Smoke rises from a cement factory in Castleton in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England. john finney photography / Moment / Getty Images
Human activity has pushed atmospheric carbon dioxide to higher levels today than they have been at any other point in the last 23-million-years, potentially posing unprecedented disruptions in ecosystems across the planet, new research suggests.
<p>Understanding atmospheric concentrations of CO2 is "vital for understanding Earth's climate system" because it "imparts a controlling effect on global temperatures," said scientists in a study published in <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/doi/10.1130/G47681.1/586769/A-23-m-y-record-of-low-atmospheric-CO2" target="_blank"><em>Geology</em></a>.</p><p>Climate change is largely driven by a disproportionate increase of CO2 in the atmosphere largely resulting from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas as well as cutting down or burning forests that serve as carbon stores, according to the <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/why-does-co2-get-more-attention-other-gases" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>. A 2013 study published by the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> found that climate change from CO2 and greenhouse gas emission is not only caused by humans but has had "widespread impacts on human and natural systems."</p>
<p>Previous measurements have turned to ice cores to determine CO2 levels present in the atmosphere throughout Earth's history, but have only pieced together the last 800,000 years. To expand upon this record, researchers at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette used fossilized remains of ancient plant tissue to produce a record of atmospheric CO2 dating back 31 million years of "uninterrupted Earth history."</p><p>As plants grow, the amount of two stable carbon isotopes, carbon-12 and carbon-13, change in response to CO2 levels in the atmosphere. With this in mind, the research team measured the relative amount of these carbon isotopes in fossil plant materials from 700 measurements, published in 12 studies, characterizing ancient plants and their lipids in order to calculate concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere during the timeframe that the plants grew.</p>
<p>This atmospheric "timeline" did not show fluctuations in CO2 that are comparable to increases seen in the last century. In fact, the highest concentrations of CO2 were found during the Miocene, between 5 and 23 million years ago, but were still determined to have been below present-day levels.</p><p>"These data suggest present-day CO2 exceeds the highest levels that Earth experienced at least since the Miocene, further highlighting the present-day disruption of long-established CO2 trends within Earth's atmosphere," write the study authors in <em>Geology</em>.</p>
<p>The abrupt increase of greenhouse gas distribution today is unprecedented in Earth's 23-million-year history, indicating that ecosystems and global temperatures may be more sensitive to smaller changes in CO2 levels than previously thought. Though CO2 levels have varied widely throughout Earth's history, researchers believe that they have never fluctuated nor been as high as in recent years.</p><p>"One of the most pressing messages that climate scientists attempt to convey to the public is that current CO2 is elevated compared to the geological past," write the study authors, adding that the results also indirectly imply that major changes in plant and early humans were not driven by large changes in CO2 but rather "relatively small-amplitude changes."</p>
<p>Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by more than one-third since the Industrial Revolution began, according to <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/" target="_blank">NASA</a>. Though the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51281986" target="_blank">BBC</a> reports "worst-case scenario" for emissions of CO2 in the 21st century is considered unlikely by researchers, scientists still expect a rise of around 3 degrees Celsius by 2100, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/15/worst-case-scenario-2050-climate-crisis-future-we-choose-christiana-figueres-tom-rivett-carnac" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> — 1.5 degrees Celsius above goals set forth by the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/international/negotiations/paris_en" target="_blank">Paris agreement</a>. A report published by the <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide" target="_blank">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> earlier this year corroborates the findings, confirming that CO2 levels in 2018 were higher than at any other point in the past 800,000 years. The last time amounts were this high was more than 3 million years ago, when global temperatures were between 3.6 and 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit higher than during the pre-industrial era, and sea level was 50 to 80 feet higher than today.</p>
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Green living spruce and gray dead spruce in the Harz mountain region on May 7, 2020 near Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany. Jens Schlueter / Getty Images
More than a third of the world's old growth forests died between 1900 and 2015, a new study has found.
<p>In the study, <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6494/eaaz9463" target="_blank">published in Science</a> Friday, nearly two dozen scientists used satellite data combined with more than 160 previous studies to show that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation" target="_self">deforestation</a> and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> are killing off older, taller <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trees" target="_self">trees</a> and leaving forests younger and shorter, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/05/grand-old-trees-are-dying-leaving-forests-younger-shorter/" target="_blank">National Geographic explained</a>. And the trend is likely to continue.</p><p>"We will see fewer forests," University of Wisconsin forest ecologist and study coauthor Monica Turner told National Geographic. "There will be areas where there are forests now where there won't be in the future."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">More than 20 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/scientists?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#scientists</a> show global conditions lead to younger, shorter trees: <a href="https://t.co/KR2Tnwx4Af">https://t.co/KR2Tnwx4Af</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/deforestation?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#deforestation</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/forests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#forests</a> 🎄<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/science?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#science</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/researchhighlight?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#researchhighlight</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/environment?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#environment</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LosAlamosNatLab?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LosAlamosNatLab</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ORNL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ORNL</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NASA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NASA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Stanford?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Stanford</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LBNL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LBNL</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ScienceMagazine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ScienceMagazine</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/McDowell_Trees?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@McDowell_Trees</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/poulterlab?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@poulterlab</a> <a href="https://t.co/NN7k7qcEaW">pic.twitter.com/NN7k7qcEaW</a></p>— PNNL (@PNNLab) <a href="https://twitter.com/PNNLab/status/1266087442081296390?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>The study was led by Nate McDowell of the U.S. Department of Energy's <a href="https://www.pnnl.gov/" target="_blank">Pacific Northwest National Laboratory</a> (PNNL), who explained why this change was such a big deal.</p><p>"A future planet with fewer large, old forests will be very different than what we have grown accustomed to," he said in a <a href="https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/global-environmental-changes-leading-shorter-younger-trees" target="_blank">PNNL press release</a>. "Older forests often host much higher <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" target="_self">biodiversity</a> than young forests and they store more carbon than young forests."</p>
<p>Old growth tree loss is being driven by a number of factors, many of them linked to the climate crisis in some way. Warmer temperatures limit photosynthesis, both stunting and killing trees. Increased <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought" target="_self">droughts</a> both kill trees directly and lead to attacks by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/insects" target="_self">insect</a> pests. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires" target="_self">Wildfires</a> and infestations by insects, fungi and choking vines are all on the rise. Humans have also killed old growth trees more directly by chopping them down.</p><p>These factors combine to alter forest makeup, PNNL explained:</p><blockquote>Known as deforestation, the phenomenon has led to an imbalance of three important characteristics of a diverse and thriving forest: (1) recruitment, which is the addition of new seedlings to a community; (2) growth, the net increase in biomass or carbon; and (3) mortality, the death of forest trees.</blockquote>
<p>"Mortality is rising in most areas, while recruitment and growth are variable over time, leading to a net decline in the stature of forests," McDowell said.</p><p>While previous scientists had predicted increased carbon dioxide would lead to more tree growth, McDowell's team found this was only the case in younger forests with lots of nutrients and water. Otherwise, he explained to National Geographic, hotter temperatures reduce moisture, causing trees to shed leaves and close pores to retain water, which makes it harder for them to absorb carbon dioxide.</p><p>"[It's like] going to an all-you-can-eat buffet with duct tape over their mouths," he said.</p>
<p>Tree loss is truly a worldwide problem. In the Western U.S., Canada and Europe, where data is most abundant, the rate of tree death has doubled in the last four decades, and older trees have disproportionately been affected. Worldwide, humans have cut down 12 percent of the world's forests since 1900, and the proportion of the world's forests that are more than 140 years old has declined from 89 to 66 percent during that time, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/28/climate-crisis-world-forests-shorter-younger-study" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>.</p><p>The study spells bad news for trees' ability to help combat the climate crisis.</p><p>"When old trees die, they decompose and stop sucking up CO2 and release more of it to the atmosphere," McDowell told National Geographic. "It's like a thermostat gone bad. Warming begets tree loss, then tree loss begets more warming."</p>
<p>However, professor Simon Lewis of University College London, who was not involved in the study, pointed out that while forests are getting younger on average, some crucial old growth forests are actually increasing their area.</p><p>"The world's intact tropical and boreal forests are both globally important as carbon sinks, and are getting larger," he told The Guardian. "The world's forests currently slow climate change, and while future mortality trends could reverse this, the ideas in the new report don't change what the world needs to do: stabilise the climate by quickly driving fossil fuel emissions to zero and protect the world's forests."</p>
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The Ministry of Trade issued a regulation revoking its decision from February to no longer require Indonesian timber companies to obtain export licenses that certify the wood comes from legal sources. BAY ISMOYO / AFP / Getty Images
By Hans Nicholas Jong
The Indonesian government has backed down from a decision to scrap its timber legality verification process for wood export, amid criticism from activists and the prospect of being shut out of the lucrative European market.
<p>On May 11, the Ministry of Trade issued <a href="http://jdih.kemendag.go.id/peraturan/detail/1998/2" target="_blank">a regulation</a> revoking its decision from February to no longer require Indonesian timber companies to obtain export licenses that certify the wood comes from legal sources. That earlier decision caught environmental activists, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and even timber businesses by surprise, prompting a widespread outcry.</p><p>Sulistyawati, the trade ministry's director of forestry product exports, said that with the revocation, the export process would go back to the previous system. She <a href="https://kompas.id/baca/humaniora/ilmu-pengetahuan-teknologi/2020/05/14/lemahkan-sistem-verifikasi-legalitas-kayu-peraturan-menteri-perdagangan-dicabut/" target="_blank">said</a> the revocation was in accordance with a request from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.</p><p>Under the trade ministry's <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/indonesia-timber-illegal-logging-legality-license-svlk/" target="_blank">controversial February regulation</a>, which would have taken effect on May 27, exporters would no longer have needed to obtain licenses verifying that their timber and finished wood products come from legal sources. The so-called v-legal ("verified legal") licenses are at the heart of Indonesia's timber legality verification system, or SVLK, which took the country a decade to develop and implement in an effort to tackle illegal logging.</p>
<p>The European Union, one of the key markets for Indonesian timber and finished wood products, <a href="https://www.euflegt.efi.int/background-indonesia" target="_blank">recognizes the SVLK</a> as the basis for importing timber from Indonesia into its market. Scrapping the standard would have <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/indonesia-eu-timber-wood-legality-svlk-license-logging/" target="_blank">jeopardized exports to the EU</a>, experts warned. Activists were also quick to <a href="https://theconversation.com/penghapusan-syarat-lisensi-kayu-bisa-tingkatkan-penebangan-liar-dan-beri-citra-buruk-pada-produk-mebel-lokal-136509" target="_blank">criticize</a> the move, saying it would open up the black market for illegally logged timber.</p><p>Businesses, meanwhile, were worried the decision would undermine hard-won gains for the reputation of Indonesian timber, which was heavily associated with illegal logging in the past.</p><p>A recent poll by Gadjah Mada University showed that nearly half of 137 timber businesses surveyed felt ending the v-legal license requirement for exports would harm their business. Industry groups in key export markets have also raised questions about the policy, including the International Wood Product Association (IWPA) in the United States and the Australian Timber Importers Federation (ATIF).</p>
<p>The Indonesian Furniture Entrepreneurs Association (Asmindo), a trade group, welcomed the government's U-turn and reinstatement of the v-legal license requirement. Robert Wijaya, the deputy head of regulation reviews at Asmindo, said the rationale that the licensing requirement put an onerous burden on exporters was baseless. He said data from the national statistics agency, the BPS, showed Indonesia's furniture exports increasing since the implementation of the SVLK.</p><p>In 2019, Indonesia exported $1.95 billion worth of wood furniture, a 14.6% increase from 2018.</p><p>"So it's not true that the SVLK is said to be hampering exports," Robert said.</p><p>Muhammad Kosar, from the Indonesian Independent Forest Monitoring Network (JPIK), which keeps track of the SVLK's implementation, said the trade ministry's about-face showed the lack of coordination between government institutions. As a result, he said, different government departments have different interpretations of the importance of the system.</p>
<p>Krystof Obidzinski, a timber legality expert at the European Forest Institute, agreed that appreciation of the SVLK and associated export agreement with the EU might have declined in recent few years. Thus it's important to communicate the importance of the SVLK to ministries other than the environment ministry, the main proponent of the system, so that the SVLK isn't jeopardized in the future, he said.</p><p>"Communication and understanding of the SVLK outside the environment ministry are very minimal," Obidzinski said. "Maybe that's because [of] staff turnover or other interests. So to increase export and [strengthen] the SVLK, it's important to build bridges with other ministries so that the level [of understanding] can be the same."</p><p>Under the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/10/indonesia-eu-sign-historic-deal-to-end-the-illegal-timber-trade/" target="_blank">signed</a> in 2013, all timber shipped to the EU from Indonesia must be certified under the SVLK, which aims to track the chain of custody of timber products and ensure that timber is harvested in compliance with Indonesian law. The agreement also requires Indonesia to commit to SVLK certification for all timber exports — not just to the EU — as well as timber traded in the domestic market.</p>
<p>That stringent implementation of checks at every stage of the process was the justification for cited by the trade ministry for dispensing with the requirement at the end stage — exports. In making this argument, the ministry adopted the main talking point of the Indonesian Furniture and Craft Association (HIMKI), a trade body that has been at the forefront of the lobbying efforts to drop the SVLK requirement for producers of finished wood items. It <a href="https://ekonomi.bisnis.com/read/20180826/257/831697/kenapa-svlk-di-industri-hilir-mebel-perlu-dihapus-ini-jawabannya" target="_blank">argued</a> that if a piece of timber has already been legally certified at the logging stage, then there's no need to continue with legality checks further on down the line, including for exporters.</p><p>HIMKI chairman Sunoto denounced the trade ministry's backtracking, insisting the SVLK requirement made it difficult for producers to export their furniture products overseas.</p><p>"Two months ago, we were already happy because the SVLK had been cancelled at the downstream level [exporters]," he <a href="https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20200513145438-4-158200/pak-jokowi-aturan-legalitas-kayu-bikin-pengusaha-mebel-marah" target="_blank">said</a>. "Now it is resurrected. It's not that we don't agree with the SVLK. HIMKI doesn't agree if the SVLK is implemented at the downstream level."</p>
<p>This argument was echoed by Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita during a government meeting on May 22. He <a href="https://bisnis.tempo.co/read/1345507/alasan-menteri-luhut-sebut-svlk-atau-legalisasi-kayu-penting/full&view=ok" target="_blank">suggested</a> that the SVLK requirement should only be made mandatory at the logging stage, but not at the downstream level.</p><p>To address the concerns over the high cost of SVLK certification, the environment ministry will issue a regulation containing several changes to the system. Under the regulation, it'll be the government who verify SVLK certification, not third-party agencies, according to Bambang Hendroyono, the secretary-general of the environment ministry.</p><p>"So in the [planned] ministerial regulation, we will make sure that small-and-medium businesses no longer have problems for export, especially to China and Korea," he said.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/indonesia-svlk-legal-timber-license-eu-vlegal-export/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The Ebo Forest in Cameroon, Africa, is a biodiversity hotspot, home to an amazing range of wildlife, including forest elephants, gorillas, drills, chimpanzees, grey parrots and the goliath frog. San Diego Zoo Global
By Lamfu Fabrice Yengong and Sylvie Djacbou Deugoue
Biodiversity loss is a global crisis. In May last year, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warned that over 1,000,000 species are threatened with extinction worldwide. On May 22, the International Day of Biodiversity, it is important to recall the silent victims of our country's obsession for industrial growth at the expense of our forests.
<p>Tropical rainforests are estimated to harbor more than half of the world's plant and animal species. They are also essential for access to water, regulating temperature and preventing soil erosion. It's time to return the forests to indigenous and local communities. </p><p>In our country, Cameroon, the conservation of biodiversity, global climate goals and human rights of indigenous and local communities are all put at stake for industrial exploitation of the rainforest, driven by short-sighted thinking. Biodiversity hotspots are put at risk by industrial logging and agriculture, as trees are cut for the tropical timber market and entire forests cleared to make room for oil palm and rubber plantations. The government tries to assure conservationists that some space will be reserved for the wildlife in the forest it trashes, but even protected areas are not truly safe. </p><p>Companies, usually foreign-owned, are rapidly destroying rainforests that have existed for years. Local communities are left poorer after their traditional source of livelihood is desecrated. The only ones getting rich are a small group of beneficiaries that are close to the circles of power. </p><p>Some low-income countries that are rich in forests are resorting to quick solutions like logging and industrial agriculture. But industrial logging concessions and rubber and palm oil plantations are never the job-creating mechanism they promise to be. That has been demonstrated over and over again in forest countries around the world.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/407/" target="_blank">the Dja Faunal Reserve</a>, a UNESCO world heritage site in the South of Cameroon, is home to more than 100 species of mammals, including at least 14 primates, such as the endangered western lowland gorilla, chimpanzee, and white-collared mangabey, as well as species such as the endangered forest elephant, and the African grey parrot, bongo antelope and leopard.</p><p>The Dja Faunal Reserve is adjacent to the Sudcam rubber plantation, mainly owned by rubber giant Halcyon Agri. Sudcam has cleared more than 10,000 hectares (approximately 25,000 acres) of dense tropical rainforest in the South region of Cameroon – an equivalent of 10 football pitches a day – to make way for a rubber plantation between 2011 and 2018. The rubber plantation has rattled the lives of several indigenous communities, namely the Baka, but it has also aggravated the lives of those numerous protected species in the Dja Reserve.</p><p>To indigenous and local forest dependent communities, the rainforest serves as a source of nutritious foods and traditional medicine, much of which science has yet to explore. The forest is also the foundation of their social life, from recreational to ritual practices. Furthermore, biodiversity loss itself is a direct and immediate threat to the livelihood of indigenous peoples like the Baka next to the Sudcam plantation.</p><p>Upon the arrival of rubber company Sudcam, the indigenous community has lost access to its forest and specifically to the animals and plants they rely on. As Sudcam gets richer, it leaves entire communities in impoverishment, abjectness and destitution. </p>
<p>That is the fate which the chiefs of the Banen people of the Littoral region in Cameroon are trying to avoid <a href="http://www.cameroon-info.net/article/cameroun-denonciation-le-peuple-banen-du-littoral-soppose-a-la-confiscation-de-ses-terres-371484.html" target="_blank">in their current struggle</a> against the destruction of large parts of the Ebo forest. </p><p>The <a href="https://www.globalwildlife.org/blog/ebo-forest-a-stronghold-for-cameroons-wildlife/" target="_blank">Ebo Forest</a> is a biodiversity hotspot, one of the intact forest ecosystems in the Gulf of Guinea, stretching over 2000 square kilometers (approximately 772 square miles). Ebo Forest is home to an amazing range of wildlife, including forest elephants, gorillas, drills, chimpanzees, grey parrots and the goliath frog – the largest living frog on the planet. Accordingly, it was designated over a decade ago by the Cameroon Government as a National Park. </p><p>However, on February 4, the same government of Cameroon authorized two logging concessions (<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P8O3pc1JeLaAnDF1ERXvRrIAzjnw09SG/view" target="_blank">UFA07005</a> and <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n2cgvavirDdYmApiTd5vLV0hQRova6Ed/view" target="_blank">UFA07006</a>) inside the area of Ebo Forest. The planned concessions are enormous – about the size of London. Again, the government of Cameroon wants to convince us that conservation can be done with chainsaws. </p><p>Biodiversity loss doesn't only mean our children would get to see some of the world's most marvelous creatures only in documentary films. The consequences are far greater and more tangible.</p>
<p>The extinction of forest elephants, for example, small relatives of African Savanna elephants, might also reduce the number of large trees that they support, trees that excel at storing carbon. In the Congo Basin forest, the disappearance of forest elephants might mean a loss of about three billion tons of carbon – equivalent to France's CO2 emissions over more than 25 years, according to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/science/elephants-climate-change.html" target="_blank">New York Times article</a> on recent research published in the journal <em>Nature Geoscience.</em> </p><p>Cameroon's government has made public commitments to preserve and protect biodiversity. Positive declarations and ambitious plans may win applause and some international funding, but all eyes should be on implementation. <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/press/8593/we-were-told-not-to-go-into-the-forest-anymore-greenpeace-investigation-exposes-human-rights-violations-by-halcyon-agri/" target="_blank">Field investigations by Greenpeace Africa</a> and others clearly show how far we are from protecting biodiversity. </p><p>In Cameroon's government, as well as in the meeting rooms and corridors of development agencies, decision makers often hold outdated views. Too often we hear that only through rapid and massive removal of the rainforest in favor of large-scale logging and industrial agriculture plantations can the country emerge out of poverty. </p><p>Yet that model has repeatedly failed the people, as short-term high profits always remained accessible only to a small circle of beneficiaries. On the contrary, local communities who have lived in harmony with nature for many generations are likely to face poverty, abuse, hunger and alcoholism <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-sustainable-development-ravaged-the-congo-basin/" target="_blank">wherever</a> forests are suddenly destroyed. It is becoming increasingly clear that the best solution for both human rights and the planet is for forests to be managed by local communities. They do so much better than the industrial loggers or plantation owners. </p>
<p>The Cameroonian government needs to realize that trashing forests is not the way to make the economy grow. Rapid and intensive exploitation of nature has more far-reaching consequences than short-term economic growth. To prevent the extinction of fauna and flora species, indigenous communities that live among them need the rights to manage their forest.</p>
<p>Standing for biodiversity means communities should get the rights to manage their forests, instead of the corporations that destroy them. </p>
<p class=""><em>Lamfu Fabrice Yengong is a Congo Basin researcher. </em></p><p><em>Sylvie Djacbou Deugoue is a forest campaigner for Greenpeace Africa.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Aerial picture showing a deforested piece of land in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil on August 23, 2019. Carl de Souza / AFP / Getty Images
by Rhett A. Butler
Despite the global economic slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon appears to be continuing largely unabated with forest clearing over the past 12 months reaching the highest level since monthly data started being released publicly in 2007, according to official data released Friday by the country's national space research institute INPE. Forest loss in Earth's largest rainforest has now risen 13 consecutive months relative to year-earlier figures.
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI3MDQwMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDAzNTM1Nn0.QXa50sYrlGTk0ny7fsA7w3XsTwHm4sq9hjsqVjhsEoo/img.jpg?width=980" id="062f3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c5a7d620c73e1099a852d468a218ec80" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>INPE's deforestation monitoring system, DETER, detected 406 square kilometers of forest loss in the "legal Amazon" during the month of April. That brings the extent of deforestation measured by the system to 9,320 square kilometers for the year ended April 30, 2020, 40% higher than where it stood a year ago and more than twice as high as it was in April 2018.</p><p>5,606 square kilometers of forest have been lost since the "deforestation year" began August 1, 2019, the highest on record for this time of year.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI3NTY4Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNzg0NzM2N30.vg4xwAE29rAxqwMPxi780ulRhQODrJrVVm-k2o-nQcE/img.jpg?width=980" id="904be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d3abf923ab48f5882a02e486610d988d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/" target="_blank">the Amazon rainforest</a>, has been trending upward since bottoming at 4,571 square kilometers in 2012. Prior to that, deforestation had been declining in the region thanks to better forest monitoring and environmental law enforcement, public and private sector efforts to curb forest clearing, the creation of new protected areas and indigenous territories.</p><p>According to <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/06/in-cutting-deforestation-brazil-leads-world-in-reducing-emissions/" target="_blank">a 2014 study published in the journal Science</a>, the drop in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon between 2004 and 2013 avoided the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent of taking all cars off American roads for three years — 3.2 billion tons.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI3MDQwNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzY4MjkxNX0.TCQ8p3P7K85e5KbuvxRZjeNOGF2hPAzD8I0l9dM27nw/img.jpg?width=980" id="b1acd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c1bd9831a9bb7abcc0aa7ed2b66c9e72" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Official Brazilian government data showing annual deforestation (Aug 1-Jul 31 year) in the Brazilian Amazon since 1988.
<p>The rise in deforestation has been particularly sharp since Jair Bolsonaro assumed the presidency in January 2019. Bolsonaro has <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/bolsonaros-brazil-2019-brings-death-by-1000-cuts-to-amazon-part-one/" target="_blank">rolled back environmental regulations</a>, granted amnesty from fines for illegal deforestation, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/06/brazil-guts-environmental-agencies-clears-way-for-unchecked-deforestation/" target="_blank">cut budgets for environmental law enforcement</a>, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/future-of-amazon-deforestation-data-in-doubt-as-research-head-sacked/" target="_blank">diminished the role of scientists in the government</a>, blamed environmental NGOs for deforestation and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/brazilian-president-claims-leonardo-dicaprio-funded-amazon-fires/" target="_blank">claimed without evidence that Leonardo DiCaprio funded last year's fires in the Amazon</a>, and opened <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/brazils-new-forest-code-puts-vast-areas-of-protected-amazon-forest-at-risk/" target="_blank">protected areas</a> and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/brazil-opens-38000-square-miles-of-indigenous-lands-to-outsiders/" target="_blank">prospective indigenous territories</a> for extractive industries and agribusiness. He's openly called for more deforestation in the Amazon, while his administration has <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/brazil-sacks-officials-who-curbed-deforestation-on-amazon-indigenous-lands/" target="_blank">sacked officials charged with protecting forests and indigenous peoples</a> against illegal land invasions.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI3MDQxMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMTM3MzE2MX0.Il_7ONWRaMLRwmrzl1f0H0yJLb8uvrPnur_hKOdWuso/img.jpg?width=980" id="6a7ab" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="95bcd8ecea2bfa8924a086e584d348e9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Amazon rainforest canopy in Brazil. Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay
<p>The combination of rising forest clearance and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/satellite-data-show-amazon-rainforest-likely-drier-more-fire-prone-this-year/" target="_blank">abnormally dry conditions across vast swathes of Brazil</a> is setting up the region for an active fire season. Last year, fires in the Amazon made international headlines when the resulting smoke billowed over Sao Paulo, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/amazon-rainforest-fires-leave-sao-paulo-in-the-dark/" target="_blank">blocking out the sun mid-day</a>. Widespread condemnation from NGOs, human rights groups, business leaders, celebrities, and European political leaders as well as global calls for boycotts of Brazilian companies and products prompted Bolsonaro to mobilize the army to help with fire-fighting efforts. Yet Bolsonaro pressed forward with policies and actions that will increase deforestation and fires nonetheless, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/experts-blame-bolsonaro-for-surge-in-deforestation-warn-of-worse-to-come/" target="_blank">say experts</a>.</p><p>Accelerating deforestation, forest degradation, and drought in the Amazon is of great concern to <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/the-tipping-point-is-here-it-is-now-top-amazon-scientists-warn/" target="_blank">scientists who warn that the entire biome may be near a tipping point</a> where large areas of wet <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/" target="_blank">rainforest</a> could transition to dry tropical woodlands and savanna. <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/impending-amazon-tipping-point-puts-biome-and-world-at-risk-scientists-warn/" target="_blank">Such a transition</a> could have dramatic implications for regional rainfall, with the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone potentially shifting northward, leading to drier conditions across <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/a-healthy-and-productive-amazon-is-the-foundation-of-brazils-sovereignty/" target="_blank">South America's breadbasket and major urban areas</a>. <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/pro-deforestation-policies-could-be-ruinous-for-farmers-commentary/" target="_blank">The impact on regional economies</a> <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/amazon-tipping-point-puts-brazils-agribusiness-energy-sector-at-risk-top-scientists/" target="_blank">could be substantial</a>, while the impact on ecosystem function and biodiversity of the Amazon could be devastating, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/amazon-forest-to-savannah-tipping-point-could-be-far-closer-than-thought-commentary/" target="_blank">according to researchers</a>.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/amazon-deforestation-increases-for-13th-straight-month-in-brazil/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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An Asian gypsy moth caterpillar. John H. Ghent, USDA Forest Service / Bugwood.org
As it races to stop "murder hornets" from making themselves at home, Washington state has another invasive insect to worry about.
<p>Gov. Jay Inslee issued an <a href="https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/proclamations/20-54%20Gypsy%20Moth%20%28tmp%29.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery" target="_blank">emergency proclamation</a> Tuesday against the "imminent danger" of a gypsy moth infestation in parts of the state's Snohomish county, as <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/07/us/washington-state-gypsy-moths-proclamation-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported Friday</a>.</p><p>"[T]his imminent danger of infestation seriously endangers the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/agriculture" target="_self">agricultural</a> and horticultural industries of the state of Washington and seriously threatens the economic well-being and quality of life of state residents," the proclamation read.</p>
<p>Gypsy moths are such a danger because they devour the leaves of more than 300 species of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trees" target="_self">trees</a> and shrubs, stripping both deciduous and evergreen trees, the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) <a href="https://agr.wa.gov/departments/insects-pests-and-weeds/gypsy-moth/gypsy-moth-101" target="_blank">explained</a>. While this defoliation does not kill deciduous trees directly, it does make them more susceptible to other pests. Evergreen trees, however, do tend to die after a year of leaf-stripping. Female gypsy moths can also fly up to 25 miles, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/gypsy-moths-murder-hornets-us-a9504486.html" target="_blank">The Independent reported</a>.</p><p>"The gypsy moth is one of the most destructive forest pests introduced into the United States," WSDA wrote. "It has defoliated millions of acres in the Eastern United States where gypsy moth populations have become established."</p>
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<p>In the proclamation, Inslee said the state was at risk from both Asian gypsy moths (<em>Lymantria umbrosa</em>) and Asian-European hybrid gypsy moths (<em>Lymantria dispar L</em>). To prevent an infestation, the proclamation authorized the aerial spraying of a pesticide containing the soil bacteria <em>Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki</em> (Btk).</p><p>Btk is a pesticide that targets caterpillars, according to the <a href="https://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/Pests/GypsyMoths" target="_blank">Washington State Department of Health</a>. When caterpillars eat leaves sprayed with it, they stop eating and die. But it has minimal toxicity to mammals, birds and other insects like honeybees. The version of the pesticide Washington uses to control gypsy moths is approved for use in organic farming.</p><p>Unlike the Asian giant hornet, which was spotted for the first time in Washington state in late 2019, the gypsy moth has been on the state's radar for decades. The WSDA said it has successfully prevented the moth from establishing a presence in the state since 1974.</p><p>Inslee has even issued emergency proclamations in the past to control the insect's spread, as Seattle-based science journalist Hannah Weinberger pointed out on Twitter.</p><p>"National media needs to *slow down* when covering Washington insects," she wrote.</p>
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<p>In addition to spraying Btk, Washington also controls the moths by monitoring them with pheromone traps, locating and destroying egg masses, controlling caterpillars with the least toxic method possible and using traps again to assess the success of such measures, the health department explained.</p><p>It is important to prevent the moths from establishing a permanent presence because, as an invasive species, they have no natural predators in the state.</p>
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Cut timber being loaded for transportation to a manufacturing plant in Gympie, Queensland, Australia on July 17, 2013. Auscape / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Australia's unprecedented wildfires that raged for months and destroyed millions of acres were likely made worse by industrial logging of native forests, according to a new commentary from five scientists published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The group of five senior Australian scientists from the Australian National University, Macquarie University and the University of Queensland said that logging native forests makes fire more severe and they are calling for a clearer assessment about how land management and forestry practices add to the risk of wildfires, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/06/compelling-evidence-logging-native-forests-has-worsened-australian-bushfires-scientists-warn" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>"Logging causes a rise in fuel loads, increases potential drying of wet forests and causes a decrease in forest height," said James Watson, a professor at the University of Queensland and an author on the paper in a <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200505121655.htm" target="_blank">university statement</a>. "It can leave up to 450 tonnes of combustible fuel per hectare close to the ground — by any measure, that's an incredibly dangerous level of combustible material in seasonally dry landscapes. By allowing these practices to increase fire severity and flammability, we undermine the safety of some of our rural communities.</p><p>"It affects <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> too by creating habitat loss, fragmentation and disturbance for many species, with major negative effects on forest wildlife," he added.</p>
<p>They say that the contribution of logging to bushfires needs greater scrutiny, and there should be more public awareness about the compelling links between wildfires and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, according to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/logging-likely-had-significant-effect-on-summer-fires-scientists-20200505-p54q2m.html" target="_blank">The Sydney Morning Herald</a>.</p><p>They also note that while most global emissions and pollution is out of the country's control, Australians have full authority over how their own land is managed.</p><p>"The first is to prevent logging of moist forests, particularly those close to urban areas," said lead author David Lindenmayer, a professor at Australia National University, in a <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200505121655.htm" target="_blank">statement</a>. "We must also reduce forest fragmentation by proactively restoring some previously logged forests. In the event of wildfires, land managers must avoid practices such as 'salvage' logging — or logging of burnt forests — which severely reduces recovery of a forest."</p>
<p>Last week, VicForests Chief Executive Officer Monique Dawson criticized professor Lindenmayer, an internationally regarded ecologist, saying in a letter to the Goongerah Environment Centre that the agency "does not accept his published opinions."</p><p>Lindenmayer said he was taking legal advice about the remarks in the letter, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/06/compelling-evidence-logging-native-forests-has-worsened-australian-bushfires-scientists-warn" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. He added that her comments reflected an organization that was unscientific and did not rely on evidence to manage forests.</p><p>In fact, as The Sydney Morning Herald reported, despite warning from environmentalists that forests and wildlife are still very fragile, VicForests last week revealed plans to log 3500 hectares of forests burnt during the catastrophic summer fires in the next few years.</p><p>The paper says industry data showed that some 161 million cubic meters of native forest was logged between 1996 and 2018.</p><p>"Beyond the direct and immediate impacts on biodiversity of disturbance and proximity to disturbed forest, there is compelling evidence that Australia's historical and contemporary logging regimes have made many Australian forests more fire prone and contributed to increased fire severity and flammability," the scientists wrote, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/06/compelling-evidence-logging-native-forests-has-worsened-australian-bushfires-scientists-warn" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
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A lumber cuts a tree with a chainsaw. Taiyou Nomachi / Getty Images
By Richard Orange
The harvesting machine takes just one second to fell the towering spruce, and another to strip the branches and scan its trunk for defects.
<p>"This one is very straight," operator Antonio Petersson Kvennefelt says of the trunk gripped by the arm of his machine, as a screen in front of him flashes with data.</p><p>"The computer decides what it wants the logs to be. This one is for Långasjö, a sawmill in Sweden."</p><p>Kvennefelt has been working in the forests around the city of Växjö in southern Sweden for more than 20 years. When he started out, decisions were mostly left to the forest workers' judgement, but the industry is now more high-tech. </p><p>"The computer makes sure each sawmill gets exactly what that sawmill wants," he explains.</p><p><span></span>And across the world, what saw and pulp mills want is more and more wood.</p>
Demand for Wood
<p>According to the latest figures from the <a href="http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1256261/icode/" target="_blank">UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)</a>, global forest production hit record levels in 2018. Up 11% on the year before.</p><p>"We see an increasing demand for almost all of our products," says Göran Örlander, strategist at Södra, Sweden's largest association of forest owners. "The most obvious demand is for biofuels at the moment. Everybody wants to have biofuels to replace fossil fuels."</p><p>The idea is that burning wood becomes close to carbon neutral if the forests from where it is taken are replenished at the same rate as they are felled for fuel.</p><p>But critics question whether this is the case in every country which claims to provide sustainable wood, and say some of what is supplying the current boom in biomass fuels comes from existing forests rather than sustainably managed plantations.</p><p>They also point to the carbon emitted from the soil of cleared forests, and to the emissions created in the felling and processing of wood products.</p><p>In 2017, 200 scientists wrote to the EU questioning its assumption that wood biomass for energy should be treated as a renewable fuel.</p><p>Nonetheless, according to the trade body Swedish Forest Industries, the country's trees are now capturing and storing a net 48 million tons of CO2 a year as they grow, while another seven million are stored in long-lasting products made from Swedish wood. Taken together, that is enough to make Sweden effectively carbon neutral.</p><p>But Professor Johan Bergh, who heads the forestry department at Växjö's Linnaeus University, just a short walk away from Södra's offices, says there are very few other countries in the same position.</p><p>"Globally I don't think the forest resource is enough," he told DW. Particularly not, he added, to supply the transport industry with wood-derived bioethanol or biodiesel.</p><p>"A lot of forest would be needed to replace fossil fuels in vehicles," he says. "It would require at least half of the new forest growth in Sweden at a national level, and of course at a global level, it would be much, much more."</p><p>Other industries are also increasingly showing an interest in wood as a resource.</p>
Not Just for Heating
<p>Södra has teamed up with Dutch airline KLM to explore the feasibility of producing jet fuel from forest biomass, and is also working with the Scandinavian airline SAS on plans for a pilot biofuel plant in the north of Sweden.</p><p>Bioplastic packaging — some of which relies on wood fibers — currently makes up just one percent of total plastics production. But that is expected to grow over the coming years. </p><p>Architecture firms are also racing to use cross-laminated timber to replace carbon-intensive concrete and steel, and wood-based fibers now represent about six percent of all textiles.</p><p>The attraction is clear. When wood is used in buildings, for example, carbon is taken out of the carbon cycle and stored for as long as the building stands.</p><p>But according to preliminary findings from a joint United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and UN Food and Agriculture Organization study into future supply and demand scenarios, even if every effort were made to maximize global forest cover, doubling the use of wood in buildings, furniture and other products would reduce rather than increase the amount of carbon sequestered globally.</p><p><span></span>"The projected increase in wood products carbon in this scenario was not enough to offset the loss in biomass carbon due to increased removals depleting forest stocks," the authors wrote.</p>The Limits of Wood
<p>There are also limits to the use of wood for heat and power.</p><p>Back in 2010, EUwood, a study led by the University of Hamburg warned that "even if all measures for increased wood mobilization" were implemented, by 2020 the European Union's domestic sources would struggle to satisfy wood demands and meet renewable energy targets.</p><p>By 2018 the EU was already supplementing its wood pellet consumption with imports to the tune of eight million tons. And some conservationists argue member states' use of biomass is driving deforestation and boosting carbon dioxide levels.</p><p>But at Växjö Energy, a Swedish heat and power plant, which became a 100 percent biomass facility in December, chief executive Erik Tellgren is not worried about supply. He says forest owners currently leave most of the branches and tops of trees they cut down to rot.</p><p>"There is still a potential of at least twice the amount of residue streams in the forest today that is simply left there," he says. </p><p>There are also other potential changes that would create space for the expansion of global forest cover. Rod Taylor, Global Director of the Forests Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI), believes a shift in global diet away from meat would allow the replanting of huge areas of marginal pastureland.</p><p>"The really big win comes through plantations in countries where wood grows fast, like in Brazil," he argues. "If you have very eroded, low productivity pastureland, and you start planting that up with trees, it could pull a lot of carbon out of the sky."</p><p>Bergh believes it would be possible to at least double forest stocks in key exporting countries such as Sweden, Canada and Russia, while increasing production at the same time.</p><p>But with so many industries now looking to the forests for their future carbon-neutral feedstock, even that would be unlikely to cover growing demand.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/is-there-enough-wood-in-the-world-to-feed-sustainability/a-53225899?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2645913821#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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The landscape of Minnesota is changing as the climate crisis intensifies. Animals and plants that once were only found in the southern part of the state have moved north, suggesting that as the climate changes, Minnesota, by 2100, will start to resemble an environment similar to the one found in Kansas, a few states to the south.
<p>"We have a perfectly good Kansas now. We don't need a second one in Minnesota," said Lee Frelich, the director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Forest Ecology, to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/climate-environment/climate-change-minnesota/?itid=sf_climate-solutions" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>. He believes that if the climate crisis goes unchecked, the boreal forests that soak up huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could vanish completely, taking with them a third of the state's native species of trees, flowers, birds and pollinators.</p><p>Frelich and a group of scientists are trying to understand exactly how the changing climate will affect Minnesota, what species will thrive, and are starting to plant trees that will one day take the place of the ones native to the state, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/climate-environment/climate-change-minnesota/?itid=sf_climate-solutions" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p><p>Minnesota's remarkable natural landscape, which includes boreal forests to the north, temperate forests in the middle, and prairie stretching to the south and west, has lost a tremendous amount of its <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">biodiversity</a> and wetlands to development, industry, and now a rapidly changing climate.</p>
<p>In the last 150 years, the state has lost 50 percent of its wetlands, 40 percent of its forests and 98 percent of its prairies, according to Hannah Texler, a plant ecologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, who has helped put together a comprehensive survey of the state's biological diversity, as <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/04/22/dnr-wrapping-up-minnesotas-first-biological-census" target="_blank">Minnesota Public Radio</a> (MPR) reported.</p><p>"So that just underscores the importance of those areas we do have left," she said to MPR. "It's incumbent on us to make sure that we're taking actions to make sure that those persist into the future."</p><p>In the northeast corner of the state, scientists are planting an experimental forest under different climatic conditions. They have built ten, 30-foot tall, open-top chambers. Eight of those chambers are warmed from above and below ground. The other two are controls. Half of the chambers also have elevated levels of carbon dioxide, according to local NBC news affiliate <a href="https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/northern-mn-climate-change-experiment-has-global-implications/89-90b32992-3b4a-4033-bc72-0df3686d641f" target="_blank">KARE</a>.</p><p>"It's the only place on the planet that's simulating climate change to the degree that we think it's [actually] going to happen," said Randy Kolka, a research scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, to <a href="https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/northern-mn-climate-change-experiment-has-global-implications/89-90b32992-3b4a-4033-bc72-0df3686d641f" target="_blank">KARE</a>. "And it's right here in northern Minnesota."</p>
<p>In the moderate warming scenario, they have already seen effects just a few years into a 10-year experiment. When the climate warms four degrees Fahrenheit, the tamarack trees hold onto their needles much longer. In a more extreme scenario, where the temperature increases 16 degrees, shrubs proliferate, shielding and killing the moss essential to the peatland ecosystem, according to <a href="https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/northern-mn-climate-change-experiment-has-global-implications/89-90b32992-3b4a-4033-bc72-0df3686d641f" target="_blank">KARE</a>.</p><p>"The trees are going downhill fast," Kolka said. "The changes to the plant community are like the canary in the coal mine. Once you start seeing changes to the plant communities, you can expect to see bigger changes up the ecosystem scale."</p><p>One of the bolder parts of the experimental forest is the planting of trees that once would not have been found here, but that are expected to flourish in the future that scientists foresee in Minnesota's North Woods.</p><p>"The worst-case scenario is if we don't do something like this, we'll have no forest," said Brian Palik, a longtime ecologist with the Forest Service's Northern Research Station, to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/climate-environment/climate-change-minnesota/?itid=sf_climate-solutions" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>. "Our broad objective is to look at ways to keep forests on the landscape. It may be a different forest. I like to say that it may not be your grandfather's forest, but it will be your grandchildren's forest."</p><p>"It's not that this is going to happen. It's that it's already happening," he added of the changes that the warming climate is bringing to the North Woods. "The time to act is now."</p>
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Planting Projects, Backyard Habitats Can Re-Create Livable Natural Spaces
30 April
Insights + Opinion
Portland, Oregon's local Backyard Habitat Certification Program is a collaboration between Portland Audubon and Columbia Land Trust. Gaylen Beatty
By April M. Short
The world's wildlife is in danger of dying off, and inevitably taking humanity out with it. Humans have destroyed enormous portions of the planet's natural spaces, and caused a climate disaster as well as the unprecedented acceleration of mass extinction events. Among the many species struggling to stay afloat are the butterflies, birds, bats, bees and other pollinators we depend upon in order to grow basic food crops. People cannot live without the earth's diverse wild plants and animals.
<p>Scientists agree that continued disruption of the earth's ecosystems <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/to-humanity-as-climate-change-/f8lnx2/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">threatens</a> the future survival of humanity as much as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a> does. And the two aren't entirely separate issues; healthy <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forests" target="_self">forests</a> and soil systems, for example, sequester carbon naturally. As they are destroyed, there is increased carbon in the atmosphere. A <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/content-365-6448-76/f8lnx4/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">study</a> published in 2019 in the journal Science found that forest restoration is among the best possible climate change solutions.</p><p>The current pandemic brings these issues home, as the problems of climate change, habitat destruction and pollinator decline are <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ollinators-and-then-the-virus-/f8lnx6/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">intricately linked</a>, as outlined in an article by Dr. Arshad M. Khan and <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/author-meenamiriamyust-/f8lnx8/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">Meena Miriam Yust</a> published in Modern Diplomacy in April.</p>
<p>And, as explained by Ensia's environment editor John Vidal in an <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ons-for-coronavirus-to-emerge-/f8lnxb/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">article</a> that appeared in Scientific American in March, the destruction of wildlife habitat in particular creates breeding grounds for new viruses — and is a likely cause of the devastating current outbreak of novel coronavirus.</p><p>Vidal writes:<br></p><blockquote>"Only a decade or two ago it was widely thought that tropical forests and intact natural environments teeming with exotic wildlife threatened humans by harboring the viruses and pathogens that lead to new diseases in humans like Ebola, HIV and dengue.<br><br>"But a number of researchers today think that it is actually humanity's destruction of biodiversity that creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases like COVID-19 … to arise — with profound health and economic impacts in rich and poor countries alike. In fact, a new discipline, planetary health, is emerging that focuses on the increasingly visible connections among the well-being of humans, other living things and entire ecosystems."</blockquote><p>As Vidal notes, this likely won't be the only pandemic we experience. Keeping the next one at bay hinges on protecting and stewarding habitat spaces for wildlife.</p>
<p>While the outlook on both pandemic and climate change can seem bleak, we're also witnessing a demonstration of how quickly the planet can repair itself when people merely slow down a little. In just a matter of months, without changing much other than how often we go out to work, spend and gather in public spaces, the world's skies have cleared up in places that were murky with smog for generations.</p><p>The pandemic has caused a <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-global-drop-in-air-pollution-/f8lnxd/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">steep decline</a> in air pollution levels around the globe. Weeks without hordes of tourists have deepened the blue of <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/anals-scli-intl-scn-index-html/f8lnxg/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">the waterways of Venice, Italy,</a> and there are reports of fish being visible through the clear waters for the first time in decades; the Himalayas are <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-in-india-amid-lockdown-720012/f8lnxj/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">visible</a> in parts of northern India that haven't been able to catch a glimpse of them in 30 years; Los Angeles's famous traffic has <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/rants-and-other-pandemic-perks/f8lnxl/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">eased up</a>. It's clear that the small efforts by large numbers of people can and do ripple throughout the world, and they have the potential to combat mass destruction. If so much can begin to change when all we do is ease our operations a little, what can change if we make concerted efforts together in support of nature's resilience?</p>
<h3>Planting Habitat From the Grassroots</h3><p><a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/gardening">Gardening</a> to support pollinators and other wildlife is one way individuals can <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/d6-44bb-4367-a718-98346e928869/f8lnxn/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">help</a>. The movement for native habitat planting seeks to re-supply wildlife with the plants and habitat spaces that support them, by way of individual garden projects.</p><p>Since the 1970s, the native plant movement has encouraged people to garden and grow native species of plants, which can provide biodiverse habitat for birds, butterflies, amphibians and other creatures that live among us. Out of the native plant movement, many backyard and community habitat gardening certification programs have emerged across the country, to educate and incentivize people to plant habitat gardens.</p><p>The largest habitat gardening certification effort in the U.S. is the National Wildlife Federation (NWF)'s Community Wildlife Habitat Program (<a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/nityWildlifeHabitat-Home-About/f8lnxq/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">CWHP</a>), which offers tools and a certification program not just for individual backyard gardens, but for whole communities interested in participating. The program started in 1997 in the small town of Alpine, California, in San Diego County, as a grassroots effort by a few individuals who decided to team up and encourage local native garden projects. Now, the program is a concerted national effort that works with approximately 200 certified <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/abitat-Home-CurrentCommunities/f8lnxs/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">communities and municipalities across the country</a>, including some major cities, such as Charlotte, North Carolina, and Houston, Texas. </p><p>NWF has encouraged people to create habitat gardens for more than 40 years through its <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/garden/f8lnxv/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">Garden for Wildlife</a>. The CWHP builds upon that longstanding initiative, with a science-based program framework for community leaders to restore wildlife habitat — including wildlife corridors and road passage areas — and engage residents. The end goal for areas that participate is to be certified as a wildlife-friendly community through the NWF.</p><p>The program encourages communities to integrate a set of wildlife-friendly practices into plans for parks and general sustainability. It offers tools for its members to educate as well as motivate private community members — residents, schools, places of worship, and others — to get involved and transform their garden spaces via native trees and plants, and non-toxic practices.</p>
<p>Patrick Fitzgerald, senior director of community wildlife for NWF, says anyone can get involved with the habitat gardening effort, even people in highly urban areas, via container gardens.</p><p>"If you're planting a garden, you can really make an impact for wildlife and the environment literally right outside your front door," he says, noting that the <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2020-04-28/f8lnxx/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">monarch butterfly</a> offers a particularly potent example of a species that might be positively affected by collective individual efforts. The Western monarch's populations have been plummeting, down from the millions in the 1980s, to 200,000 in 2017, and just 30,000 as of 2018, as reported in March 2020 by <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/science-monarch-butterfly-html/f8lnxz/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>"The example of the monarch shows how the simple act of planting milkweeds in your garden, in a pot and just about anywhere, can have an impact for a very specific species," adds Fitzgerald. "A lot of folks, myself included, just love this monarch butterfly for its migration and metamorphosis. It's an amazing species. We've seen a call to action for the monarch butterfly, and so many people are planting milkweed and other native plants that they need to survive in their yards and telling us about it. … Knowing that you're part of millions of people doing this, all for the sake of one black and orange butterfly, is a pretty powerful thing. It's just tremendously rewarding."</p><p>The NWF program also works with communities interested in larger restoration efforts, such as wildlife thoroughfares, urban forestry, water conservation, planting for climate resilience and green infrastructure efforts.</p><p>"In terms of climate resilience, a lot of the actions that our teams in our cities, counties and communities are taking have multiple benefits for wildlife and for people — and they're also helpful in terms of addressing climate change in different ways," Fitzgerald says.</p><p>He points to efforts like reforestation and planting trees along waterways to reduce erosion and mitigate runoff into waterways, or efforts to increase soil carbon storage.</p><p>"A lot of folks who participate in our programs, they just love wildlife, and from there, they're looking for strategies to attract more wildlife to their neighborhoods and communities," he says.</p>
<p>Houston, Texas, is one of the largest communities certified by the NWF Community Wildlife Habitat Program. Kelli Ondracek, the natural resources manager for the City of Houston Parks and Recreation Department, says that when the city started working toward the certification in 2016 it was a natural fit, as many of the efforts already underway in the city overlapped with the NWF's habitat certification program. The city of Houston partners with the Houston Audubon, for instance, to replace invasive plant species in public areas with bird-friendly natives, and Houston is a certified "Bird City" of Texas by the state's Parks and Wildlife program.</p><p>In order to encourage Houston residents to participate and plant backyard habitat gardens, Ondracek says they began to include information about the certification effort at all of their regular events. Since the city was already offering many of the educational events and information required for the NWF certification, once they got enough homes and common areas involved with the project, it came together citywide, by way of volunteer efforts.</p><p>Among the bigger habitat initiatives in Houston is its longstanding <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/olutions-to-unnatural-flooding/f8lny2/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">prairie restoration</a> project, which replants fields full of native prairie grasses and wildflowers throughout the city's parks, medians, and other relevant public spaces. Ondracek, who oversees the city's greenhouses, says the prairie restoration efforts have involved collecting seeds and propagating more than 10,000 gallon pots' worth of native plants.</p><p>Ondracek says the wildlife habitat project in Houston involves taking inventory of the land in their parks system — which is vast — and assess what that land would have historically looked like. Then, they work to re-create it.</p><p>"We try to get it as close as possible back to the historic habitat, with a focus on really diverse native species," Ondracek says. "We're really trying to focus on native plants — and we're growing them ourselves because often you can't really purchase them — so that we can get our restoration projects completed."</p><p>The prairie restoration project serves to provide habitat, and also to mitigate climate change–related threats such as increased flooding and drought, as detailed in a Christian Science Monitor <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/olutions-to-unnatural-flooding/f8lny2/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">article</a> published in October 2019.</p><p>Ondracek says Houston also has a native tree farm and is working to replant trees along waterways in 70 of its parks, with the goal of planting more than 200,000 trees along the city's bayous and other water systems. Trees along the waterways, known as <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/es-riparian-forest-buffers-php/f8lny4/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">riparian buffers</a>, serve to reduce the impacts of flooding and improve water quality for both humans and wildlife. The goal of this effort is twofold: to rehabitat these spaces as wildlife corridors, and to create a more climate-resilient future for the city. The tree project acts as part of Houston's <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/yc88f828/f8lny6/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">Climate Action Plan</a>, which centers on large restoration projects like tree installations to mitigate inevitable increased flooding and help sequester carbon.</p>
<p>Many cities, counties and states around the U.S. offer their own habitat certification programs, unrelated to the NWF's certification. Portland, Oregon's local <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2020-04-28/f8lny8/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">Backyard Habitat Certification Program (BHCP)</a>, for instance, is a collaboration between Portland Audubon and Columbia Land Trust.</p><p>Megan Van de Mark, the Portland BHCP's program manager, says the localized program is particularly hands-on and serves more than 6,100 properties throughout Oregon's Clark, Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties. The program originated in Portland, where more than 4,600 properties are enrolled, and works hands-on with community sites, including religious institutions, multi-family complexes, schools, etc., as well as private backyards.</p><p>"One person can make a difference where they live by incorporating native plants in their yards and gardens, by removing noxious weeds, by reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides, and by taking actions that steward wildlife and manage stormwater at home," Van de Mark says in an email.</p><p>Van de Mark says the program shows that the cumulative actions of individual people can add up to a significant positive impact.</p><p>"An ecosystem is an interconnected system," Van de Mark says. "What each of us does makes a difference specifically because we're all connected. The ecosystems within which we reside are home to many. By building habitat where you live and reside (i.e., by planting native plants, removing noxious weeds, reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides, and by taking actions that steward wildlife and manage stormwater on-site), you can help ensure that birds, pollinators, and other species also have enough to eat, a way to get around, and a place to call home. We're all in this together."<br></p>
<p><em>This article was reposted with permission from <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/local-peace-economy-/f8lnyb/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">Local Peace Economy</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A path runs through a dense forest. James O'Neil / Getty Images
By Austyn Gaffney
Wayne Brensinger, 63, has spent his entire life exploring Deer View Farm in eastern Pennsylvania. From an early age, he hunted squirrels and deer, drank clean spring water, and meandered down game trails through 500 acres of Northern Appalachian woodlands, with just 25 acres cleared for corn and soybeans. The property, in his family for over 150 years, was an idyllic place to grow up and raise his own children.
<p>Brensinger just assumed the trees would always be there; he didn't have a plan for how to manage them long term. Then came the gypsy moths.</p><p>Dotted with blue and red circles down their backs, the bristly gypsy moth caterpillars chewed through the leaves of 250 acres of hardwood trees, including an estimated 1,250 of Brensinger's favorite tree, the white oak, and over 7,500 chestnut oaks. The damage cleared the way for invasive species. Ferns and stilt grass, accompanied by the fast-growing saplings of birch and gum trees, took root and shaded out other valuable seedlings.</p><p>"They came in and just ate all the trees," said Brensinger. "We had some large die-offs due to those caterpillars." </p><p>Only half his woods remained. Brensinger hired a forester for the first time, and together they created a forest management plan ― a road map for the continual care of his forest. They applied herbicide and replanted ravaged trees, and his woods have started to rebound. But it will take over 60 years of continual management for the new, younger trees to grow to the maturity of the ones killed. </p>
<p>Brensinger's struggle is far from unique, it's hard to maintain healthy forests especially as the impacts of the climate crisis become more pronounced.</p><p>"Family forests face numerous threats, amplified by climate change, including invasive pests, pathogens and a legacy of unsustainable forest management," said Josh Parrish, director of working woodlands for the The Nature Conservancy, an environmental non-profit. Forest owners need support and resources to tackle these, he added, not just for their own benefit but because their trees represent a vital weapon in the fight against climate change. </p><p>Forests are natural carbon sinks, soaking up more carbon from the atmosphere than they release, and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/114/44/11645" target="_blank">research shows</a> that improving the stewardship of woodlands is one of the most effective tools for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. </p><p>Today, forests blanket <a href="https://www.forestfoundation.org/natural-carbon-sequestration" target="_blank">766 million acres</a> of the U.S., and <a href="https://www.forestfoundation.org/family-forest-carbon-program" target="_blank">38% of these woodlands</a> ― more land than California and Texas combined ― are owned by families and individuals. There are <a href="https://www.forestfoundation.org/root-for-family-forest-owners" target="_blank">more than 20 million</a> of these private owners, and according to the nonprofit American Forest Foundation, their family forests alone store an estimated <a href="https://www.forestfoundation.org/stuff/contentmgr/files/1/f733d4713abc573991af9ec86720b712/misc/section_ii__spatial_analysis__of_stem_the_loss_report_05_16_14.pdf" target="_blank">14 billion tons</a> of carbon ― equivalent to the emissions of <a href="https://www.forestfoundation.org/a-solution-for-carbon-reduction--family-forests?wtst=400" target="_blank">12,000 coal-fired power plants</a>.<strong> </strong></p><p>They could store much more.</p>
<p>Conservationists have identified these private woodlands as one of the best routes to increasing carbon storage in the U.S. Forests currently offset 11.3% of the nation's annual carbon emissions, according to the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-04/documents/us-ghg-inventory-2019-main-text.pdf" target="_blank">Environmental Protection Agency</a>. But they have the potential to <a href="https://www.forestfoundation.org/a-solution-for-carbon-reduction--family-forests?wtst=400" target="_blank">offset around 20%</a>, the American Forest Foundation says, if conservation programs are implemented.</p><p>Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has recognized the untapped value: His company is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/21/amazon-invests-10-million-for-forest-conservation-in-climate-change-plan.html" target="_blank">putting the first $10 million</a> of its $100 million Right Now Climate Fund ― an initiative aimed at removing carbon from the air ― toward family forest preservation.</p><p>In order to manage their forests in sustainable ways ― culling invasive species, cultivating mature trees and fighting pests ― many families need help. It requires a lot of work, expertise and financial outlay, which family owners can't always pull together.</p><p>"The first thing they need is a forest management plan, and less than 15% of forest owners in Pennsylvania have a plan," said Parrish. </p>
<p>Many family owners generate income by selling trees to loggers. But loggers often want to buy older trees and are willing to pay more for them ― a practice called "high grading." Selling off too many mature trees, however, shortens the lifespan of a forest and lowers its carbon capturing powers<strong>. </strong>In Northern Appalachia, where Brensinger is based, unsustainable logging is one of the biggest hindrances to cultivating healthy forest lands.</p><p>But there is another avenue to make money that conservationists say can both help owners maintain healthy forests and maximize their potential to tackle climate change: carbon offsets. Previously, only large commercial landowners and federal or state governments have had easy access to carbon markets, but now there is a new focus on bringing in smaller family-owned forests, too.</p><p>The idea of carbon offsets is simple: Carbon emitters purchase "credits" to offset their emissions, essentially paying someone else to remove carbon from the atmosphere in their place ― through actions such as protecting wildlife habitats or planting trees. The credits are popular because they allow countries and corporations to continue to emit and still remain within legally binding caps on carbon emissions. Global carbon markets are now worth around <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-carbontrading-turnover/global-carbon-trading-turnover-at-record-214-billion-last-year-research-idUSKBN1ZN1RN" target="_blank">$214 billion</a>. </p><p>In order to qualify to sell credits, forest landowners typically have to pay a forester to calculate the carbon in every tree on their property, which can cost upwards of $100,000. Then, sustainability standards programs like <a href="https://verra.org/" target="_blank">Verra</a> determine what additional carbon storage could be obtained through conservation efforts over and above what the owner is already doing.</p><p> It's this additional carbon storage ― from not logging mature trees or not selling a portion of the forest to developers ― that is meant to be sold as offsets. The goal is to ensure that carbon polluters aren't trying to offset their emissions with practices that landowners were already implementing anyway.</p><p>"Existing healthy forests are the status quo," said Bill Stewart, a forestry specialist and co-director of the University of California's Berkeley Forests. "We need to improve the situation by capturing more carbon and holding it."</p>
<p>The carbon offset process is long and complex. Plus, landowners entering the carbon market typically need huge swaths of forest ― roughly <a href="https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/an-introduction-to-forest-carbon-offset-markets" target="_blank">1,500 acres</a> ― to draw the interest of offset buyers. Family forest owners have an average of <a href="https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/an-introduction-to-forest-carbon-offset-markets" target="_blank">67 acres</a>.<br></p><p>To help these small forest owners capture additional carbon from their properties and enter the carbon marketplace, the American Forest Foundation and The Nature Conservancy have started a program to aggregate the offerings of small, family-owned properties. </p><p>Called the <a href="https://www.forestfoundation.org/family-forest-carbon-program" target="_blank">Family Forest Carbon Program</a>, it aims to sell carbon credits to companies based on those bundles of acres and to pay landowners annually from the proceeds. In March, the program's pilot effort opened applications for landowners in six rural Pennsylvania counties.</p><p>Bypassing expensive methods of measuring a forest's carbon storage ― like going tree by tree ― the organization developed a system that estimates carbon capture potential based on the overall health of the forest. It provides landowners with instructions on how to improve forest health based not on a costly assessment of their land, but on knowing what it takes to have a healthy forest in their particular part of the country.</p><p> For example, owners in the West might be advised to reduce a forest's vulnerability to wildfire by clearing debris and overgrown vegetation. In Pennsylvania, that advice would cover timber management practices, including high grading, which can damage the forest ecosystem by taking away important species, reducing both diversity and density.</p><p>The Family Forest Carbon Program hopes to persuade owners to forgo the short-term cash boost of high-grading by paying 20% of the "opportunity cost" of preserving mature trees for a more diverse harvest later on. The scheme will also foot roughly 60% of the cost of treatments that remove competing vegetation, like invasive species or overcrowding saplings. </p><p>Initially funded by a mix of foundations, companies and the U.S. Forest Service, the program received <a href="https://press.aboutamazon.com/news-releases/news-release-details/part-its-plan-be-net-zero-carbon-2040-amazon-commits-10-million" target="_blank">a multimillion-dollar injection from the Right Now Climate Fund</a> this month, making Amazon its <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/21/amazon-invests-10-million-for-forest-conservation-in-climate-change-plan.html" target="_blank">largest supporter</a>. "Amazon's investment in the Family Forest Carbon Program showcases the significant role family-owned forests can play as a climate mitigation solution," said Christine Cadigan, director of the program at the American Forest Foundation. </p><p>The pilot had an initial goal of partnering with 100 family forest owners, together owning roughly 9,000 acres, by the end of the summer. By 2021, they hoped to roll out a larger pilot, banding together 1,000 landowners across Pennsylvania and expanding into western Maryland and West Virginia. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, however, the mini-pilot has been put temporarily on pause.</p><p>But even without COVID-19, creating carbon credits is a challenging enterprise. While offsets have become a multibillion-dollar market, they've remained a controversial way to mitigate fossil fuel emissions.</p>
<p>One problem is "leakage," when storing carbon in one area simply leads to it being released in another. For example, while landowners in an offsets program may harvest less timber, the same quantity of wood may just be harvested elsewhere if the demand for wood products doesn't change. In California, a research paper found that <a href="https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research/working-paper-series/policy-brief-arbas-us-forest-projects-offset-protocol-underestimates-leaka" target="_blank">around 80% of the offsets purchased</a> for its statewide carbon program leaked in another location.</p><p>Programs must also address permanence. In traditional forest programs, this means offsets are purchased on the premise that the carbon will be sequestered from the atmosphere for at least 100 years. The Family Forest Carbon Program says that while it aims to partner with landowners for shorter contracts, between 10 and 30 years, it plans to have enough landowners participating so that carbon storage will be ongoing across the region, and eventually the nation. If a contract expires with one landowner, other forests will still be under contract or coming under contract. </p><p>Still, forests are inherently risky carbon containers, said Barbara Haya, a research fellow for the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project at UC Berkeley. Climate change is causing a tremendous loss of forest carbon. Increasingly frequent and destructive wildfires as well as warmer weather ― which leads to more disease and pest outbreaks, like Brensinger's gypsy moths ― are destroying huge swaths of forestland. </p><p>"Drawing carbon out of the atmosphere with trees is never equal to, and it never truly offsets, our emissions from fossil fuels," Haya warned. While managing forests for carbon sequestration is something landowners need to do, she said, "it in no way takes the place of reducing our fossil fuel emissions as quickly as we can."</p><p>The less quantifiable value of projects like the Family Forest Carbon Program might lie in their ability to change the way society views forests, from the appraisal of what is removed to the embrace of what an intact forest can offer. </p><p>Parrish, the Nature Conservancy official, pointed to the "co-benefits" of carbon sequestration: protecting wildlife habitat for birds, mammals and amphibians; preserving the landscape with edible foraging and conservation hunting; and promoting recreation. These co-benefits can help sustain a forest owner's dedication to woodland management ― a dedication that Parrish, who manages 150 wooded acres in Pennsylvania, hopes to pass on to his daughters. </p><p>"A couple years ago I started thinking about legacy and thinking about when my two girls someday have the property and own it," said Parrish. "I want to make sure there are more tools around that can help them essentially understand the complexities around forest management and have the right tools to make the right decisions."</p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in</em> <em><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/" target="_blank">HuffPost</a></em> <em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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