Old growth forests reducing climate change effects

By Scopical News/Data
Published: 21 February 2008 7:02am

The conference, held in Hobart, has also warned that international pressure could force an end to logging in native forests as the world develops its approach to global warming and carbon trading.

In the context of Australia, there is not a need for old-growth forest logging any more. But there needs to be structural adjustment for industry and no perverse outcomes, as has happened in Tasmania before," the Australian National University Professor David Lindenmayer said.

The four-day conference, attended by more than 250 delegates from 20 countries, was warned climate change and carbon trading could bring massive pressure to end native forest logging.

University of Tasmania forestry Professor David Bowman predicted carbon trading would throw accepted forest management and harvesting systems into chaos.

“These calls are a warning to the Victorian Brumby Government that no climate change policy is credible unless our forests are protected,” said Victorian Forest Campaigner Luke Chamberlain.

“The destruction of Victoria’s native forests for woodchips shows that we are lagging years behind international policy in tackling climate change, especially when we have a massive plantation resource for the logging industry to transition into.”

“Victoria’s forests are amongst the most carbon rich in the world and their protection from logging must be part of the Brumby government’s response to climate change.”

The call from scientists comes just a week after an economic report released by McKinsey & Company highlighted massive opportunities to reduce carbon emissions from the forestry sector, leading to enormous cuts in Australia’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.

“Protecting old growth forests is an immediate way to curb emissions, and allowing young native forests to grow old is a long term insurance policy to remove excess carbon we have put into the atmosphere.”

“Logging causes climate change and the forest industry is a massive emitter of carbon pollution. When you log old growth forests, and turn our forests into woodchips, waste and sawdust, millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere.”