‘Existential Threat to Our Survival’: See the 19 Australian Ecosystems Already Collapsing
27 February
Climate
Ningaloo Reef near Exmouth on April 2, 2012 in Western Australia. James D. Morgan / Getty Images News
By Dana M Bergstrom, Euan Ritchie, Lesley Hughes and Michael Depledge
In 1992, 1,700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were "on a collision course." Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and other life could have a "safe space to operate." These are environmental thresholds, such as the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and changes in land use.
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Crossing such boundaries was considered a risk that would cause environmental changes so profound, they genuinely posed an <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/david-attenboroughs-witness-statement-for-the-planet-commentary/" target="_blank">existential threat to humanity</a>.
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This grave reality is what our major research paper, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15539" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">published Thursday</a>, confronts.
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In what may be the most comprehensive evaluation of the environmental state of play in Australia, we show major and iconic ecosystems are collapsing across the continent and into Antarctica. These systems sustain life, and evidence of their demise shows we're exceeding planetary boundaries.
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<p>We found 19 Australian ecosystems met our criteria to be classified as "collapsing." This includes the arid interior, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ecocheck-australias-vast-majestic-northern-savannas-need-more-care-59897" target="_blank">savannas</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/extreme-weather-likely-behind-worst-recorded-mangrove-dieback-in-northern-australia-71880" target="_blank">mangroves</a> of northern Australia, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-just-spent-two-weeks-surveying-the-great-barrier-reef-what-we-saw-was-an-utter-tragedy-135197" target="_blank">Great Barrier Reef</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/shark-bay-a-world-heritage-site-at-catastrophic-risk-111194" target="_blank">Shark Bay</a>, southern Australia's <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-other-reef-is-worth-more-than-10-billion-a-year-but-have-you-heard-of-it-45600" target="_blank">kelp</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-the-australian-bush-is-recovering-from-bushfires-but-it-may-never-be-the-same-131390" target="_blank">alpine ash</a> forests, tundra on Macquarie Island, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/antarcticas-moss-forests-are-drying-and-dying-103751" target="_blank">moss beds in Antarctica</a>.</p><p>We define collapse as the state where ecosystems have changed in a substantial, negative way from their original state – such as species or habitat loss, or reduced vegetation or coral cover – and are unlikely to recover.</p>
The Good and Bad News
<p><span>Ecosystems consist of living and non-living components, and their interactions. They work like a super-complex engine: when some components are removed or stop working, knock-on consequences can lead to system failure.</span></p><p>Our study is based on measured data and observations, not modeling or predictions for the future. Encouragingly, not all ecosystems we examined have collapsed across their entire range. We still have, for instance, some intact reefs on the Great Barrier Reef, especially in deeper waters. And northern Australia has some of the most intact and least-modified stretches of savanna woodlands on Earth.</p><p><span>Still, collapses are happening, including in regions critical for growing food. This includes the </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/importance-murray-darling-basin/where-basin" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Murray-Darling Basin</a><span>, which covers around 14% of Australia's landmass. Its rivers and other freshwater systems support more than </span><a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/latestproducts/94F2007584736094CA2574A50014B1B6?opendocument" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30% of Australia's food</a><span> production.</span></p><p><span></span><span>The effects of floods, fires, heatwaves and storms do not stop at farm gates; they're felt equally in agricultural areas and natural ecosystems. We shouldn't forget how towns ran out of </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/issues-murray-darling-basin/drought#effects" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drinking water</a><span> during the recent drought.</span></p><p><span></span><span>Drinking water is also at risk when ecosystems collapse in our water catchments. In Victoria, for example, the degradation of giant </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/logging-must-stop-in-melbournes-biggest-water-supply-catchment-106922" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mountain Ash forests</a><span> greatly reduces the amount of water flowing through the Thompson catchment, threatening nearly five million people's drinking water in Melbourne.</span></p><p>This is a dire <em data-redactor-tag="em">wake-up</em> call — not just a <em data-redactor-tag="em">warning</em>. Put bluntly, current changes across the continent, and their potential outcomes, pose an existential threat to our survival, and other life we share environments with.</p><p><span>In investigating patterns of collapse, we found most ecosystems experience multiple, concurrent pressures from both global climate change and regional human impacts (such as land clearing). Pressures are often </span><a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2664.13427" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">additive and extreme</a><span>.</span></p><p>Take the last 11 years in Western Australia as an example.</p><p>In the summer of 2010 and 2011, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/marine-heatwaves-are-getting-hotter-lasting-longer-and-doing-more-damage-95637" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heatwave</a> spanning more than 300,000 square kilometers ravaged both marine and land ecosystems. The extreme heat devastated forests and woodlands, kelp forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. This catastrophe was followed by two cyclones.</p><p>A record-breaking, marine heatwave in late 2019 dealt a further blow. And another marine heatwave is predicted for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/24/wa-coastline-facing-marine-heatwave-in-early-2021-csiro-predicts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this April</a>.</p><h2>These 19 ecosystems are collapsing: read about each</h2>
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What to Do About It?
<p><span>Our brains trust comprises 38 experts from 21 universities, CSIRO and the federal Department of Agriculture Water and Environment. Beyond quantifying and reporting more doom and gloom, we asked the question: what can be done?</span></p><p>We devised a simple but tractable scheme called the 3As:</p><ul><li>Awareness of what is important</li><li>Anticipation of what is coming down the line</li><li>Action to stop the pressures or deal with impacts.</li></ul><p>In our paper, we identify positive actions to help protect or restore ecosystems. Many are already happening. In some cases, ecosystems might be better left to recover by themselves, such as coral after a cyclone.</p><p>In other cases, active human intervention will be required – for example, placing artificial nesting boxes for Carnaby's black cockatoos in areas where old trees have been <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/factsheet-carnabys-black-cockatoo-calyptorhynchus-latirostris" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">removed</a>.</p><p><span>"Future-ready" actions are also vital. This includes reinstating </span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/a-burning-question-fire/12395700" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultural burning practices</a><span>, which have </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-you-have-unfinished-business-its-time-to-let-our-fire-people-care-for-this-land-135196" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">multiple values and benefits for Aboriginal communities</a><span> and can help minimize the risk and strength of bushfires.</span></p><p>It might also include replanting banks along the Murray River with species better suited to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/my-garden-path---matt-hansen/12322978" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">warmer conditions</a>.</p><p>Some actions may be small and localized, but have substantial positive benefits.</p><p>For example, billions of migrating Bogong moths, the main summer food for critically endangered mountain pygmy possums, have not arrived in their typical numbers in Australian alpine regions in recent years. This was further exacerbated by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-million-hectares-of-threatened-species-habitat-up-in-smoke-129438" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2019-20</a> fires. Brilliantly, <a href="https://www.zoo.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zoos Victoria</a> anticipated this pressure and developed supplementary food — <a href="https://theconversation.com/looks-like-an-anzac-biscuit-tastes-like-a-protein-bar-bogong-bikkies-help-mountain-pygmy-possums-after-fire-131045" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bogong bikkies</a>.</p><p><span>Other more challenging, global or large-scale actions must address the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICpI9H0GkU&t=34s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">root cause of environmental threats</a><span>, such as </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0504-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human population growth and per-capita consumption</a><span> of environmental resources.</span><br></p><p>We must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero, remove or suppress invasive species such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mam.12080" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feral cats</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-buffel-kerfuffle-how-one-species-quietly-destroys-native-wildlife-and-cultural-sites-in-arid-australia-149456" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">buffel grass</a>, and stop widespread <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-fire-risk-and-meet-climate-targets-over-300-scientists-call-for-stronger-land-clearing-laws-113172" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">land clearing</a> and other forms of habitat destruction.</p>Our Lives Depend On It
<p>The multiple ecosystem collapses we have documented in Australia are a harbinger for <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/protected-areas/202102/natures-future-our-future-world-speaks" target="_blank">environments globally</a>.</p><p>The simplicity of the 3As is to show people <em>can</em> do something positive, either at the local level of a landcare group, or at the level of government departments and conservation agencies.</p><p>Our lives and those of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-are-our-future-and-the-planets-heres-how-you-can-teach-them-to-take-care-of-it-113759" target="_blank">children</a>, as well as our <a href="https://theconversation.com/taking-care-of-business-the-private-sector-is-waking-up-to-natures-value-153786" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">economies</a>, societies and <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-address-the-ecological-crisis-aboriginal-peoples-must-be-restored-as-custodians-of-country-108594" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultures</a>, depend on it.</p><p>We simply cannot afford any further delay.</p><p><em><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dana-m-bergstrom-1008495" target="_blank" style="">Dana M Bergstrom</a> is a principal research scientist at the University of Wollongong. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/euan-ritchie-735" target="_blank" style="">Euan Ritchie</a> is a professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences at Deakin University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lesley-hughes-5823" target="_blank">Lesley Hughes</a> is a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-depledge-114659" target="_blank">Michael Depledge</a> is a professor and chair, Environment and Human Health, at the University of Exeter. </em></p><p><em>Disclosure statements: Dana Bergstrom works for the Australian Antarctic Division and is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Wollongong. Her research including fieldwork on Macquarie Island and in Antarctica was supported by the Australian Antarctic Division.</em></p><p><em>Euan Ritchie receives funding from the Australian Research Council, The Australia and Pacific Science Foundation, Australian Geographic, Parks Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. Euan Ritchie is a Director (Media Working Group) of the Ecological Society of Australia, and a member of the Australian Mammal Society.</em></p><p><em>Lesley Hughes receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a Councillor with the Climate Council of Australia, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a Director of WWF-Australia.</em></p><p><em>Michael Depledge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/existential-threat-to-our-survival-see-the-19-australian-ecosystems-already-collapsing-154077" target="_blank" style="">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A mix of public and private forests in Oregon's Coast Range. Beverly Law / CC BY-ND
By Beverly Law and William Moomaw
Protecting forests is an essential strategy in the fight against climate change that has not received the attention it deserves. Trees capture and store massive amounts of carbon. And unlike some strategies for cooling the climate, they don't require costly and complicated technology.
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<p>Yet although <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/one-trillion-trees-world-economic-forum-launches-plan-to-help-nature-and-the-climate/" target="_blank">tree-planting initiatives are popular</a>, protecting and restoring existing forests rarely attracts the same level of support. As an example, forest protection was notably missing from the $447 million <a href="https://www.energy.senate.gov/services/files/32B4E9F4-F13A-44F6-A0CA-E10B3392D47A" target="_blank">Energy Act of 2020</a>, which the U.S. Congress passed in December 2020 to jump-start technological carbon capture and storage.</p><p>In our work as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=J2KWqAoAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">forest carbon cycle</a> and <a href="https://fletcher.tufts.edu/people/william-moomaw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a> scientists, we track carbon emissions from forests to wood products and all the way to landfills – and from forest fires. Our research shows that protecting carbon in forests is essential for meeting global climate goals.</p>
<p>Ironically, we see the U.S. <a href="https://www.energy.gov/fe/services/petroleum-reserves/strategic-petroleum-reserve" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Strategic Petroleum Reserve</a> as a model. This program, which was created after the 1973 oil crisis to guard against future supply disruptions, stores nearly 800 million gallons of oil in huge underground salt caverns along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. We propose creating strategic forest carbon reserves to store carbon as a way of stabilizing the climate, much as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve helps to stabilize oil markets.</p>
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The U.S. has more than 800 million acres of natural and planted forests and woodlands, of which nearly 60% are privately owned. USDA / USFS
<h3>Carbon Stockpiles That Grow</h3><p>Forests pull about one-third of all human-caused carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere each year. Researchers have calculated that ending <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation">deforestation</a> and allowing mature forests to keep growing could <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25138" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">enable forests to take up twice as much carbon</a>.</p><p>Half of a tree's stems, branches and roots are composed of carbon. Live and dead trees, along with forest soil, hold the equivalent of <a href="http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/ca9825en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">80% of all the carbon currently in Earth's atmosphere</a>.</p><p>Trees accumulate carbon over extremely long periods of time. For example, redwoods, Douglas firs and western red cedars in the coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest can live for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0901970106" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">800 years or more</a>. When they die and decompose, much of that carbon ends up in soil, where it is stored for centuries or millennia.</p><p>Mature trees that have reached full root, bark and canopy development deal with climate variability better than young trees. Older trees also store more carbon. <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-old-growth-forests/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Old-growth trees</a>, which usually are hundreds of years old, store enormous quantities of carbon in their wood, and accumulate more carbon annually.</p>
<p>There are many fallacies about forest carbon storage, such as the concern that wildfires in the American West are <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/California-wildfires-emitted-a-huge-amount-of-15775044.php" target="_blank">releasing huge quantities of carbon</a> into the atmosphere. In fact, fires are a relatively small carbon source. For example, the massive Biscuit Fire, which burned 772 square miles in southwest Oregon in 2002, emitted <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1720064115" target="_blank">less than 10% of Oregon's total emissions that year</a>.</p><p>Another false claim is that it's OK from a climate perspective to cut trees and turn them into furniture, plywood and other items because <a href="https://oregonforests.org/sites/default/files/2020-07/OFRI_CarbonSpecialReport_DIGITAL.pdf" target="_blank">wood products</a> can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1904231116" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">store substantial amounts of carbon</a>. These assertions fail to count <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-016-0066-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cradle-to-grave emissions</a> from logging and manufacturing, which can be substantial.</p><p>The wood products industry releases carbon in many ways, from manufacturing products and burning mill waste to the breakdown of short-lived items like paper towels. It takes decades to centuries for newly planted forests to accumulate the carbon storage levels of mature and old forests, and many planted forests are <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-3691-2013" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">repeatedly harvested</a>.</p>
<p>In a review that we conducted with colleagues in 2019, we found that overall, U.S. state and federal reporting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab28bb" target="_blank">underestimated wood product-related carbon dioxide emissions by 25% to 55%</a>. We analyzed Oregon carbon emissions from wood that had been harvested over the past century and discovered that 65% of the original carbon returned to the atmosphere as CO2. Landfills retained 16%, while just 19% remained in wood products.</p><p>In contrast, protecting high carbon-density western U.S. forests that have low vulnerability to mortality from drought or fire would sequester the equivalent of about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2039" target="_blank">six years</a> of fossil fuel emissions from the entire western U.S., from the Rocky Mountain states to the Pacific coast.</p>
<h3>Focus on Big Trees</h3><p>In a recently published analysis of carbon storage in six national forests in Oregon, we showed why a strategic forest carbon reserve program should <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2020.594274" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">focus on mature and old forests</a>. Big trees, with trunks more than 21 inches in diameter, make up just 3% of these forests but store 42% of the above-ground carbon. Globally, a 2018 study found that the largest-diameter 1% of trees hold <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12747" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">half of all the carbon stored in the world's forests</a>.</p><p>Findings like these are spurring interest in the idea of <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00027" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">proforestation</a> – keeping existing forests intact and letting them grow to their full potential. Advocates see proforestation as an effective, immediate and low-cost strategy to store carbon. Older forests are more resilient to climate change than <a href="https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v64i0.17159" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">young</a> tree plantations, which are more susceptible to drought and severe wildfires. Like the 2,000-year-old redwoods in California that have <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/2-000-year-old-redwoods-survive-wildfire-california-s-oldest-n1237949" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">survived recent wildfires</a>, many tree species in old forests have lived through past climate extremes.</p><p>Creating forest carbon reserves would also conserve critical habitat for many types of wildlife that are threatened by human activities. Connecting these reserves to other parks and refuges could help <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-climate-corridors-help-species-adapt-to-warming-world-61190" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">species that need to migrate</a> in response to climate change.</p>
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<h3>Using Forests to Meet Climate Goals</h3><p>More than half of U.S. forested lands <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/nrs/pubs/inf/nrs_inf_31_15-NWOS-whoowns.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">are privately owned</a>, so strategic forest carbon reserves should be established on both public and private lands. The challenge is paying for them, which will require a major shift in government and societal priorities. We believe that transferring public investment in oil and gas subsidies to pay private land owners to keep their forests growing could act as a <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/or/technical/cp/?cid=stelprdb1262209" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">powerful incentive</a> for private land owners.</p><p>Many researchers and conservation advocates have called for comprehensive actions to <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-solve-climate-change-and-biodiversity-loss-we-need-a-global-deal-for-nature-115557" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">slow climate change and reduce species losses</a>. One prominent example is the <a href="https://www.ncel.net/2020/02/27/30x30-land-and-water-conservation-in-the-states/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30x30 initiative</a>, which seeks to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw2869" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">conserve 30% of the world's land and oceans by 2030</a>. In an executive order on Jan. 27, 2021, President Biden directed his administration to develop plans for conserving at least 30% of <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/executive-order-on-tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">federally controlled lands and waters</a> by 2030.</p><p>Recent projections show that to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, governments will have to increase their pledges to reduce carbon emissions by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00097-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">as much as 80%</a>. We see the next 10 to 20 years as a critical window for climate action, and believe that permanent protection for mature and old forests is the greatest opportunity for near-term climate benefits.</p>
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<em>Beverly Law is professor emeritus of global change biology and terrestrial systems science at Oregon State University.<br/>
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<em><span style="background-color: initial;">William Moomaw is p</span>rofessor emeritus of international environmental policy at Tufts University.</em>
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<em>Disclosure statements: Beverly Law receives funding from U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. She is a Fellow of the Earth Leadership Program. </em><em>William Moomaw receives funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. He is affiliated with the Woodwell Climate Research Center, the Climate Group – North America, the Earthwatch Institute and the Nature Conservancy.</em>
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<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/keeping-trees-in-the-ground-where-they-are-already-growing-is-an-effective-low-tech-way-to-slow-climate-change-154618" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em></p><script async="async" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154618/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" type="text/javascript"></script>From Your Site Articles
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" data-width="710" data-height="959" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
$89
CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
$60
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Pexels
By Nancy Harris and David Gibbs
- Forests are an important asset in the fight against climate change.
- New research has found that they sequester around twice as much carbon dioxide as they emit, classifying them as a carbon sink.
- Forests emitted on average 8.1 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide and absorbed 16 billion between 2001 and 2019.
The world is getting a better understanding of just how important forests are in the global fight against climate change.
<p>New research, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-00976-6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change</a> and <a href="https://data.globalforestwatch.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">available</a> on Global Forest Watch, found that the world's forests sequestered about twice as much carbon dioxide as they emitted between 2001 and 2019. In other words, forests provide a "carbon sink" that absorbs a net 7.6 billion metric tonnes of CO2 per year, 1.5 times more carbon than the United States emits annually.</p>
<p>Unlike other sectors, where carbon makes a one-way trip to the atmosphere, forests act as a two-way highway, absorbing CO2 when standing or regrowing and releasing it when cleared or degraded.</p><p>Before now, scientists estimated these global "carbon fluxes" from the sum of country-reported data, creating a coarse picture of the role forests play in both carbon emissions and sequestration. With these new data that combine ground measurements with satellite observations, we can now quantify carbon fluxes consistently over any area, from small local forests to countries to entire continents.</p><p>Using this more granular information, we found that the world's forests emitted an average of 8.1 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year due to deforestation and other disturbances, and absorbed 16 billion metric tonnes of CO2 per year.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY0OTQ1Ni9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzOTgzMzY0OX0.0mbYjLiLJjyz5IYeZZbUCjMuxTgGd7JZmMnkOAhSzKo/img.png?width=980" id="1317d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ede9795d21f09bb880216f0f64acf091" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1026" data-height="610" />
Forests are capable of both producing and absorbing carbon. World Resources Institute
Here’s a look at what else the new maps tell us about forests and carbon:
<p><strong>Only One Major Tropical Rainforest Remains a Strong Carbon Sink</strong></p><p>Tropical rainforests are far and away the most important ecosystems for mitigating climate change. Tropical rainforests collectively sequester more carbon from the atmosphere than temperate or boreal forests, but they're also increasingly destroyed for agricultural expansion. The world's three largest tropical rainforests are located in the Amazon, Congo River basin and Southeast Asia.</p><p>Over the past 20 years, forests across Southeast Asia have collectively become a net source of carbon emissions due to clearing for plantations, uncontrolled fires and drainage of peat soils.</p><p>The Amazon River basin, which stretches across nine countries in South America, is still a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2035-0?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nature%2Frss%2Fcurrent+%28Nature+-+Issue%29" target="_blank">net carbon sink</a>, but teeters on the edge of becoming a net source if forest loss continues at current rates. The Amazon basin has experienced heightened deforestation in the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-environment/deforestation-in-brazils-amazon-skyrockets-to-12-year-high-under-bolsonaro-idUSKBN28B3MV" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">last four years</a> due to clearing for cattle pasture and degradation from fires.</p><p>Of the world's three largest tropical rainforests, only the Congo has enough standing forest left to remain a strong net carbon sink. The Congo's tropical rainforest sequesters 600 million metric tonnes more carbon dioxide per year than it emits, equivalent to about one-third of the CO2 emissions from all U.S. transportation.</p><p>Protecting the remaining forests in all three regions is critical to mitigating climate change.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY0OTQ2Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODExMzU1Mn0.oww1ZQhNMGSyiNovSFferQC7F8pk6lV1M6Ndu-OKGHk/img.png?width=980" id="d8770" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d87da0c3756f0d3435ee81af9f8d852e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1024" data-height="664" />
Different forests absorb and emit different amounts. World Resources Institute
<p><strong>Protected Areas Help Conserve Forest Carbon Sinks</strong></p><p>The precarious state of the Amazonian carbon sink highlights the need to protect the forests we have left in this region and elsewhere around the world. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/107/24/10821" target="_blank">Protected areas</a> and indigenous reserves are some of our most valuable tools in the climate action toolbox, combined with command-and-control policies.</p><p>The new map reveals that 27% of the world's net forest carbon sink falls within protected areas. Looking at individual areas demonstrates just how effective these designations can be in keeping CO2 in forests.</p><p>For example, in Brazil, a stark contrast in carbon emissions is evident between the protected Menkragnotí indigenous reserve and the surrounding unprotected forest. Forests in the reserve continue to absorb approximately 10 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide more from the atmosphere than they emit every year — equivalent to the annual carbon emissions from more than 2 million cars. The area surrounding the Menkragnotí indigenous reserve has become a net carbon source due to clearing for mining, pasture and soy.</p><p>Recognizing Indigenous Peoples and local communities as owners of their lands, and enforcing those rights, is a <a href="https://www.wri.org/publication/climate-benefits-tenure-costs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">proven strategy</a> to protect standing forests and enhance carbon stored in them.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY0OTQ3NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NTcxODI4Mn0.E2heiCpABu_jxJWJzQiREfhHmoz19goymWV-dTby17M/img.png?width=980" id="d1caa" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c2a26b242d148e5965bddea9a04eb74c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1038" data-height="1216" />
The Amazon rainforest absorbs lot carbon. World Resources Institute
<p><strong>Forestry Carbon Flux Varies Based on Management Practices</strong></p><p>Nowhere is the bidirectional nature of carbon flux more apparent than in the world's managed forests, which are cut and regrown to produce timber and concentrated mainly in the United States, Canada, China, Europe and Russia. In these managed forest areas, some patches of trees are harvested or thinned at planned intervals, leading to carbon emissions, while others are left to regrow and absorb carbon.</p><p>Ultimately, whether managed forests are carbon sources or sinks depends on how they're managed — how much time elapses between harvest cycles, how much forest is cut, the age of the trees, and, importantly, the total area over which fluxes are calculated.</p><p>Zooming in on individual clear-cuts in the new map shows CO2 emissions from the abrupt loss of tree cover during harvest. But at the landscape scale, forestry becomes a patchwork of both CO2 emissions from harvest and carbon removals from previously harvested forests growing back. On the whole, most well-managed forests are net carbon sinks.</p><p>Logging in pristine primary forests, however, still represents a concern with respect to both climate and biodiversity. Unlike secondary forests or fast-rotation pine or eucalyptus plantations, harvesting in <a href="https://www.ancientforestalliance.org/caycuse-watershed-logging-2020/" target="_blank">old-growth forests</a> releases CO2 that has taken centuries to accumulate — carbon that, once lost, is irrecoverable in our lifetime.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY0OTQ3Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTkxMzc0OX0.33NpNZG-IdnD4Ld3hcqKJMkI3WC73uYxYVnNbib_Qjw/img.png?width=980" id="41c7f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d055ac66dd372794681bd89af9add65c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1032" data-height="524" />
Forest harvesting is big contributour to emissions. World Resources Institute
<p><strong>Protecting Standing Forests is Critical for Climate Mitigation</strong></p><p>Overall, the data show that keeping existing forests standing remains our best hope for maintaining the vast amount of carbon forests store and continuing the carbon sequestration that, if halted, will worsen the effects of climate change.</p><p>While planting new trees <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/02/want-grow-trees-consider-these-5-lessons" target="_blank">(the right way)</a> or <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/09/carbon-sequestration-natural-forest-regrowth" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">letting them regrow naturally</a> can play a role in mitigating climate change (and helping communities adapt to its effects), the new data show that forests that have sprouted up in the past 19 years represent less than 5% of the current global forest carbon sink.</p><p>Although important to give these young forests the chance to grow into old ones, protecting primary and mature secondary forests today is most important for curbing climate change.</p><p>With these new maps, we can identify with unprecedented detail those forests that are capturing and emitting the most carbon. The maps can also be continually improved as better data become available. This gets us one step closer to tracking progress toward reducing emissions from deforestation and identifying where forests are being successfully managed — and where they need more protection.</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/02/forests-climate-change-carbon-absorb-environment-earth-trees/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
EON's biofuel power station in Lockerbie Scotland with timber supplies. Ashley Cooper / Construction Photography / Avalon / Getty Images
By Andrea Germanos
A group of more than 500 international scientists on Thursday urged world leaders to end policies that prop up the burning of trees for energy because it poses "a double climate problem" that threatens forests' biodiversity and efforts to stem the planet's ecological emergency.
<p>The demand came in a letter addressed to European Commission President Urusla Von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The signatories—including renowned botanist Dr. Peter Raven, president emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden—reject the assertion that burning biomass is carbon neutral.</p>
<div id="200b9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4af740861bc34234a0593375af60c730"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1359919525727207427" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">"Regrowth takes time the world does not have to solve climate change”
Over 500 scientists tell world leaders, to st… https://t.co/kFt4ofX6l6</div> — Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg)<a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/statuses/1359919525727207427">1613065055.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Referring to forest "preservation and restoration" as key in meeting the nations' declared goals of carbon neutrality by 2050, the letter frames the slashing of trees for bioenergy as "misguided."</p><p>"We urge you not to undermine both climate goals and the world's biodiversity by shifting from burning fossil fuels to burning trees to generate energy," the group wrote.</p><p>The destruction of forests, which are a carbon sink, creates a "carbon debt." And though regrowing "trees and displacement of fossil fuels may eventually pay off this carbon debt," the signatories say that "regrowth takes time the world does not have to solve climate change."</p><p>What's more, burning trees is "carbon-inefficient," they say. "Overall, for each kilowatt hour of heat or electricity produced, using wood initially is likely to add two to three times as much carbon to the air as using fossil fuels."</p><p>Another issue is that efforts using taxpayer money to sustain biomass burning stymies what are truly renewable energy policies.</p><p>"Government subsidies for burning wood create a double climate problem because this false solution is replacing real carbon reductions," the letter states. "Companies are shifting fossil energy use to wood, which increases warming, as a substitute for shifting to solar and wind, which would truly decrease warming."</p><p>The letter denounces as further troubling proposals to burn palm oil and soybean, which would entail further <a href="https://www.grain.org/fr/entries/5714-green-oil-palm-plantations-are-a-scam-the-case-of-olam" target="_blank">deforestation</a> to make way for palm and soy crops.</p><p>Merely making countries responsible for the emissions that stem from land use changes is insufficient, the scientists write, because that would "not alter the incentives created by [national] laws for power plants and factories to burn wood."</p><p>As such, the letter calls on governments to end measures including subsidies that advance the burning of biomass. More specifically, the group writes:</p><blockquote>The European Union needs to stop treating the burning of biomass as carbon neutral in its renewable energy standards and in its emissions trading system. Japan needs to stop subsidizing power plants to burn wood. And the United States needs to avoid treating biomass as carbon neutral or low carbon as the new administration crafts climate rules and creates incentives to reduce global warming.<br></blockquote><p>Simply put, "Trees are more valuable alive than dead both for climate and for biodiversity," the letter states.</p><p>The letter was released after groups including WWF urged the European Commission to change the Renewable Energy Directive so that the law would not classify as carbon neutral, and thus not subsidize, the burning of trees and crops for energy. The advocacy groups <a href="https://www.eubioenergy.com/2021/01/25/burning-trees-is-not-climate-solution/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">asked</a> people to sign onto a petition by February 9 to "help end this madness."</p><p>"Fighting the climate emergency without changing the EU's biomass rules is like trying to bail out a boat with a hole in the bottom," Alex Mason, senior policy officer at WWF's European Policy Office, <a href="https://www.wwf.eu/?uNewsID=2128466" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> in a statement Thursday.</p><p>"The revision of the EU renewables law is a crucial chance; the Commission must listen to scientists and citizens and stop trees being burned in the name of the climate," said Mason.</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/12/500-scientists-demand-stop-tree-burning-climate-solution" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em></p>
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Left: vkyryl / iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus, Right: Stacy Funderburke / The Conservation Fund
When you think of wooden furniture, you probably think of forest destruction, not conservation.
But furniture giant IKEA is trying to reverse that assumption. The Ingka Group, the franchise's largest owner, just bought 10,840 acres of forest in southeast Georgia, Reuters reported. The purchase comes with legally-binding commitments to restore native trees and protect habitat for a unique species of tortoise.
<p>"The acquisition strengthens Ingka Group's commitment to responsible forest management, as conservation measures are fully included in the forest management plans," the group wrote in a Jan. 14 press release <a href="https://www.conservationfund.org/impact/press-releases/2391-ingka-investments-acquires-forestland-from-the-fund" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announcing the deal</a>. </p>
<p>Ingka bought the land from the Conservation Fund. This is a group that works to preserve working forests that would otherwise be fragmented and sold off in parcels, <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90594218/why-ikea-just-bought-an-11000-acre-forest-in-georgia" target="_blank">Fast Company explained</a>. The organization buys forest land and puts in place requirements that it be kept intact, that native species be restored and preserved and that the public have access to hike on the land. Then it resells the forests to owners who promise to abide by these requirements.</p><p>In the case of the Georgia forest, the press release explained, the Ingka Group has legally pledged to restore longleaf pine forest and protect habitat for the gopher tortoise, the only species of land tortoise native to the southeastern U.S., according to the <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/ga/programs/financial/eqip/?cid=stelprdb1047006#:~:text=The%20gopher%20tortoise%20is%20state,Mississippi%20and%20Alabama)%20in%201987." target="_blank">U.S. Department of Agriculture</a>.</p>
<div id="a311f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="98585a725e14c29d846fc4dda4bb52a3"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1349716316022824961" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A partnership with IngkaGroup & @IKEA will complete our efforts to conserve & responsibly manage 10K+ acres of work… https://t.co/pQZfTwOSZv</div> — The Conservation Fund (@The Conservation Fund)<a href="https://twitter.com/ConservationFnd/statuses/1349716316022824961">1610632420.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"We are honored to work with Ingka Group and applaud its dedication to preserve and enhance forest quality in the U.S. and Europe," Conservation Fund President and CEO Larry Selzer said in the press release. "Well-managed forests provide essential benefits, including clean water and important <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> habitat, as well as mitigating <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate change</a>."<br></p><p>The purchase of the Georgia forest is part of IKEA's wider goal to be climate positive by 2030, Fast Company explained. This means the company will draw down more carbon dioxide than it emits.</p><p>The Ingka Group also owns other forested land in the U.S. and Europe. With the Georgia forest, it now owns 136,000 acres in the U.S. and 613,000 acres total, according to the press release.</p>
<p>An Ingka spokesperson told Fast Company that "no significant amount" of its U.S. forest holdings go towards making IKEA furniture. The group works to ensure that tree growth in its forests exceeds harvesting every year.</p><p>"We are committed to managing our forests sustainably while at the same time meeting our business objectives. In all our properties, we pay special attention to ensuring environmental protection, so we are happy to see that our efforts in working with responsible forest management are being seen and trusted," Krister Mattsson, the managing director of Ingka Investments, said in the press release.</p><p>Also this month, IKEA <a href="https://newsroom.inter.ikea.com/news/all/ikea-launches-new-2030-forest-agenda-to-push-for-improved-forest-management-and-biodiversity-globall/s/027f441f-53c8-4d4d-9032-310f626f4cc4" target="_blank">announced</a> that it had reached a goal of ensuring that 98 percent of its wood was either recycled or came from sources certified by the <a href="https://us.fsc.org/en-us/certification" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Forest Stewardship Council</a> as being responsibly managed. The company launched a new Forest Positive Agenda for 2030 that includes commitments to making sure one-third of its wood is recycled and promote responsible forest management beyond its own supply chains.</p>
<div id="f3b23" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9acecab3095afa8758c61f99c68d29c6"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1353718899704008704" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">By working together with our suppliers and partners, we reached our 2020 forestry goal – more than 98% of the wood… https://t.co/L9vKq9eWc8</div> — IKEA (@IKEA)<a href="https://twitter.com/IKEA/statuses/1353718899704008704">1611586711.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"At IKEA, we want to make responsible forest management the norm, to stop deforestation, enhance biodiversity and support people who depend on forests for their livelihood," Inter IKEA Group CEO Jon Abrahamsson Ring said in the announcement. "Responsibly managed forests also play a vital role in climate change mitigation. By enforcing strict requirements, and partnering with different organisations across the world, we have contributed to moving the forestry sector forward. Still the pressure on the world's forests and the surrounding eco-systems is increasing. Now it is time to take an even more holistic approach to protect and support these important resources for generations to come."</p>
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Area bordering Kaxarari Indigenous territory in Labrea, Amazonas state, Brazil, in August, 2020. Christian Braga / Greenpeace
Tropical forests are guardians against runaway climate change, but their ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is wearing down. The Amazon, which accounts for more than half of the world's rainforest cover, is on the verge of turning into a carbon source.
<p><br/></p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTU0NjM3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MzI0NTEyNH0.LiRJxETND8w2jTlQqMhF6FG8rYLgPqjNsxnkDuH2ads/img.jpg?width=980" id="f3111" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d4fbecfe6665dc592829aa1a4c66f368" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="800" />
Deforested peat forest in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay
<p>Overall, forests remain a carbon sink, stashing away 7.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-00976-6" target="_blank">according to a recent study published</a> in <em>Nature Climate Change</em>. But in the last 20 years alone, forests in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia, have turned into net emitters of carbon, thanks to the spread of plantations, raging fires, and loss of peatlands.</p><p>Human activities are producing record-breaking emissions — atmospheric carbon dioxide hit a 4-million-year high last year — and they are hacking into the planet's sturdiest defenses.</p><p>Spread across 5.5 million square kilometers (2.1 million square miles) in nine countries in South America, the Amazon is still sucking out carbon from the air — but only just.</p><p>Most of the Amazon lies in Brazil, and between 2001 and 2019 the Brazilian Amazon acted as a net <em>emitter</em> of carbon, the study found.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTU0NjM4My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MDg2MTMxOH0.fD1UsYx2S2FOoYsrLnXM2dsmUOr1FYdF8smCi3OmN_s/img.png?width=980" id="43f89" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="86f62e7cc3f99bf78b5aba4b767b8e07" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1349" data-height="925" />
<p>Since Jair Bolsonaro became president at the start of 2019, Brazil has seen increased deforestation through clearing land for cattle pastures and through fires. The 2019 fire season raised concerns across the world about the health of the forests in Brazil, but deforestation has been steadily eating away into its green cover for years.</p><p>Of the three great swaths of tropical rainforest left on Earth, only those of the Congo Basin still stand strong.</p><p>Tropical forests grow quickly and absorb the most carbon of any type of forest. During photosynthesis, they use carbon dioxide to produce energy and biomass. Because trees lock away carbon dioxide, when forests are destroyed, not only is this vital function lost, but the stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTU0NjM5MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3MTU4NTQzNn0.48bs-bFfeEVUtBgE9eYPGwD-OTdv6ukOZLoq47Lc-f0/img.png?width=980" id="90dbd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0238d12f10a377952547696688fe25e1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1349" data-height="926" />
<p>Forests are considered a carbon sink when they absorb more carbon dioxide than is released through land-use changes and forest destruction.</p><p>A <u><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/tropical-forests-may-flip-into-carbon-sources-sooner-than-feared-study-finds/" target="_blank">2020 study predicted </a></u>the Amazon would turn into a carbon source in the next 15 years.</p><p>What is especially worrying is the loss of pristine swaths of forests that have kept carbon out of the atmosphere for decades, if not centuries. Madagascar, the world's oldest island, has lost nearly 90% of its natural forests in four decades. Since the turn of the century, unlike many African countries, it has turned into a carbon source, according to the analysis.</p><p>"Unlike secondary forests or fast-rotation pine or eucalyptus plantations, harvesting in old-growth forests releases CO2 that has taken centuries to accumulate — carbon that, once lost, is irrecoverable in our lifetime," the paper's authors write.</p><p>Forests lapsing into net producers of carbon emissions is terrible news for the planet, but it is also bad news for the forests themselves. Climate change is known to contribute to intense fire seasons and prolonged droughts that can prove fatal to trees.</p>
<p>One bright spot in the analysis is that more than a quarter of greenhouse gas removal occurred in forests in protected areas. The authors cite the example of the Menkragnotí Indigenous Territory in Brazil, where forests continue to absorb emissions equal to those from 2 million cars every year — even though surrounding forests have turned into net carbon sources. The researchers say mining activities, cattle ranching, and soy cultivation are to blame.</p><p>The research also represents an advancement in carbon accounting. The conventional method is to rely on data from individual countries. The new approach combines satellite data with ground measurements and presents a more refined picture. It evens out calculations on different scales, making it possible to estimate emissions and removals for small forest patches as well as countries and continents.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/amazon-is-on-the-brink-of-turning-into-a-carbon-source-study-warns/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>
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Candles spell out, "Fight for 1 point 5" in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany on Dec. 11, 2020, in reference to 1.5°C of Earth's warming. The event was organized by the Fridays for Future climate movement. Sean Gallup / Getty Images
Taking an unconventional approach to conduct the largest-ever poll on climate change, the United Nations' Development Program and the University of Oxford surveyed 1.2 million people across 50 countries from October to December of 2020 through ads distributed in mobile gaming apps.
<p>The survey found that 64 percent of people think climate change is a global emergency and only 10 percent think world leaders are doing enough to address it. The number of people who considered climate change an emergency was even higher – 69 percent – among those ages 14 to 18.</p>
<p>The survey also asked respondents to rank 18 specific policies to address climate change, and found that the most popular policies were restoring <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forests">forests</a>, using <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable energy</a>, and using climate-friendly farming techniques. "There is a groundswell of people that are saying even during a pandemic that climate change is an emergency and here's how we want to solve it," Cassie Flynn, UNDP's strategic adviser on climate change and head of its Climate Promise initiative, told Al Jazeera.</p>
<p>As reported by <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/un-global-climate-poll-emergency-b1793331.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108324171&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9x2ijtybjo01Uk9iTfp3eNe6jazgollKX8XbI3eMA2rm_aZc8sKULEaVp-EqpyVVFEm50lR9S0Ba4jZivLcR27YY_eMg&utm_content=108324171&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Independent</a>:</p><blockquote>More than 30 million invites to the survey were issued to people when they played a popular mobile game – such as Words With Friends, Angry Birds, Dragon City or Subway Surfers.</blockquote><blockquote>The findings were weighted by polling experts at Oxford University to be as representative as possible for each country.</blockquote><blockquote>Cassie Flynn, the UNDP's strategic adviser on climate change, told <em>The Guardian</em>: "The voice of the people is clear – they want action on climate change.</blockquote><blockquote>"If 64 per cent of the world's people are believing in a climate emergency then it helps governments to respond to the climate crisis as an emergency.</blockquote><blockquote>"The key message is that, as governments are making these high-stakes decisions, the people are with them."</blockquote>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong><br/></p><p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/1/27/64-of-people-surveyed-say-climate-change-calls-for-urgent-action?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108324171&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9YVrdbTrMv3vblDrs20eAJB379K0-v_pYc8RFC8_n02dH1g5zO9RqBWTvJucBfKHGuYDaZkoWkpgqI5ePvsFgeF5edQA&utm_content=108324171&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Al Jazeera</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-27/teenagers-in-top-emitting-nations-believe-climate-change-is-a-global-threat?utm" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/27/un-global-climate-poll-peoples-voice-is-clear-they-want-action?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108324171&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_TWnOIOpArVTX5eXJ-JYp21d2coAf04ZrHN_cVNV0rep9ARDYp6JmcKmG8c9YpJBIxupYqMpmTvCeXEc3rUhxYPnoD5g&utm_content=108324171&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-un/greta-thunbergs-generation-most-likely-to-believe-climate-change-is-a-crisis-poll-idUSKBN29W0EG?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108324171&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_BIEa1d6a4tl5dHib409_7p_G4tPhGeHoARqer5GlCTbW8fvoRPCCwM6rIXYEKKlTSKiSGPzBM-gYSxNpsvq7MFHqP1g&utm_content=108324171&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Reuters</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/public-backs-climate-change-action-across-globe-massive-u-n-n1255811?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108324171&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8EvoO9ZuvBAYhoGY_ce6TuShnzmxqhM2nn1MlbhoEyY9R3oyh0B4F4uNasQ2SPdCn0YVjsB-4UuN8Zp-jkZp1x3CRXFQ&utm_content=108324171&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">NBC</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55802902?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108324171&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9uuWZWs35P6pWmDxGtjiSR83nWSLvnnPMAVkwhwMnARJw3jtEfCBva1v5Zr-EqEPHIBIsMDSFP832oSRTKzd2pHV79-A&utm_content=108324171&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">BBC</a>, <a href="https://www.axios.com/climate-change-un-poll-backs-global-emergency-f442a7e8-77e3-4726-901b-bb6681e46a8f.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108324171&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_g6juwf0dzyFCEJ1SGZRvuLZkyyM2EXlijr5Ln_M7xWbqy4tkyJFfKS_3hAFzbDJqgAb4h101Ups4_3QQk28PPJYF3QA&utm_content=108324171&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Axios</a>, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/un-global-climate-poll-emergency-b1793331.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108324171&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9x2ijtybjo01Uk9iTfp3eNe6jazgollKX8XbI3eMA2rm_aZc8sKULEaVp-EqpyVVFEm50lR9S0Ba4jZivLcR27YY_eMg&utm_content=108324171&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Independent</a>, <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2265764-climate-change-seen-as-global-emergency-by-64-per-cent-of-people/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108324171&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8AVP2cuXnj7SlmEyZeyeGuMVfPE9y9rqP0oYBrYi0KFNJ8yd1NcFO2m5XRzm2y9Zn5x5-ZkI_DixunLtU2PdJk5xjKWw&utm_content=108324171&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">New Scientist</a>, <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/climate-change-is-an-emergency-majority-says-in-unique-gaming-app-survey-sent-to-1-2-million-people-in-17-languages-11611745558?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108324171&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_p3MChLXRxhQjWjRt1d-iR8WygJGiueaP21XKyb_VQkjzSunZjVdh6-KLCJhCE0myfwkrrLBV8hyaXkTIXEq8CJKe2xQ&utm_content=108324171&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">MarketWatch</a><br/></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, sign up for daily </em><a href="https://www.linktrack.live/hot-news-sign-up" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>, and visit their news site, </em><a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nexus Media News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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By Katherine Kornei
Clear-cutting a forest is relatively easy—just pick a tree and start chopping. But there are benefits to more sophisticated forest management. One technique—which involves repeatedly harvesting smaller trees every 30 or so years but leaving an upper story of larger trees for longer periods (60, 90, or 120 years)—ensures a steady supply of both firewood and construction timber.
<p>To determine when this management practice first arose in Europe, researchers have analyzed oak construction timbers from historical buildings and archaeological sites dating from the 4th to 21st centuries. They spotted a characteristic tree ring pattern indicative of this technique in timber dating back to the 6th century. That was a surprise, the researchers noted, because this forest management practice shows up in historical documents beginning only in the 13th century.</p>
A Pattern in the Rings
<p>The <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/coppice-standards-0" target="_blank">coppice-with-standards</a> management practice produces a two-story forest, said <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bernhard_Muigg" target="_blank">Bernhard Muigg</a>, a dendrochronologist at the University of Freiburg in Germany. "You have an upper story of single trees that are allowed to grow for several understory generations."</p><p>That arrangement imprints a characteristic tree ring pattern in a forest's upper story trees (the "standards"): thick rings indicative of heavy growth, which show up at regular intervals as the surrounding smaller trees are cut down. "The trees are growing faster," said Muigg. "You can really see it with your naked eye."</p><p>Muigg and his collaborators characterized that <a href="https://ltrr.arizona.edu/about/treerings" target="_blank">dendrochronological pattern</a> in 161 oak trees growing in central Germany, one of the few remaining sites in Europe with actively managed coppice-with-standards forests. They found up to nine cycles of heavy growth in the trees, the oldest of which was planted in 1761. The researchers then turned to a historical data set — more than 2,000 oak <a href="https://eos.org/articles/podcast-discovering-europes-history-through-its-timbers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">timbers from buildings and archaeological sites</a> in Germany and France dating from between 300 and 2015 — to look for a similar pattern.</p>A Gap of 500 Years
<p>The team found wood with the characteristic coppice-with-standards tree ring pattern dating to as early as the 6th century. That was a surprise, Muigg and his colleagues concluded, because the first mention of this forest management practice in historical documents occurred only roughly 500 years later, in the 13th century.</p><p>It's probable that forest management practices were not well documented prior to the High Middle Ages (1000–1250), the researchers suggested. "Forests are mainly mentioned in the context of royal hunting interests or donations," said Muigg. Dendrochronological studies are particularly important because they can reveal information not captured by a sparse historical record, he added.</p><p>These results were <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-78933-8" target="_blank">published in December in <em>Scientific Reports</em></a>.</p><p>"It's nice to see the longevity and the history of coppice-with-standards," said <a href="https://www.teagasc.ie/contact/staff-directory/s/ian-short/" target="_blank">Ian Short</a>, a forestry researcher at Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority in Ireland, not involved in the research. This technique is valuable because it promotes conservation and habitat biodiversity, Short said. "In the next 10 or 20 years, I think we'll see more coppice-with-standards coming back into production."</p><p>In the future, Muigg and his collaborators hope to analyze a larger sample of historic timbers to trace how the coppice-with-standards practice spread throughout Europe. It will be interesting to understand where this technique originated and how it propagated, said Muigg, and there are plenty of old pieces of wood waiting to be analyzed. "There [are] tons of dendrochronological data."</p><p><em><a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Katherine Kornei</a> is a freelance science journalist covering Earth and space science. Her bylines frequently appear in Eos, Science, and The New York Times. Katherine holds a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of California, Los Angeles.</em></p><p><em>This story originally appeared in <a href="https://eos.org/articles/tree-rings-reveal-how-ancient-forests-were-managed" target="_blank">Eos</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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Deforestation in the Tibú municipality. Colombian Army Vulcano Task Force
By René Mora, Translated by Romina Castagnino
- Catatumbo Barí National Natural Park protects the unique, remote rainforest in northeastern Colombia.
- Satellite data show the park lost 6.2% of its tree cover between 2001 and 2019, with several months of unusually high deforestation in 2020.
- Sources say illegal coca cultivation is rapidly expanding in and around Catatumbo Barí and is driving deforestation as farmers move in and clear forest to grow the illicit crop, which is used to make cocaine.
- Area residents say armed groups are controlling the trade of coca in and out of the region, and are largely operating in an atmosphere of impunity.
The Catatumbo River originates in northeastern Colombia's Norte de Santander Department and flows to Venezuelan Lake Maracaibo. For generations, it has provided passage for fishermen and small farmers; but increasingly, it is being used to transport illegal good like weapons, timber and coca crops, from which cocaine is produced.
<p>The location of the Catatumbo region sits on the border with Venezuela, making it a strategic route for armed groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN), dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), to traffic drugs out of Colombia. Territorial disputes over coca-producing areas reportedly happen daily, and residents say they live in fear of displacement or even death if they speak out about illegal activities connected to the region's drug trade. Those who agreed to speak to Mongabay did so on the condition of anonymity; their names have been changed in this story.</p><p>"Be very careful with this information," said Pablo*, a farmer.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2ODc5MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTIyNjE0N30.TzMW_mGYslRJ70XrAaDrZ5qbvsZPZozBB7BW7QHcRvg/img.jpg?width=980" id="fce7b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="537ddc73f5964aaa249fde0493f8b5f0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="800" data-height="600" />
Recently cleared land in Catatumbo Barí National Natural Park. Colombian Army Vulcano Task Force
<p>In addition to a threatening environment for local communities, the illegal cultivation of coca and its manufacture into cocaine appears to be coming at the cost of the region's forests. Even areas given the highest level of protection are not immune – including Catatumbo Barí National Natural Park, where satellites are detecting <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation">deforestation</a> creeping deeper and deeper into the park's old-growth rainforest.</p>The Rise of Coca
<p>Today Pablo cultivates legal crops, but until a few years ago he was a coca grower. He said he has watched as coca fields have expanded to the edges of the roads and banks of the Catatumbo River with total impunity, thus breaking with the old practice of growers cultivating coca in more remote, hidden areas.</p><p>"Now people burn pastures to cultivate coca that used to be destined for livestock or growing fruit … They don't respect anything, not even the river," Pablo said.</p><p>Pablo says that since the arrival of coca in 1997, the region has not been the same and that the situation deteriorated further after the signing of the FARC peace agreement in 2016.</p><p>"There are almost no trees left and the wells in the creeks and river where I bathed when I was a child no longer exist because of the landslides," said Pablo, who has lived more than 50 years in the same region.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5dc27b480aaca15992c06af66251fcd0"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JdzvmmDOkFo?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Pablo added that, ultimately, farmers have opted for the money that comes with coca cultivation over the peace of mind of growing legal crops.</p><p>"The business is not bad if you cultivate enough [coca leaves], not like the scraps I had," he said, referencing the less-than 10 hectares (24 acres) of land he once owned. He claims that coca fields tend to be larger now, some hundreds of hectares in size.</p><p>According to Pablo, one kilo of coca paste is selling for approximately 2.7 million pesos ($790). If the buyer is someone from the guerrilla group, they sell it for 2.58 million pesos ($755). Meanwhile, the price of one kilo of cacao – a popular legal crop in the area whose cultivation has been encouraged by the government to combat the coca industry – is just 8,000 pesos ($2.30).</p><p>Government policies and strategies aimed at reducing coca cultivation have been controversial.</p><p>"The programs have only targeted families that grow illicit crops," said Jericó, a cacao producer. "Families who do not have these crops have been displaced and are being indirectly told that they have to grow coca to be beneficiaries of the programs."</p>
Increasing Deforestation
<p><span>Catatumbo Barí National Natural Park is nestled in the foothills of the eastern mountain range in the department of Norte de Santander and covers 158,125 hectares (390,735 acres) with elevations ranging from 70 to 2,000 meters (230 to 6,562 feet) above sea level. Orchids, bromeliads, lianas and heliconias predominate in the park, as well as trees over 45 meters (148 feet) tall. It harbors part of the Catatumbo Moist Forest ecoregion, which is the only area north of the Andes inhabited by Amazonian plants and animals – and which has been heavily degraded by agriculture and oil extraction.</span></p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2ODc4OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NjM5MjUwM30.Gcj2XcidosnL2I4W8As-z0yAv2ahMW_ChbUzf_T9z4c/img.jpg?width=980" id="08a50" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6c0e61c933d5fed7436c63d60311366c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="800" data-height="600" />
Much of the forest of the Catatumbo region has been fragmented. Colombian Army Vulcano Task Force
<p>Catatumbo Barí is more than six hours from Cúcuta, the capital of Norte de Santander Department, and there is little, if any, passable road access. The best way to get there is by boat with the help of the Barí, the Indigenous group that occupies a sector of the park across two reservations: Motilón Barí which comprises 108,900 hectares (269,097 acres) and Gabarra-Catalaura of 13,300 hectares (32,865 acres).</p><p>Along the way to the park, fields of coca crops are easy to see.</p><p>"The crops are reaching Cúcuta," said an inhabitant of the region.</p><p>Tibú is one of the municipalities that has jurisdiction over the park. It's also the municipality with the highest deforestation rate in Norte de Santander. According to the latest report from the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam), 7,103 hectares (17,551 acres) were cleared in Tibú in 2019, representing 72% of its area.</p><p>According to the United Nations' Integrated Illicit Crops Monitoring System (SIMCI), 41,711 hectares (103,070 acres) of coca crops were cultivated across the region in 2019, an increase of more than 76% over 2016 when SIMCI recorded 24,831 hectares (61,358 acres) of coca cultivation.</p><p>Norte de Santander lost 11% of its tree cover between 2001 and 2019, according to satellite data from the University of Maryland (UMD), while Catatumbo Barí National Natural Park <a href="https://www.globalforestwatch.org/map/aoi/5ff740a7cb55fc001ba83567/?category=summary&gladAlerts=eyJ3ZWVrcyI6NTJ9&mainMap=eyJzaG93QW5hbHlzaXMiOnRydWV9&map=eyJjZW50ZXIiOnsibGF0Ijo5LjAxNjcxMjQ2NzMwODEzNywibG5nIjotNzMuMDg0MDQ0ODA0MjYxOTF9LCJ6b29tIjo4Ljk1ODMzMTEyODM3ODkxNCwiZGF0YXNldHMiOlt7Im9wYWNpdHkiOjAuNywidmlzaWJpbGl0eSI6dHJ1ZSwiZGF0YXNldCI6InByaW1hcnktZm9yZXN0cyIsImxheWVycyI6WyJwcmltYXJ5LWZvcmVzdHMtMjAwMSJdfSx7ImRhdGFzZXQiOiJwb2xpdGljYWwtYm91bmRhcmllcyIsImxheWVycyI6WyJkaXNwdXRlZC1wb2xpdGljYWwtYm91bmRhcmllcyIsInBvbGl0aWNhbC1ib3VuZGFyaWVzIl0sImJvdW5kYXJ5Ijp0cnVlLCJvcGFjaXR5IjoxLCJ2aXNpYmlsaXR5Ijp0cnVlfSx7ImRhdGFzZXQiOiJ0cmVlLWNvdmVyLWxvc3MiLCJsYXllcnMiOlsidHJlZS1jb3Zlci1sb3NzIl0sIm9wYWNpdHkiOjEsInZpc2liaWxpdHkiOnRydWUsInRpbWVsaW5lUGFyYW1zIjp7InN0YXJ0RGF0ZSI6IjIwMDItMDEtMDEiLCJlbmREYXRlIjoiMjAxOS0xMi0zMSIsInRyaW1FbmREYXRlIjoiMjAxOS0xMi0zMSJ9LCJwYXJhbXMiOnsidGhyZXNoIjozMCwidmlzaWJpbGl0eSI6dHJ1ZX19XX0%3D&mapMenu=eyJtZW51U2VjdGlvbiI6Im15LWdmdyJ9%27" target="_blank">lost 6.2%</a>. In both areas, preliminary UMD data for 2020 showing several spikes of deforestation that were "<a href="https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/COL/22/?category=summary&gladAlerts=eyJ3ZWVrcyI6NTJ9&location=WyJjb3VudHJ5IiwiQ09MIiwiMjIiXQ%3D%3D&mainMap=eyJzaG93QW5hbHlzaXMiOnRydWV9&map=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&mapMenu=eyJkYXRhc2V0Q2F0ZWdvcnkiOiJsYW5kQ292ZXIifQ%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unusually high</a>" compared to years past.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2ODc1NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNzMyODIwMH0.UssCVZOGdXi7ugY59mJTkVRiwD6nz0YgF3fro0bOxhk/img.jpg?width=980" id="05b06" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="59894ea9a53f6dfefea75f56f497576b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="2000" data-height="1347" />
Catatumbo Barí National Natural Park protects some of the last primary rainforest in the region. But satellite data show deforestation continued to whittle it away in 2020 — including inside the park.
<p><span>National Natural Parks of Colombia (PNN) is the environmental authority that oversees Catatumbo Barí. The areas outside the park are overseen by the Regional Autonomous Corporation of the Northeast Frontier (Corponor), which manages renewable natural resources in Norte de Santander. Sandra Gómez, deputy director of Corponor, explains that high deforestation rates outside the park are due largely to the expansion of the agricultural frontier, illicit crops, illegal mining and timber trafficking.</span></p><p>"Entering is difficult and inaccessible because of (the lack of) roads, the ongoing conflict and security issues. All this makes illegal activities easier," Gómez said.</p><p>The latest report from SIMCI found 1,448 hectares (3,578 acres) of coca cultivation inside Catatumbo Barí in 2019, representing 15% of the area deforested between 2001 and 2019 and a 60% jump over 2018. However, this may pale in comparison to 2020; according to a government source who studies the area, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, 90% of the deforested land in Catatumbo Barí has now been planted with coca crops, with the remaining 10% used as cropland for plantains and yucca, or as livestock pasture.</p><p>According to SIMCI figures, coca crops had reached two indigenous reservations within Catatumbo Barí as of 2019, with 411 hectares cultivated in the Motilón Barí reservation and 43 hectares in the Gabarra-Catalaura reservation. Totaling 454 hectares (1,121 acres), this marks a 66% increase in coca cultivation in the two reservations compared to 2018.</p><p>Juan Carlos Quintero, president of the Catatumbo Small Farmers Association (Ascamcat), said that coca cultivation, as well as the expansion of large-scale oil palm plantations, is worrying. He added that the departure of government oversight after the signing of the 2016 FARC peace deal has created an atmosphere of impunity in the region.</p><p>"The national government is only present with the army," Quintero said, adding that armed groups soon invaded territory left vacant by the FARC and unprotected by the government.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="44b0df60252ff809d28729b0db73ce42"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9QeAIdB3G2k?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Gómez said the situation in the Catatumbo region stems from a structural problem that facilitates land grabbing. Under a law that dates back to 1959, the government earmarked territories for forest protection; however, they did not formally register the land, which would have avoided land use disputes and help mitigate environmental degradation of protected areas.</p><p>"The problem is land grabbing and illegal land-use change … as there is no physical registration, people buy land and then cultivate coca," Gómez said. "If it goes bad, they sell it. [These lands] are vacant lots and they belong to the nation."</p><p>Rodrigo Botero, director of the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development (FCDS), says that the Colombian government wants to officially map the tenure of all the different plots in the region, which is the first step needed to register the ownership, use, extension, occupation time and legal status of the land.</p>
Long-Term Consequences
<p>Catatumbo Barí National Natural Park has untouched areas of rainforest that are still unstudied by the scientific community. Carlos Herney Cáceres Martínez, a biologist who has done research in various Colombian parks, has tried to enter the protected area for years to conduct genetic sampling of the Andean bear (<em>Tremarctos ornatus</em>). The project aims to characterize the connectivity of Andean bear populations in Colombia, and from the eight different regions where its presence has been registered, Catatumbo Barí is the only area where sampling has not been yet possible due to the difficulty of accessing the park.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2ODc1OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODc1MjY3OH0.7MP672jxBYREuEpu3BQ3MiuJNUhLFknSjkaFMILjsSU/img.jpg?width=980" id="a9a64" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="33998baf94cebc126862f1ab160f143d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="768" data-height="512" />
<p><br></p>The Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus), also called the spectacled bear, is the last remaining species of short-faced bear. It is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Futureman1199 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
<p>Cáceres said deforestation like that which is happening in and around Catatumbo Barí has cascading repercussions that can ripple through ecosystems and the human communities that depend on them.</p><p>"When a humid forest is affected, everything is affected: the capture of carbon dioxide, oxygen leveling, water regulation, erosive processes (…) Not only are plants or animals lost, as a society we are losing a free service that the planet offers us to have a healthy life," Cáceres said. He added that fire – which is often used to clear land – can be particularly destructive to the region's forest.</p><p>"We know that it is very difficult for them to return to their natural state," he said. "For [a forest] to recover 50% they need at least 100 years."</p><p><em>This </em><em>is a translated and adapted version of a story that was </em><em><a href="https://es.mongabay.com/2020/12/cultivos-ilegales-y-deforestacion-asfixian-al-parque-nacional-catatumbo-bari-en-colombia/" target="_blank">first published by Mongabay Latam</a> </em><em>on Dec. 2, 2020.</em></p><p><em><strong>Editor's note:</strong> This story was powered by <a href="https://blog.globalforestwatch.org/places-to-watch" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Places to Watch</a>, a Global Forest Watch (GFW) initiative designed to quickly identify concerning forest loss around the world and catalyze further investigation of these areas. Places to Watch draws on a combination of near-real-time satellite data, automated algorithms and field intelligence to identify new areas on a monthly basis. In partnership with Mongabay, GFW is supporting data-driven journalism by providing data and maps generated by Places to Watch. Mongabay maintains complete editorial independence over the stories reported using this data</em>.<br></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/cocaine-production-driving-deforestation-into-colombian-national-park/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A drought leaves the grass dry and brown in a farm field in central California. JohnnyH5 / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Grasslands play a critical role in carbon sequestration. But a recent study found human activity is causing grasslands to become a source of greenhouse gas emissions.
<p>Covering approximately 25 percent of the earth's surface and containing nearly 12 percent of the land-based carbon stocks, grasslands are essential in supporting food and livestock production, <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/topics/grassland-carbon-management#:~:text=Despite%20these%20slow%20changes%2C%20the,over%2050%20years%20(19)." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to the United States Department of Agriculture's Climate Change Resource Center</a>.</p><p>Yet, citing the expansion of pasture lands and higher livestock numbers, researchers warn current management of grasslands is accelerating <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>.</p>
<p>Up until recently, natural and managed grasslands emitted and removed an equal amount of greenhouse gases, canceling each other out. Researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) sought to learn how these fluctuations in greenhouse gases have contributed to climate change in both managed pastures and natural grasslands, between the years of 1750 and 2012, <a href="https://iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/210105-grasslands-climate-change.html" target="_blank">according to an article by the IIASA</a>.</p><p>Through their model, the team of researchers found that the ability for natural and sparsely grazed grasslands to absorb more carbon has intensified over the past decade. Grasslands heavily managed by humans, on the other hand, became a source of greenhouse gases, emitting similar quantities of greenhouse gases to that of croplands.</p>
<p>"Our results show that the different human activities that have affected grasslands have shifted the balance of greenhouse gas removals and emissions more towards warming in intensively exploited pastures, and more towards cooling in natural and semi-natural systems," Thomas Gasser, an author of the study said, <a href="https://iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/210105-grasslands-climate-change.html" target="_blank">according to the IIASA</a>.</p><p>In response to their findings, the team of researchers called for countries to assess greenhouse gas budgets for both managed grasslands and natural and sparsely grazed grasslands.</p><p>"Full greenhouse gas reporting for each country could facilitate the assessment of progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and better link national greenhouse gas budgets to the observed growth rates of emissions in the atmosphere," <a href="https://iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/210105-grasslands-climate-change.html" target="_blank">the IIASA wrote</a>.</p>
<p>Currently, the U.S. Forest Service tracks the net carbon stock in <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forests">forests</a>, but only in some grasslands. The recently introduced <a href="https://www.edf.org/media/congress-calls-natural-climate-solutions" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Trillion Trees and National Carbon Storage Act</a> may change that.</p><p>"The Trillion Trees Act expands accounting and objective setting to also cover all grasslands, wetlands and coastal ecosystems," <a href="http://blogs.edf.org/growingreturns/2020/12/09/trillion-trees-natural-carbon-storage-act/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Environmental Defense Fund</a> wrote in a blog. "Incorporating these ecosystems into the national net carbon stock objective could help lead to much needed conservation and restoration," it added.</p><p>Efforts to conserve grasslands could also pose benefits to storing greenhouse gas emissions as wildfires in California grow more severe.</p>
<p>Grasslands sequester their carbon underground, unlike forests which hold carbon above in their biomass and leaves, a <a href="https://climatechange.ucdavis.edu/news/grasslands-more-reliable-carbon-sink-than-trees/" target="_blank">report by the University of California, Davis</a> states. When fires burn through the forests, this carbon is released. Researchers at UC Davis suggest that if global carbon emissions continue to increase, grasslands could be the only successful net carbon dioxide sink through 2101.</p><p>"In a stable climate, trees store more carbon than grasslands," said Benjamin Houlton, director of the John Muir Institute of the Environment at UC Davis, <a href="https://climatechange.ucdavis.edu/news/grasslands-more-reliable-carbon-sink-than-trees/" target="_blank">in the report</a>. "But in a vulnerable, warming, drought-likely future, we could lose some of the most productive carbon sinks on the planet."</p><p>While nearly half of all temperate grasslands and 16 percent of tropical grasslands have been transformed for agricultural or industrial use, according to <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/grassland-threats/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Geographic</a>, conserving grasslands to preserve soil health and reduce emissions from managed grasslands could provide a significant reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. </p>
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The new rule would allow the U.S. Forest Service to log or manage 2,800 acres of national forest in the Western U.S. PxHere / CC0
The Trump administration has finalized yet another environmental rollback that would allow more logging in national forests without environmental review.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The new rule, finalized Wednesday, would allow the U.S. Forest Service to log or manage 2,800 acres of national forest in the Western U.S. without first conducting an environmental review, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/11/18/forest-service-wilderness-trump/" target="_blank">The Washington Post explained</a>. However, the rule is written in such a way that nearly 200 million acres of forest could be impacted.</p><p>"This is yet another blatant attempt to undermine bedrock environmental law and public input, while giving companies free rein over our treasured natural resources," <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a> (NRDC) Director of Federal Affairs Kabir Green said in a statement emailed to EcoWatch. "Add this rule to the long list of ill-conceived actions the Biden administration is going to have to toss and redo the right way."</p><p>The new rule works by expanding the Forest Service's ability to use "categorical exclusions," The Washington Post reported. These exclusions allow the Forest Service to bypass requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that require it to study the environmental impact of any planned development and share the scientific analysis with the public.</p>
<p>The Trump administration argued that the change would make it easier to perform necessary maintenance.</p><p>"The new categorical exclusions will ultimately improve our ability to maintain and repair the infrastructure people depend on to use and enjoy their national forests — such as roads, trails, campgrounds and other facilities," U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said in a <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2020/11/18/usda-forest-service-announces-key-changes-nepa-procedures" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p><p>Federal Forest Resource Coalition Executive Director Bill Imbergamo, who supports the change, told The Washington Post that the exclusions could be used to perform the forest maintenance needed to prevent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires" target="_self">wildfires</a>.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> groups worried that the new categorical exclusions would be used to approve activities beyond trailmaking and brush clearing.</p><p><a href="https://www.wilderness.org/" target="_blank">Wilderness Society</a> senior attorney Alison Flint told The Washington Post that the exclusions would act as "permission slips" for loggers and road-builders. Green from the NRDC agreed.</p><p>"Rather than addressing the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" target="_self">biodiversity</a> crises we face, the Trump administration continues to make our problems worse," Green said. "Today it's ramming through sweeping changes that will open national forests to large-scale logging, roadbuilding — and even <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil" target="_self">oil</a> drilling and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/mining" target="_self">mining</a>. Each of these will exacerbate our climate crisis."</p>
<p>The Trump administration has now initiated or completed 104 environmental rollbacks, according to a running tally from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. It is unclear whether Democrats in Congress will be able to reverse the new Forest Service rule, along with other rules passed in the last days of the Trump administration, The Washington Post reported. The Congressional Review Act allows Congress to accept or reject late-term rules, but control of the Senate hinges on two run-off elections in Georgia in January.</p><p>Either way, environmental groups have promised to fight it.</p><p>"The final Forest Service NEPA rule epitomizes the Trump administration's disastrous approach to the environment — it shuts out the public, ignores the science, and delivers favors to special interests, regardless of the harm to forests, water, wildlife and the climate," <a href="https://defenders.org/" target="_blank">Defenders of Wildlife</a> President and CEO Jamie Rappaport Clark said in statement emailed to EcoWatch. "Our national forests are a national treasure and act as strongholds for endangered species conservation. Defenders of Wildlife will not sit idly by and witness the willful degradation of forest lands."</p>
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Best Type of Forest for CO2 Storage Depends on Location and Climate, Study Finds
17 November 2020
Climate
Sunrise in Redwood National Park in California. HadelProductions / E+ / Getty Images
A new study from scientists at the University of Geneva concludes different features are necessary for forests to better capture carbon — an important process continually studied due to climate change — including location, size and climate.
<p>Data from forests on five continents was published in the journal <em>Nature Communications</em> contrasting two hypotheses currently at play with regard to carbon storage.</p><p>Forests are the largest remover of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as trees convert CO2 during photosynthesis, and store it in wood and vegetation. Forest <a href="https://climatechange.ucdavis.edu/science/carbon-sequestration/" target="_blank">carbon sequestration</a> is key to mitigating global warming and human's "carbon footprint."</p><p>In tropical and equatorial forests, species diversity is ideal for recapturing carbon. Although recently devoured by wildfires or deforestation, rainforests in <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/palm-oil-korindo-papua-rainforest-fire-burn-greenpeace-forensic-architecture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Southeast Asia</a>, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/01/brazil-amazon-rainforest-worst-fires-in-decade" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon</a> and the <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/congo/deforestation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Congo River Basin</a> are the most active in carbon storage, due to diversity.</p><p>Conversely, the study found forests in cold and dry regions need an abundance of trees, not a variety, to maximize carbon storage.</p>
<p>"Having more species may not always be what is needed to achieve greater carbon storage in forests," Dr. Madrigal-Gonzalez, scientific collaborator at the Institute for Environmental Sciences of UNIGE, and one of the authors of the study, said in a statement about the findings.</p><p>In the U.S. recent research found forests with <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2020.594274/full" target="_blank">large trees</a> may play a greater than expected role in carbon storage. Only 3 percent of the trees in the forests studied were taller than 21 inches. However, that 3 percent of trees larger than 21 inches held 42 percent of the aboveground carbon stored throughout the forests. The study proved how it would be detrimental to cut large trees on <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2020/11/10/eastern-oregon-trees-are-playing-an-outsized-role-in-curbing-climate-change-study/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">public lands</a> in the Pacific Northwest.</p><p>Another <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-unravel-how-and-why-amazon-trees-die-why-tree-mortality-is-increasing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> about tree mortality and carbon storage in the Amazon rainforest, published earlier this month, revealed faster-growing trees are dying younger, therefore storing less carbon than their larger, older counterparts. Overall, carbon sequestration in the Amazon is declining.</p>
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