Forests are a key part of the climate equation. They capture and store carbon, create rain clouds, shade the land, filter our water, make fresh air and provide critical homes for our wildlife.
Forests are a key part of the climate equation. They capture and store carbon, create rain clouds, shade the land, filter our water, make fresh air and provide critical homes for our wildlife.
Climate change mitigation benefits from the land sector are not being fully realised because of uncertainty and controversy about the role of native forest management. The dominant policy view, as stated in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, is that sustainable forest harvesting yielding wood products, generates the largest mitigation benefit. We demonstrate that changing native …
This new government report details the ecosystem services provided by the states parks and reserves. It includes the water and carbon values, biodiversity protection, recreational benefits and employment, and loads more. If this is what a small section of Victoria’s natural areas can offer – just imagine how much more benefit we would get from …
With recent changes to the renewable energy target, the burning of native forest wood waste can once again earn credits for generating clean energy, but there’s dispute about whether burning native forest waste for energy is ‘carbon neutral’. Background Briefing reports. The owners of one of Australia’s oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power stations‚ÄîHazelwood in Victoria’s …
The debate over native forest logging has been sparked once again, partly by the government’s successful push for wood burning to be included in the revamped Renewable Energy Target. However, the disagreement over the best way to manage Australia’s 9.4 million hectares of public native forest is thrown into sharp relief by analysis showing that …
There has been extensive debate about whether the sustainable use of forests (forest management aimed at producing a sustainable yield of timber or other products) results in superior climate outcomes to conservation (maintenance or enhancement of conservation values without commercial harvesting) Most of the relevant research has relied on consequential life-cycle assessment (LCA), with the …
A new scientific study shows that Australian forests are better for the climate left standing compared with being logged. The finding comes as the senate had cleared the way for forest burning in the renewable energy target. NEW SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH has called into question the wisdom of the Australian senate’s decision last week to allow …
Soil plays a big role in the global carbon cycle, but how much or how quickly forest soil carbon pools decline after logging is poorly understood. This may have serious implications for how carbon emissions from deforestation are accounted for. The U.S. Forest Service, for example, currently operates under the assumption that forest soil carbon …
Stopping logging in Victoria’s central highlands would drive tens of millions of dollars into state coffers if the move was included under the Abbott government’s emissions reduction fund. Fairfax Media has seen a confidential brief prepared for the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, which found ending logging in the highland forests, north-east of Melbourne, would …
There’s 4 times more carbon loss from logging than bushfires. This is from new research presented to the World Parks Congress in Sydney this week from ANU scientist Dr Heather Keith. “In a [logged] forest, the amount of carbon stored in the regrowth …, plus wood products and landfill, is about half that stored in …
