published today suggests fires have been deliberately set on the land.

The rich forests in the remote province of Papua had until recently escaped relatively untouched, but the government is now rapidly opening the area to investors, vowing to bring prosperity to one of the poorest regions in the country. Korindo controls more land in Papua than any other conglomerate. The company has cleared nearly 60,000 hectares of forests inside its government-granted concessions - an area the size of Chicago or Seoul - and the company's vast plantation there is protected by state security forces.

Many of the tribal allegations against Korindo were investigated for two years by the Forest Stewardship Council. The regulator's tree logo - found on paper products throughout the UK and Europe - is meant to tell consumers the product is sourced from ethnically and sustainable companies. The FSC report into allegations against Korindo was never published, after legal threats from the company, but the BBC obtained a copy.

The report found "evidence beyond reasonable doubt" that Korindo's palm oil operation destroyed 30,000 hectares of high conservation forest in breach of FSC regulations; that Korindo was, "on the balance of probability … supporting the violation of traditional and human rights for its own benefit"; and was "directly benefitting from the military presence to gain an unfair economic advantage" by "providing unfair compensation rates to communities".

"There was no doubt that Korindo had been in violation of our rules. That was very clear," Kim Carstensen, the FSC's executive director, told the BBC at the group's headquarters in Germany.

The report recommended unequivocally that Korindo be expelled from the body. But the recommendation was rejected by the FSC board - a move environmental groups say undermined the credibility of the organisation. A letter sent to the FSC board in August, signed by 19 local environmental groups, said the groups could no long rely on the body "to be a useful certification tool to promote forest conservation and respect for community rights and livelihoods".

Mr Carstensen, the executive director, defended the decision to allow Korindo to stay. "These things have happened, right? Is the best thing to do to say they were in breach of our values so we're not going to have anything to do with you anymore?" he said.

"The logic of the board has been, 'We want to see the improvements happen'."