Knocking down forests and planting palm oil makes sense in Asia. Providing alternative income sources for villagers could make it less attractive.
Simon J. Rowntree
Reducing poverty in developing countries through economic development is often contrary to addressing climate change. In countries like Indonesia, many of the strongest drivers of the economy – palm oil…
Land of the snow gums: Australian forests are dynamic.
Flickr/SplaTT
Forests spark emotional debates in Australia. Much of the rhetoric is about saving “the last of Tasmania’s wild forests” or how we must “stop logging in Australian native forests”.
Australian forests…
What is coming out of these trees?
BouncedPhoton/Flickr
Plants have long been known as the lungs of the earth. They play a major role in the exchange of moisture, carbon dioxide and oxygen with the atmosphere. However, no link has ever been found between trees…
Most illegal timber ends up in developed countries, but Australia is reluctant to block its importation.
AAP
A few years ago a friend of mine, Philip Fearnside, feared for his life. Phil had just flown into Manaus, Brazil, where he is a biologist and well-respected critic of illegal loggers and others who threaten…
Negotiations are easier if activists are left out, but the results won't last.
Rainforest Action Network
The Tasmanian forests agreement is hanging by a thread.
Political parties have reverted to their old adversarial ways, people who should be getting a say have been excluded from the process, and the large…
There are dark days ahead for Australian forests if renewable energy plan gets the nod.
jwbenwell/Flickr
We are poised at a pivotal moment for native forests, the wood products industry and climate change. Australia is moving away from a damaging native forestry industry – and a damaging conflict over its…
Food comes from forests: surely that's worth talking about?
CIFOR
By Louis Verchot, Centre for International Forestry Research
In June 2012 around 40,000 participants are expected to attend one of the most important environmental gatherings in a generation – Rio+20. A draft agenda has been released, bearing the slogan “The Future…
Australia’s forest conflict gets easier to solve as every day passes. In reality, the conflict will solve itself if the government can just resist reviving the environmentally and economically inferior…
Forest agreements were among the positives from Durban.
CIFOR
DURBAN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE: Amongst the general brouhaha of the Durban Climate Change Conference, progress of sorts on REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, plus measures…
Could more plantations help reduce emissions? It depends if they're done right.
esagor
DURBAN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE: One of the topics under discussion at Durban is the role carbon farming and other forestry measures could have in reducing emissions. With the possibility that negotiations…
Australia's eastern forests are on par with those of Brazil.
YAZMDG
If you live in eastern Australia there’s a good chance you’re one of nine million Australians who call the world’s newest biodiversity hotspot home.
In a recent publication, “Forests of East Australia…
Is PNG's lease-leaseback system a front for illegal logging?
Greenpeace Esperanza
“Don’t Californicate Oregon [or Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Washington, Montana etc]” was a popular slogan in the western United States during the 1960s and ‘70s. It was a repudiation of the mindless…
It's a bleak picture, but there's hope on the horizon.
Bill Laurance
What comes to mind when you think of Indonesia?
For biologists like myself, Australia’s northern neighbour provokes visions of ancient rainforests being razed by slash-and-burn farmers, and endangered…
Primary forest is best for biodiversity, but we should also look at second-best.
cknara/Flickr
We live in an age of vanishing rainforests. Half of the world’s tropical forests have disappeared since World War II and roughly another 10 million hectares are being felled each year — the equivalent…
In the game of economic and environmental chess, Gunns's position is looking precarious.
ChessAmmo.com
In chess, the endgame takes place when only a handful of pieces are left on the board. In close games, the players must select the best move available to avoid being checkmated.
Gunns – Tasmania’s “forest…
Coral reefs may cease to exist – where will their inhabitants go?
Nick Hobgood
Human-induced climatic changes are altering ecosystems worldwide.
Because of these ecosystem changes, the geographic range of species is shifting towards the poles or to higher elevations. The speed of…
The peace package will have to work hard to bring forestry workers into the modern economy.
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
The recently announced $276 million Tasmanian forest agreement agreement sets out to end the war between loggers and conservationists. But the war has been bitter, and forest industry workers have often…
Certifying timber gives some level of certainty that forest products are sustainable.
CIFOR/Flickr
It can be hard to know whether the forest products you buy have been produced sustainably. Forestry certifications were established to give a bit more certainty, but what do they really mean? When you…
The trees are falling, but is anyone listening?
NatureNut3/flickr
Political scientists now commonly distinguish between ‘government’ and ‘governance’. The former refers to a hierarchical institution while the latter captures the idea of a general process of social steering…
Planting trees on farmland can offset emissions, but does it add up?
Fabio Strozzi/flickr
Planting trees in cleared agricultural landscapes is one way for the land use sector to help offset emissions of atmospheric carbon dioxide. But will it displace agriculture?
Establishing trees is a robust…
Will the prematurely released Agreement bring peace in Tasmania's forest wars?
Rainforest Action Network/flickr
A great deal of head scratching will take place in Canberra and Hobart in the coming days as politicians and bureaucrats try to make sense of last week’s Signatories Agreement for Tasmania’s forests…
Who wouldn't walk away from an agreement that locks Tasmania into a backward future?
ialla/Flickr
The peace talks underway about Tasmania’s forests are as rich in ironies and paradoxes as Tasmania’s old-growth forests are in carbon.
The current direction of the peace talks locks Tasmania into a pulpwood…
On 18 May 2011, The Wilderness Society suspended its participation in Tasmania’s forest peace talks. Is this the beginning of the end for these negotiations?
Perhaps, but only because the solution emerging…
Can prescribed burning stop carbon stores going up in smoke?
AAP
Bushfires are, together with cyclones and flooding, among the most important natural hazards affecting Australian communities. They also make a significant contribution to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions…
REDD gives countries a reason to hang on to trees: let's make it work.
AAP
The world has been fiddling while the forests burn, or are otherwise lost. One proposal to keep what’s left intact is REDD – essentially, paying countries to conserve their forest carbon stocks.
REDD…
Trees provide services to cities that far outstrip their cost.
Tim Parkinson/flickr
As we worry about where we will put Australia’s ever-increasing population, urban trees are becoming collateral damage.
So how much are our trees worth to us? According to Melbourne City Council, they…
