Day 6: Highlights from Poznan - Talks on forests get to the pointy end

Talks over the role forests should play in a new climate change agreement have intensified today. This is a more technical postcard about where negotiations are at, and what The Wilderness Society is working to achieve for forests around the world.

Two of the big discussions that relate to forests are called;

1. Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF)
– mostly concerning the emissions and carbon sequestration from agriculture and other land uses; and

2. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD)
– An instrument designed to help developing countries reduce their emissions from logging and land clearing.

One of the big problems is that there are huge loopholes in the current definitions of forests, plantations and how the emissions caused by logging are calculated.

In Poznan, The Wilderness Society delegation will be urging world leaders to take strong action to reduce logging and land clearing - as part of the global plan to tackle climate change.

For example, the rules do not distinguish between a native forest, a plantation and a bioenergy crop, so if you log a biodiverse, high carbon storing old growth forest and then convert it into a pine plantation or bioenegry crop, this is not considered to be deforestation and the huge emissions and reduced carbon carrying capacity from this conversion do not have to be calculated.

This is what allows Australia to log massive areas of native forest, including old-growth forests considered to be the most carbon dense on Earth, convert them to plantations or intensively managed native forests, and not have to calculate the emissions from doing so.

Latest science suggests that when an old-growth forest is logged and converted to forest which is logged on rotation say every 60 years, the carbon store in the forest is permanently reduced by a massive 40% - 60%!

Also, the definition of a forest includes any area that has trees over two metres high, and create at least 10% cover in their canopy. Again this enables massive destruction of native vegetation which are large carbon stocks without being classed as deforestation.

So a key outcome for forest protection and climate change we are pushing for in Poznan is for forests to be redefined under the rules as distinct from plantations, so that plantations are treated like any other agricultural crop under LULUCF rules.

Secondly, we need REDD to apply to all countries.

Because REDD currently only applies to developing countries, developed countries like Australia, Canada, the United States, Finland and Russia with big CO2 emitting logging industries are let off the hook because they do not have to account for their emissions.

What’s good for developing countries should also be good for developed countries – the same rules should apply. So the Wilderness Society argues that REDD should apply to native forest logging in all countries, because the emissions from logging are the same whether they came from Brazil or Australia. If the atmosphere doesn’t distinguish between which country logging emissions come from, why should we?

So what should we do with the world’s forests to maxmise their contribution to reducing climate change?

1. The best outcome for the climate and nature is to permanently protect old-growth forests. The Wilderness Society is calling for a climate agreement to provide incentives to countries to protect their old-growth (primary) forests.

2. The second best outcome is to restore previously logged forests by letting them grow on and regain their carbon carrying capacity by sucking in more CO2 over hundreds of years.

3. The third best result is to encourage more sustainable management of our forests world wide.

4. And finally the fourth best outcome for climate change is to encourage plantation establishment on previously cleared land.

 
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