Archive for the ‘IUFRO Press Release’ Category

Putting a Halt to Tropical Forest Loss is a Matter of Human Survival

Putting a Halt to Tropical Forest Loss is a Matter of Human Survival

(Vienna, 9 September 2019) Never before, it seems, have forests received as much public attention as at present. Sadly, the reasons for this are most distressing: forest fires of unprecedented dimensions all over the globe; a growing lack of resistance of trees to stressors such as drought, pests and diseases; and the uncontrolled exploitation of forests in environmentally sensitive areas.

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Forest communicators urged to use science-based facts to fight fake news

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Freiburg, Germany, 20 September 2017 – Facts are vital tools for communicators striving to help the public understand critical issues such as climate change and the forest sector, according to a session on communication during the 125th Anniversary Congress of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO). Read more…

Fighting Wildlife Crime by Fighting Illegal Timber Trade

Rapid Response to Illegal Timber Trade – Global Assessment Under Way

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The theme of this year’s World Environment Day (WED), celebrated on 5 June 2016, is: “The Illegal Trade in Wildlife”. As timber and timber products fall into this very category, this is bringing a hot topic of forestry into the limelight: illegal timber logging. While there is plenty of scientific literature on this subject, a systematic assessment and synthesis has so far been lacking. Now the Global Forest Expert Panels (GFEP), an initiative in the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) under the coordination of IUFRO, is tackling this task in a Rapid Response Assessment on Illegal Timber Trade.

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A Global Strategy Needed for Forest Health and Biosecurity

"Dead and dying Acacia trees in Asia due to infection by the wilt pathogen Ceratocystis."  Photo by Mike Wingfield

“Dead and dying Acacia trees in Asia due to infection by the wilt pathogen Ceratocystis.” Photo by Mike Wingfield

Scientists call for innovative solutions and a better-coordinated global approach to manage invasive pests and protect the value and potential of planted forests.

(Pretoria/Vienna 21 August 2015) Forests worldwide are continually under threat from introduced insects and pathogens. This is despite the best biosecurity efforts. Without a concerted global effort to understand and control invasive pests, this problem is expected to worsen as international trade increases. Read more…

A changing forest sector: Globalization triggers bio-economy and the search for new business opportunities

Logging operations in Northwest British Columbia, Canada (Photo by John Innes)

Logging operations in Northwest British Columbia, Canada (Photo by John Innes)

Scientists, practitioners and decision-makers from around the world meet in Vancouver, Canada from 27 to 30 August 2013 to discuss the implications of globalization on forests and their management.

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(Vancouver/Vienna, 27 August 2013) Globalization is changing forests and the forest sector. Increases in international trade and investments have altered the global business environment for forestry. The growing world population moving towards nine billion by 2050, economic growth, rising resources demand and increasing environmental concerns are other drivers fostering transformation in forestry and the management of forests. New players enter the global market, and the bio-economy –– the production of ‘green’ products from renewable resources –– is gaining weight. From 27 to 30 August 2013, more than 100 representatives from research, industry and government will discuss how global trends influence forest resources, and how new opportunities for forest entrepreneurs and a more resource efficient society can be harnessed. The Conference has been organized by the University of British Columbia (UBC), Faculty of Forestry, on behalf of the Task Force “Resources for the Future” of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).

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Will northern forests be able to stand the heat?

Posted by theiufroblog in IUFRO Press Release No Comments

Boreal forests are especially sensitive to global warming and are likely to be severely affected by climate change.

In international climate change negotiations, forest-related deliberations have so far mainly focused on mitigation, rather than adaptation.  However, in the particularly vulnerable boreal regions, climate change is progressing too quickly to postpone adaptation action.  Flexible approaches tailored to local situations must go hand in hand with substantial reductions of carbon emissions from fossil fuel and deforestation.  Otherwise forests are at high risk of entirely losing their carbon-regulating services.  This would, in turn, seriously accelerate climate change, a fact that has not yet been fully considered in current model generation.

In total, around 210% of the carbon in the atmosphere is stored in forest ecosystems and the boreal biome, which is the second largest terrestrial biome with one third of the Earth’s forested area, has been estimated to contain up to 30% of all carbon stored in the terrestrial biomes.  It mainly includes forests in North America, the Nordic countries and Russia.  This region is expected to experience more warming than equatorial zones and its temperature-limited forests will therefore particularly suffer. Higher temperatures along with prolonged droughts, will lead to more intense pest infestations, fires and other environmental stresses that consequently will cause considerable forest degradation and destruction. Today, research points us to the fact that there are options to reduce the vulnerability of forest ecosystems and to help forests adapt to climate change.  Coinciding with the UNFCCC Climate Summit, the Forest Day 3 Learning Event on 13 December 2009 co-hosted by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and the European Forest Institute (EFI), looked at these options and informed participants about key impacts and vulnerabilities as well as priorities for adaptation and implications for forest management. This learning event confirmed the key findings of the Global Assessment Report on Adaptation of Forests and People to Climate Change that was published in April 2009 by IUFRO and which presented the state of scientific knowledge of current and projected impacts of climate change on forests and people along with options for adaptation.According to the report, climate change is expected to affect the distribution of forest types and tree species.  Evidence from past climate changes shows that tree species respond individually, but for the boreal domain a shift of the entire biome to the north is expected although the time frame for this shift is uncertain. At first, higher temperatures and precipitation could lead to increased growth and substantial gains in the supply of timber, as a study on the Impacts of climate change on the growth of managed boreal forests in Finland (Kellomäki et al. 2008) shows, but in the end the positive effects of such growth will most likely be outweighed by the increased prevalence of fire, storms, pests and diseases.

Therefore, forest managers need to support the adaptive potential of forests. “Taking into account local circumstances, fine scale local adaptation in itself is a challenge in the face of rapid climate change – but also reveals a unique property of tree species to adapt to environment”, said Professor Erik Dahl Kjær, Head of Research of the School for Forest, Landscape and Planning at the University of Copenhagen, at the Learning Event.  In his presentation he borrowed a metaphor from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the looking-glass’. There the Red Queen tells Alice that in Wonderland she needs to run as fast as she can just to keep staying under the same tree.  Now, due to human induced climate changes, it is the trees that will have ‘to run as fast as they can’ to stay adapted.

To help them win the race, there is a need to reduce vulnerability of forest ecosystems by reducing their exposure to climate change, decreasing their sensitivity and maintaining or increasing their resilience.  Following the observations and thoughts of Charles Darwin 150 years ago, one way of achieving this goal is supporting natural selection by ensuring that forests rest on a highly diverse genetic foundation suitable for this natural selection to work. In addition, measures such as cutting forest fuel loads, planting hardier species, increasing reservoir storage capacity to help avoid water stress in drought conditions, or thinning overstocked stands need to be implemented as part of sustainable forest management.

“Policy makers should focus greater attention on helping forests and the people who live around them to adapt to anticipated problems,” confirmed Professor Risto Seppälä from the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) and Immediate Past President of IUFRO, who chaired the expert panel that produced the Global Assessment Report.  And he emphasized, “Wider application of well-understood sustainable forestry practices, which offer a range of benefits, could help forests avoid some of the damage induced by climate change.”

So, planning how to manage forests in order to make them fit for climate change is a first step towards adapting.  In this planning process, however, it is imperative to integrate the people who live in or from the forest.  Their livelihoods will be severely threatened by the expected increases in extreme weather events such as heat stress, drought, storms, and flooding and their related impacts.  Many forest-dependent indigenous peoples and local communities hold traditional knowledge about the sustainable forest and water management that can help them respond to climate change stress, and such local knowledge can complement formal science.

At the Learning Event, Ms. Rose Kushniruk, a representative of the Champagne-Aishihik First Nation in Yukon, Canada, presented an existent example of such a successful participatory approach. “It was the severe spruce bark beetle infestation in the Yukon region that made the community people realize how their values were being impacted”, said Ms. Kushniruk.  As a response, the Champagne-Aishihik First Nation Traditional Territory’s Forest Management Plan was set up.  The plan emphasizes the local situation and its purpose is to provide direction for sustainable forest management in the area.

Ms Kushniruk explained, “From a global perspective, the change we need is overwhelming and people at times in the north don’t know how to react to that, it makes you feel hopeless in your little corner of the world. But we need to do small things at the community level and to meaningfully incorporate and truly listen to all levels of knowledge, pool that knowledge. The knowledge we get from western science, local people and aboriginal people, when combined, is very powerful and respected.  We need to start small at the community, find local community champions to move this forward. Once local people see something they love or value is being taken away or changed you’ll have their attention, then anything can happen.”

To meet the challenges of adaptation, reduce the vulnerability of forests and people to climate change and achieve successful mitigation, a series of measures need to be combined.  Besides a reduction of emissions from fossil fuels and deforestation, these range from new modes of governance that enable meaningful stakeholder participation, to strengthening sustainable management and broadening the genetic diversity of species.  However, there is still poor understanding of how adaptation really works; the challenge is left for those dedicated to find out.  As Professor Kjær put it, “At this stage it seems smart to invest a bit in both getting smarter – and in keeping options open.”

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PDF version of the press release

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IUFRO - The International Union of Forest Research Organizations