The International Forest List Weekly News Digest - May 25, 2024

[IFL Owner]

“The mountains, the forest, and the sea, render men savage; they develop the fierce, but yet do not destroy the human.” - Victor Hugo

Reporting on forest damages and disturbances in the UNECE region
The frequency and intensity of wildfires, storms and pest outbreaks has been increasing rapidly for several decades, highlighting the vulnerability of the world’s forests and the impact of natural and human threats accelerated and intensified by climate changes…
https://unece.org/forests/publications/reporting-forest-damages-and-disturbances-unece-region-ecetimsp57-0

A breath of cold air: Surprising forest patterns hint at climate change refuges
Temperature inversions can be strong and are a regular occurrence across New England, affecting the forest throughout the year, not just in certain seasons or at certain times of day. Given the importance of climatic microrefugia in the past, it’s possible that…
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/nrs/news/highlights/breath-cold-air-surprising-forest-patterns-hint-climate-change-refuges

Forestry Commission turns to public for new policy
Islanders had an opportunity to provide input to the PEI Forestry Commission on what they see as forestry priorities during the second of six public meetings being held across the province…
https://www.peicanada.com/west_prince_graphic/forestry-commission-turns-to-public-for-new-policy/article_f9f46422-176e-11ef-ad4a-afac01246cc9.html

SRP, ASU collaboration tackles benefits of forest restoration
SRP and Arizona State University have developed a new approach for estimating the water benefits of forest thinning treatments by creating a model that is being recognized as a method for analyzing forest thinning’s impacts on water…
https://www.yourvalley.net/tempe-independent/stories/srp-asu-collaboration-tackles-benefits-of-forest-restoration,511946

Texas forests threatened by spread of invasive beetle
Small green beetles called emerald ash borers have steadily decimated forests across the United States for more than two decades. Emerald ash borers are invasive, and as their name suggests, make their home in various species of ash trees…
https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/emerald-ash-borer-beetle-texas-invasive-species-spread-trees/

Why we need offsets for forests, not just trees
Offsets and credits hold the promise of repairing nature itself, not just sequestering carbon. But success means embracing ecosystem complexity, and committing to market principles that protect honest actors and expose bad ones…
https://www.wsp.com/en-za/insights/why-we-need-offsets-for-forests-not-just-trees

B.C. forestry: Why is it short of timber?
Last week, Canfor announced the closure of its sawmill at Bear Lake in northern B.C., with the loss of some 400 jobs. At the same time, Canfor shelved a planned investment to revive its pulp mill at Houston B.C., the closure of that facility had cost 330 jobs…
https://www.resourceworks.com/forestry-short-of-timber

Romania joins project to bring the lynx back to Germany’s Thuringian Forest
Ten lynxes from the Romanian Carpathians are to be captured and transferred to Germany in the following years in an effort to reintroduce and give this species a permanent future in the Thuringian Forest. Viorel, the first wild male lynx from Romania, was recently…
https://www.romania-insider.com/romania-lynx-reintroduction-germany-2024

Forests to be 'left to nature' in biodiversity boost
More than 8,000 hectares of land will be left to nature to help boost wildlife and biodiversity. The new forest management project by Forestry England will be carried out in four areas, including Castle Neroche in Somerset and Kielder Forest in Northumberland…
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nnd80pkjxo

South African forestry is a beacon of hope for biodiversity conservation
According to the World Economic Forum, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse is one of the top five risks facing world economies. Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems…
https://www.mediaupdate.co.za/publicity/156130/south-african-forestry-is-a-beacon-of-hope-for-biodiversity-conservation

Warning over impact of unmanaged deer population
If the deer population is not managed the impact "will be vast", the Forestry Commission has warned. It was estimated some individual landowners have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds to deer damage…
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czddpgjzkl3o

Guyana Going Brazilian To Champion Forest Conservation
Guyana has been invited to attend the upcoming Group of Twenty (G20) Summit in Brasilia, Brazil in October, and will champion forest conservation and greater incentives for forested-rich countries…
https://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.com/guyana-going-brazilian-to-champion-forest-conservation/

Forests: How Can We Prosper in Harmony With Nature?
Forests are disappearing at an alarming rate of 10 million hectares each year and about 12% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to deforestation and forest degradation. But nature provides the foundation for inclusive growth, jobs, food security…
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/podcast/2024/05/20/protecting-forests-nature-biodiversity-development-podcast

Liberia: Forestry Development Authority, United Nations Development Program Launch “Let’s Go Green” Project
The project was launched on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. The specific objective of the project is to strengthen the sustainable use of natural resources in Liberia while contributing to the fight against climate change. It is also to increase jobs and growth…
https://frontpageafricaonline.com/news/liberia-forestry-development-authority-united-nations-development-program-launch-lets-go-green-project-2/

The carrying capacity for vegetation of forest land across China: Near real-time monitoring and short-term forecasting based on satellite observation
Ecological restoration projects implemented over the past 20 years have substantially increased forest coverage in China, but the high tree mortality of new afforestation forest remains a challenging but unsolved problem. It is still not clear how much vegetation…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666683924000397

Private Forestry Development in Kazakhstan: Paths to a Sustainable Future
On 17 May 2024, a roundtable discussion on the prospects of private forestry development was held in the village of Borovoye, Akmola region. This event was organized by the project "Conservation and Sustainable Management of Globally Significant Ecosystems for…
https://www.undp.org/kazakhstan/news/private-forestry-development-kazakhstan-paths-sustainable-future

State forests manager authorises wind project studies in NSW
Forestry Corporation, the forests manager of New South Wales, announced today that it has authorised several companies to study wind farm opportunities in some pine plantations in the Central West and Southern Inland regions of the Australian state…
https://renewablesnow.com/news/state-forests-manager-authorises-wind-project-studies-in-nsw-858676/

Fast forestry: Bioenergy production could transform Northland’s economy
Short rotation forestry for bioenergy production could transform Northland’s economy and lower fossil fuel dependency, new research shows. A two-year research project by Crown Research Institute Scion reveals the…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/forestry-bioenergy-production-could-transform-northlands-economy/LPY4MUAG6VCG3PHLT6HYOHZIIQ/

Quảng Trị Province's local forest growers benefit from carbon credit sales
Local people are happy and excited to benefit from forest protection and carbon credit sales in the coastal central province of Quảng Trị. "Everyone feels happy when receiving the money," said Hồ Văn Chiến to the online newspaper Vietnamnet…
https://vietnamnews.vn/environment/1656118/quang-tri-province-s-local-forest-growers-benefit-from-carbon-credit-sales.html

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton says complex and costly environmental rules can be ineffective
The report adds environmental rules for individual farms can fail to improve problems like nitrate levels in water when many different farms share the same catchment area. The report, Going with the Grain:  Changing Land Uses for a Changing Landscape, comes…
https://www.interest.co.nz/rural-news/127911/parliamentary-commission-environment-simon-upton-says-complex-and-costly

Increasing drought puts the resilience of the Amazon rainforest to the test
Since 2015, the Amazon has been slower to recover from increasing drought events, but, overall, the rainforest still shows a remarkable resilience. New international research led by KU Leuven Earth and environmental scientists shows that forest degradation due to…
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-drought-resilience-amazon-rainforest.html

Conserving rainforest by supporting local communities
Nearly 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been leveled over the past 50 years as people have cleared forest for lumber, farming, cattle ranching, mining, and other land-intensive businesses. A new model of collaboration among researchers, technology developers…
https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/conserving-rainforest-supporting-local-communities

Brazil's Amazon fires off to record 2024 start as green union blames firefighting budget cut
Brazil's Amazon rainforest has experienced its largest blazes on record in the first four months of the year, with the environmental workers union on Monday placing partial blame on lower government spending on firefighting. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva…
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/blazes-brazils-amazon-off-record-start-2024-firefighting-budget-cut-2024-05-20/

England’s largest temperate rainforest a National Nature Reserve
England’s largest temperate rainforest is to become a new National Nature Reserve, Natural England is set to declare today (Wednesday 22 May). Temperate rainforests are found in places that have high rainfall and humidity and a low annual variation in…
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/englands-largest-temperate-rainforest-a-national-nature-reserve

Biomass recovery of coastal young mangrove plantations in Central Thailand
Around one-third of the world’s most carbon-rich ecosystems, mangrove forests, have already been destroyed in Thailand owing to coastal development and aquaculture. Improving these degraded areas through mangrove plantations can restore various…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-61979-3

More than half of all mangrove ecosystems at risk of collapse by 2050, first global assessment finds
More than half of the world’s mangrove ecosystems are at risk of collapse, according to the first global mangrove assessment for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Ecosystems…
https://www.iucn.org/press-release/202405/more-half-all-mangrove-ecosystems-risk-collapse-2050-first-global-assessment

Bringing back Sri Lanka’s mangroves with science and community spirit
The abandoned shrimp farms and salt pans that litter Sri Lanka’s coastline are a testament to the pitfalls of unsustainable development. Industry and infrastructure have erased swaths of the biodiversity-rich mangrove forests that used to sustain fishing…
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/bringing-back-sri-lankas-mangroves-science-and-community-spirit

Indonesia, UAE to build mangrove research center in Bali
Indonesia and the UAE are collaborating to build a mangrove research center in Bali as part of a partnership to promote nature-based solutions to climate change. The Southeast Asian country is home to about 23 percent of all mangrove…
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2514286/amp

One year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back federal wetland protections. Here are the impacts so far
One year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision that significantly reduced federal wetlands protections, leaving America’s wetlands at greater risk of development and degradation. The case of Sackett v. EPA was decided 9-0 in favor of the Sacketts…
https://blogs.edf.org/growingreturns/2024/05/23/one-year-ago-the-u-s-supreme-court-rolled-back-federal-wetland-protections-here-are-the-impacts-so-far/

Thousands take action to protect Illinois wetlands
Environment Illinois is proud to be part of a coalition of 37 organizations that has been calling for Illinois to restore protections to many of our wetlands. This week, that coalition convened in Springfield to bring the over 18,000 individual actions taken by Illinoisans to…
https://environmentamerica.org/illinois/articles/thousands-take-action-to-protect-illinois-wetlands/

Critical US wetlands are not fully documented. Why is mapping them so hard?
A year after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Sackett v. The Environmental Protection Agency on May 25, 2023, its implications for the country’s wetlands remain unclear. One big reason is that scientists haven't fully documented the locations of the country's…
https://www.postandcourier.com/rising-waters/mapping-wetlands-landscape-technology-noaa/article_da7a6bca-e6c5-11ee-bdba-db93f2ef47cb.html

Africa: Protecting Africa's Wetlands Is Key to Combating Biodiversity Loss
From grassroots to global: Involving multiple stakeholders could enhance biodiversity governance and speed progress. Africa is faced with a profound challenge: the continent's rich biodiversity, which fuels its economy and shields it from climate change, is in...
https://allafrica.com/stories/202405210004.html

Warming climate intensifies flash droughts worldwide
Sudden, severe dry spells known as flash droughts are rising in intensity around the world, with a notable exception in mountainous Central Asia, where flash drought extent is shrinking, according to new research. Heat and changes to precipitation patterns caused…
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1045462

Revolutionary remote sensing research unravels plant genetic diversity and evolution
A research team has recently published a comprehensive review on the innovative integration of spectral data and phylogeographic patterns to study plant genetic variation. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of remote sensing technology in identifying…
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1045268

Big Tech thinks it can plant trees better than everyone else
Some of the biggest names in tech are joining forces to try something that many before them have failed to do: use trees to cancel out their greenhouse gas emissions. Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce are creating the Symbiosis Coalition as an effort to…
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/22/24162428/google-meta-microsoft-salesforce-symbiosis-coalition-nature-carbon-removal-forest-offsets

Rich nations reap climate finance dividend, benefiting from rates and terms
Japan, France, Germany, the United States and other wealthy nations are reaping billions of dollars in economic rewards from a global program meant to help the developing world grapple with the effects of climate change, a review of U.N. and Organisation for…
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/environment/2024/05/23/climate-change/climate-funds-rich-nations/

Has logging really stopped in Victoria? What the death of an endangered glider tells us
Victoria’s native forest logging industry ended on January 1 this year. The news was met with jubilation from conservationists. But did logging really end? Last week, an endangered southern greater glider was found dead next to an area logged to create fuel breaks along…
https://theconversation.com/has-logging-really-stopped-in-victoria-what-the-death-of-an-endangered-glider-tells-us-230394

The world is rushing to Africa to mine critical minerals like lithium – how the continent should deal with the demand
Global demand for critical minerals, particularly lithium, is growing rapidly to meet clean energy and de-carbonisation objectives. Africa hosts substantial resources of critical minerals. As a result, foreign mining companies are rushing to invest in exploration and…
https://theconversation.com/the-world-is-rushing-to-africa-to-mine-critical-minerals-like-lithium-how-the-continent-should-deal-with-the-demand-229831

Scientists transplant soil fungi in race to save world’s threatened orchids
Scientists are racing against the clock to save the world’s orchids by discovering the soil fungi they need to thrive, breeding them and then, in a first for conservation, transplanting them into orchid habitats…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/24/scientists-transplant-soil-fungi-in-race-to-save-the-worlds-rthreatened-orchids

Deforestation exacerbated deadly Brazil floods, say experts
The floods devastating southern Brazil have been exacerbated by deforestation, much of it driven by soybean farming, according to experts, who urge the country to restore its forests and their vast water-retaining root systems…
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240522-experts-say-deforestation-exacerbated-deadly-brazil-floods

More than 20% of shareholders vote against Shell’s climate strategy at tense AGM
The meeting was punctuated by protests from groups calling out Shell’s climate record and alleged actions in the Niger Delta. More than a fifth of shareholders voted against Shell’s current climate strategy during the company’s annual general meeting (AGM)…
https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/05/22/more-than-20-of-shareholders-vote-against-shells-climate-strategy-at-tense-agm

What is greenwashing?
Products claiming to be "sustainable," "carbon-neutral" or "plastic-free" are increasingly visible on supermarket shelves. And as many of us are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of our consumer behavior: from the climate-heating emissions…
https://www.dw.com/en/what-is-greenwashing/a-69042821

Comment: ‘We asked companies if their supply chains were deforestation-free. This is what they told us’
Every year, companies that produce or source agricultural and forestry products field requests for disclosure regarding the sustainability of their businesses, including progress toward eliminating deforestation from their supply chains…
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/land-use-biodiversity/comment-we-asked-companies-if-their-supply-chains-were-deforestation-free-this-2024-05-22/

Italian museum recreates Tanzanian butterfly forest to raise awareness on biodiversity research
In a lush greenhouse high in the Alps, butterflies of various species and colors flutter freely while butterfly pupae are suspended in a structure as they grow into adult insects. This is the Butterfly Forest in the tropical mountain greenhouse in Trento, Italy…
https://apnews.com/article/italy-tanzania-udzungwa-butterfly-research-muse-f42de6d2f628c3d19a755cd7911245dd

Farm Bill Offers Some Conservation Wins, Falls Short in Advancing Climate-Smart Agriculture And Forestry
The House Committee on Agriculture passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024, which now goes to the full House for a vote. Among other policies, the bill would provide resources to farmers, ranchers, foresters, and other private landowners to…
https://www.audubon.org/news/farm-bill-offers-some-conservation-wins-falls-short-advancing-climate-smart-agriculture

Metal mobilization from thawing permafrost to aquatic ecosystems is driving rusting of Arctic streams
Climate change in the Arctic is altering watershed hydrologic processes and biogeochemistry. Here, we present an emergent threat to Arctic watersheds based on observations from 75 streams in Alaska’s Brooks Range that recently turned orange…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01446-z

Earth Facing 'Global Water Crisis'
The Earth is facing a global crisis, as water quantity and quality is projected to get worse, a new study has found. The study, published in Nature Climate Change by researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, used global water models to estimate how much…
https://www.newsweek.com/earth-facing-global-water-crisis-1903870

Study details strategies for successful urban tree planting initiatives
Collaborative research led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst outlines five essential themes to promote equitable and sustainable urban tree planting initiatives (TPIs), which is especially timely given the $1.5 billion for urban and community…
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-strategies-successful-urban-tree.html

NACP cooperates with WWF-Ukraine to minimize corruption risks in forestry
“The NACP  corruption risk analysis is an effective tool for preventing corruption. The NACP  survey data shows a high prevalence of corruption in the forestry sector. The main source of corruption risks is the imperfection of legislation and the lack of clearly defined…
https://nazk.gov.ua/en/news/nacp-to-cooperate-with-wwf-ukraine-to-minimize-corruption-risks-in-forestry/

Carbon credit – Solution for reforesting Central Highlands
The Central Highlands has more than 2.57 million hectares of forests, accounting for 17.5 percent of the nation's forested area, with a forest coverage rate across the entire region reaching 45.94 percent. Despite efforts by local authorities in recent years to implement…
https://en.sggp.org.vn/carbon-credit-solution-for-reforesting-central-highlands-post110123.html

Compiled by Nelson Wong

IFL Owner