Region Archives: International

Joe Fontaine

After a record-breaking hot summer and significant dry spell, ecologists are warning large pockets of WA’s central to south-west coast are facing a potential forest collapse event, where trees and other smaller plants get so dry they die. One expert has likened it to coral bleaching on land, and just like in the ocean, such an event can have serious implications on the wider ecosystem, impacting breeding habitats and potentially populations of entire species. Murdoch University fire and plant ecologist Dr Joe Fontaine has been tracking and recording signs of tree and plant stress since early February, with numerous areas displaying large swathes of dry and dying flora, some of it already dead. …The south west of WA was identified as one of the first parts of the world to begin a drying trend, beginning around the 1970s, and experts agree the region is drying out at a globally significant rate.

ROMANIA — An investigation published by environmental NGO Greenpeace claims to show that furniture manufacturers producing for IKEA are sourcing wood from some of Europe’s last remaining old-growth forests in the Romanian Carpathians, including in Natura 2000 protected areas. Seven manufacturers producing IKEA’s products are linked to the destruction of high-conservation value forests, according to the investigation. …At least 30 different products from these suppliers were reportedly found in IKEA stores in 13 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. …The non-profit also mentions that just 2.4% of the Romanian Carpathian forests are currently protected against logging. …In an official response to Euronews Romania, IKEA confirmed that it works with the mentioned companies and that the only requirement it imposes is for the wood to be either recycled or approved by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Loggers are “ripping to pieces” forests earmarked to become the Great Koala National Park, according to businessman and former head of the Australian Conservation Foundation Geoff Cousins. Mr Cousins is calling on the state government to stop allowing logging in native forests as part of a fresh push to establish the boundaries of a koala conservation area on the Mid North Coast, which was a state Labor election promise. The Australia Institute has taken out full page adverts in newspapers featuring the signatures of dozens of luminaries, including Mr Cousins, former Reserve Bank head Bernie Fraser and former Liberal leader John Hewson. The adverts push for the end of all logging in public native forests and koala habitat. The state government has committed $80 million over four years to establishing the national park, which includes stakeholder consultation with local industry and communities.

Using a unique combination of old-fashioned field work and sophisticated computer modeling, scientists in Sweden have found a way to trace a single beam of lumber to the forest in Europe where it originated. The researchers said the new method, described in the Nature Plants journal, could significantly curb the sale of Russian timber, which is prohibited because of the war in Ukraine. …Last month, the novel approach was used to identify large shipments of illegal Russian lumber in Belgium. The new study looked at the chemical composition of 900 wood samples collected from 11 countries in Eastern Europe. The data was fed into a model powered by machine learning, which found patterns that could predict the geographic origin of the samples. Overall, the model caught 60% of the samples that had been intentionally labeled with the wrong country of origin. The model could also narrow the wood’s origin to a roughly 125-mile radius.

Kai Mykkänen

Finnish Environment Minister Kai Mykkänen has voiced concerns over the European Union’s overextension in its climate and forest management directives, advocating for a shift in focus towards a more balanced approach to agriculture and forestry in future Commission work. This critique comes in response to the political backlash against the current Commission’s aggressive promotion of the Green Deal, suggesting a need for recalibration to better accommodate the realities of land and forestry management. Minister Mykkänen highlighted the importance of adopting an industrial approach to carbon management that considers a broader array of climate policy tools. This change, he argues, would benefit Finland by allowing for a more nuanced view of climate policy measures than has previously been the case. In defense of Finland’s forestry interests, Mykkänen underscored ongoing advocacy efforts with Sweden aimed at influencing the next Commission’s agenda. 

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Russians have completely destroyed more than 60,000 hectares of forests worth at least 14 billion hryvnias (about US$359.2 million) in the territories they occupy… NGL.media was able to establish. “The minimum estimate states that the total value of the lost forest exceeds 14 billion hryvnias – this is only direct damage, i.e. the value of wood that could have been obtained from these more than 60,000 hectares. These losses do not take into account the environmental consequences, the elimination of which can be much more expensive,” the investigation says. It is noted that among the natural areas that have suffered the most in Donetsk Oblast is the Holy Mountains National Nature Park, located in Kramatorsk and Bakhmut districts. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, combat actions have been conducted in this area, resulting in the destruction of 80% of the park.

When I started as a young forester in the late 1980s… I knew I was inheriting a forest structure that benefited from silvicultural practices adopted by foresters a few generations before me. …There are many examples around the country where state forests support diverse vegetation communities, healthy populations of rare and endangered species, and low fuel loads compared to nearby overgrown, weed-infested and poorly managed reserves. However, this reality mattered little in the cut and thrust of politics. …It seems that the decisions by the Victorian and Western Australian Labor governments to end native forest logging will turn attention to the remaining states to follow suit. …One thing is for certain, ceasing native forest logging will deny Australians access to high quality sustainable timber; regional towns dependent on timber processing will be trashed; highly skilled workers will be lost; and the bush skills and equipment needed to fight emergency fires will be severely depleted. …What is the sense in that?

Tasmania’s practice of logging centuries-old trees received international attention – and condemnation – last year when one was trucked through the centre of Hobart. Now, the state’s public forestry company, which trades as Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT), has changed its policy around the logging of “giant” trees. It would previously give “protection” to giant trees based on whether they were taller than 85 metres, or greater than 280 cubic metres in volume. This usually amounted to trees of about five metres in diameter. This has been updated to protect trees wider than four metres in diameter. The measurement is taken from 1.3 metres above ground level on the uphill side. STT identifies the trees in coupes that it plans to log, and then gives them a “buffer” where the forest is retained around them. The size of this buffer is not specific however, but environmental groups that monitor forestry activity say it can be about 100 metres.

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Tropical forest loss declined last year, but other indicators show that the world’s woodlands remain under tremendous pressure, according to an analysis released on Thursday by the Global Forest Watch monitoring project. Destruction of forests helps drive global climate change. …and also imperils biodiversity. The loss of primary forests, sometimes known as old-growth forests, in the tropics declined 9% last year compared to 2022. …The world last year lost about 37,000 square kilometers (14,000 square miles) of tropical primary forest. …Declining forest loss in Brazil and Colombia was largely offset by greater losses elsewhere, Global Forest Watch director Mikaela Weisse said. “The world took two steps forward, two steps back,” Weisse said. …Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bolivia topped the ranking of tropical countries with the most primary forest loss. …Neighboring Colombia experienced a 49% drop in forest loss. 

The native forestry industry in New South Wales has come under growing scrutiny about its environmental impact amid efforts to ban the practice in line with some other states. Last year, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) issued a stop-work order in Tallaganda State Forest following the discovery of a dead greater glider, an endangered marsupial. The order lasted 160 days from August last year to early February 2024. Stop-work orders usually last up to 40 days, but timber workers said prolonged decision-making by the EPA on how best to protect endangered greater gliders meant the pause in operations in Tallaganda and Flat Rock State Forests lasted almost six months. …Forestry Corporation of NSW said contractors impacted by the stop-work orders were assisted through stand-down payments. Environmental advocates and the timber industry were unhappy with the EPA’s approach and the protracted decision-making time frame.

Tasmania’s practice of logging centuries-old trees received international attention – and condemnation – last year when one was trucked through the centre of Hobart. Now, the state’s public forestry company, which trades as Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT), has changed its policy around the logging of “giant” trees. It would previously give “protection” to giant trees based on whether they were taller than 85 metres, or greater than 280 cubic metres in volume. …This has been updated to protect trees wider than four metres in diameter. …The policy change brings Tasmania into line with Victoria’s definition, although that state no longer logs native forest at all. It is also behind a similar policy in Canada, where trees greater than 2.5 metres in diameter are protected. …Bob Brown Foundation takayna/Tarkine campaign manager Scott Jordan said setting the definition at 4 metres still meant centuries-old trees – and all hollow-bearing trees – were still available for logging.

Fire is sucking the life out of parts of the Amazon rainforest. In Roraima State, in northern Brazil, the number of fires in February were more than five times the average, according to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, and blazes continued to burn through March. “We are losing the Amazon rainforest. These changes in the climate right now provoked by El Niño makes this forest fire season even worse than we are used to seeing in the forest,” said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of Brazil’s Climate Observatory. Wildfires in the normally humid, tropical rainforest have been supercharged by a disastrous combination of elevated temperatures, historic drought and deforestation. Even as the year-old government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has brought down the rate of deforestation in Brazil by more than 20 per cent, a hot dry 2023 stressed the trees within the Amazon, which stretches into eight countries.

Inspired by cockroaches, Swiss researchers have developed a new drone which can push away obstacles and move past them. In the future, it will be used to measure biodiversity in remote areas. Environmental monitoring in areas with dense vegetation is a major challenge for scientists, according to a press release issued by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) on Wednesday. Although it is possible to take samples from individual branches, it has not yet been possible to penetrate further into the canopy. According to the researchers, the greatest difficulty is that the branches are flexible and cause the drone to vibrate. The WSL researchers led by Emanuele Aucone, with researchers from the federal technology institute ETH Zurich and the University of Pisa, sought a solution to this problem. They found it in the body structure of cockroaches, which is streamlined and consists of low-friction material.

Diana Hallam

Australia’s forest products sector welcomes legislation introduced into the Australian Parliament today by the Albanese Government that will strengthen Australia’s fight against illegally logged timber, CEO Diana Hallam said. The provisions of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024 will improve Australia’s ability to identify and act against those who undermine our legal and sustainable trade in wood and timber products. Diana Hallam said, “Illegal timber not only undermines the environmental sustainability of the forest products industry, it also undermines our domestic biosecurity protections creating a heightened risk of potentially devastating pests and diseases that can devastate local industry. The Bill will amend the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012 to: Strengthen audit, compliance and enforcement of offence penalties. Enhance monitoring of compliance and streamline investigation powers; and Require notice of products being brought into Australia.