Environmental Impacts Of Deforestation In Australia

[Maricel Fergason]

Deforestationand tree-clearing is the major cause of habitat loss for many threatened and endangered species. In Asia, this includes orangutans, tigers, rhinos and elephants, some of which are on the brink of extinction. Moreover, the direct impacts of clearing are compounded by the fact that it brings such species into closer and more frequent contact with humans, which can lead to poaching and persecution.

WWF has been working to protect forests for more than 50 years by helping to establish protected areas, combat illegal logging and promote certification for responsible forest management practices.We recognise that you cannot secure sustainable food, save threatened species, create a low carbon future or protect marine life without protecting and restoring our forests. In Australia, we've therefore put forests at the heart of our conservation goals and strategies.

WWF-Australia is promoting agricultural planning and production that avoids tree-clearing, advocating stronger biodiversity laws to protect Australian habitat, and campaigning for a halt to deforestation across the Asia-Pacific region. We're also supporting the development of a carbon farming initiative that incentivises the restoration, reforestation and conservation of forested landscapes, and we're fighting for an end to the tree-clearing that continues to drive sediment and pollution onto the Great Barrier Reef.

Increasingly, we have focused on remedying the fundamental market and governance failures that drive poor land use practices. Achieving Zero Net Deforestation and forest Degradation (ZNDD) by 2020 requires a range of different, but complimentary approaches:

GFTN links hundreds of companies, forest-dependent communities, non-governmental organisations and entrepreneurs in more than 30 countries around the world, with the goal of creating a market for environmentally responsible forest products.

The GFTN works at national and regional levels to expand the area of forests under responsible and credibly certified forest management. It also works to encourage demand for wood and paper products from those well-managed forests.

The GFTN helps forest managers benefit from sustainable forest management, while helping processors, manufacturers and retailers reduce the risk of being associated with deforestation, biodiversity loss and social conflict.

Just six weeks before the crucial 2022 Brazilian presidential election, a historic day of Amazon burning was detected by satellite monitoring. On 22 August, 3,358 fires were detected in the Brazilian Amazon, according to the Brazilian space agency, INPE. This was the highest number of fires recorded for any 24-hour period since 2007.

That alarming day of fire was no anomaly, but simply another day in a tragic trend of destruction in the Amazon rainforest since Jair Bolsonaro became president of Brazil in 2019. Just in the month of August 2022, there were 33,116 illegal fire hotspots registered in the Amazon, the highest level in 12 years.

The rainforest, the Indigenous and traditional communities who call it home, the unparalleled biodiversity of the region, and the global climate need real, sustainable solutions. Around the world, we must work together in whatever ways we can to stand with the Guardians of The Forest and to protect the Amazon from those who value profits over people and the planet.

Deforestation and fires are linked. They are intertwined threats to the lives and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities in the Amazon, to the biodiversity of the forest, and to the global climate. The widespread forest burnings associated with deforestation are carried out by those who put short-term profits over people and the planet.

While Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities have understood responsible uses of fire in land stewardship for generations, the fires generating global headlines in the Amazon are often ignited by those people who do not care about the long-term health of the ecosystem or the communities who live there.

A survey released by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) in October 2021 showed that cattle pastures occupied 75% of the deforested area on public lands in the Amazon. Other causes of deforestation include the construction of new highways, logging roads, dams, and mines.

According to data from the Brazilian National Space and Research Institute (INPE), there was a 16.7% increase in fire hotspots in the Amazon from January through August 2022 compared to the same time period the previous year. Forty-three percent of those hotspots were identified in only 10 municipalities, five of them located in the AMACRO region.

Moreover, these are illegal fires being started in the Amazon to clear land that is often stolen either from the Brazilian public or from Indigenous Peoples are traditional communities. This illegally seized and illegally burned forest is often cleared to create more cattle pasture and animal feed for the global meat industry.

The land grabbers and deforesters who are illegally starting fires in the Amazon tend to sync up with the natural dry season in the region which extends from July through November. Unfortunately, due to intentionally diminished enforcement of environmental laws under Bolsonaro as well as increasingly dry conditions due to the climate crisis, there are fires in the Amazon all year round now.

Sadly, it is increasingly likely that fires are burning in the Amazon at any time of the year, even outside of the dry season. To stay up to date with recent data on deforestation and fires, make sure that you follow Greenpeace Brazil.

With more than 30 years of experience working in the Amazon, Greenpeace Brazil closely monitors and shares the most recent data on deforestation and fires. Furthermore, Greenpeace Brazil conducts flyovers of fires and deforested areas in the Amazon in order to chronicle the destruction and ensure it is seen throughout the world.

According to some studies, this tipping point would be reached when 20% to 25% of the forested area is lost to deforestation. Beyond this tipping point, the Amazon could effectively fail as a rainforest and begin to become a much dryer ecosystem, similar to a savannah.

The health impacts of the toxic smoke from the Amazon fires on local populations are another tragic aspect of forest destruction. Not only do those who live closest to the fires have their homes and livelihoods jeopardized by burning and deforestation but they also face grave health impacts due to smoke inhalation, a danger only exacerbated by the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Once the burning has started, the challenges of combating active fires in the vast rainforest are extremely high. Fire-fighting techniques that may work in other contexts such as creating fire breaks or dousing flames from above with planes become logistically complex or cost prohibitive given the scale and remoteness of the Amazon.

Wherever you are, you can educate yourself and support Indigenous Peoples and environmental organizations advocating for forests. Greenpeace Brazil has three decades of experience working to protect the Amazon and has the support of a global network of Greenpeace organizations, many also pressuring leaders and companies in their local regions to stop encouraging deforestation and the accompanying burning through climate-wrecking business practices and trade deals.

But there are many other groups and organizations working at the intersection of the Indigenous rights and climate movements who also need support, such as Articulao dos Povos Indgenas do Brasil (APIB), Amazon Watch, Instituto Socio Ambiental, and CIMI.

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Timber products are regarded as products produced from renewable and sustainable environmental resources (Klein et al. 2016). However, as other products, timber products may create various kinds of environmental impacts at different stages of the timber product supply chain, from harvesting to their disposal (Fig. 1). A major source of the environmental impacts is the consumption of energy required to produce timber products and emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) during the manufacturing process from raw materials to the final products. Although production of timber products also involves emission of carbon, forest and timber provide carbon sinks because trees consume carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through carbon sequestration (Le Qur et al. 2009). However, the forestry sector in general, and removal of trees through deforestation contribute to up to 17% of GHG emission into the atmosphere (Miles and Kapos 2008; Baccini et al. 2012). Other forms of environmental impact associated with timber products are due to the transportation of timber products (Lindholm and Berg 2005), use of chemicals, and wood wastage (Jurgensen et al. 1997; Wootton 2012).

Flow chart of activities in timber production stages and production of wastage in timber production sector. It represents the typical timber product production system, from harvesting to the final products through two subsystems viz the forestry and timber industry subsystems, within the timber production sector.

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