2021 World Wood Day: Carbon Capture and Storage in Forests, Wood and Non-Wood Products
2021 World Wood Day: Carbon Capture and Storage in Forests, Wood and Non-Wood Products
Report by Hiromi Waragai, Dare to Explore! Trainee at IUFRO Headquarters
World Wood Day (WWD) is celebrated on 21 March every year in order to highlight wood as an ecofriendly and renewable biomaterial and to raise awareness on the key role wood plays in a sustainable world through biodiversity and forest conservation. Various physical activities such as children’s events, folk art workshop, an international woodcarving show, music performances, tree planting and woodturning demonstrations usually characterize the event. Due to the spread of COVID-19, however, 2021 WWD was celebrated fully online on the day with the traditional scientific symposium as main activity. The other activities will be spread over the entire year and presented via social media. IUFRO President John Parrotta offered a welcome address that can be watched here: World Wood Day 2021 Welcome Message from IUFRO President Dr. John Parrotta – YouTube
Read more…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.
Read more…Congress Spotlight #72 – Radioactive Contamination and Forests: Learning Lessons from Chernobyl and Fukushima
Congress Spotlight #72 – Radioactive Contamination and Forests: Learning Lessons from Chernobyl and Fukushima
Forests, except in the most severe cases, are quite resilient to radioactive contamination and will continue functioning normally.
That is one of the surprising takeaways from the nuclear accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Read more…IUFRO Spotlight #66 – A forest mix may best address global change
IUFRO Spotlight #66 – A forest mix may best address global change
Managing a mixed forest in the context of environmental and social change is the focus of a recent publication put together by members of IUFRO Research Group 1.09.00 (Ecology and Management of Mixed Forests).
The structure, dynamics and functioning of such forests are increasingly relevant topics for researchers.
Read more…The crucial role of forests in combatting climate change
Session title: A-03 (76) Implications of the Paris Climate Change Agreement (CoP21) on Forests, Water and Soils
Moderator: Richard J. Harper, IUFRO Taskforce Coordinator “Forests, Soil and Water interactions”, Murdoch University, Australia
Tuesday, 25th of October 2016, 10:30-12-30 (306B)
Find more information on the IUFRO Task Force of Forests, Soil and Water interactions at: http://www.iufro.org/science/task-forces/forests-soil-water/
The Paris Agreement established the ambitious goal to limit the global rise in temperature to below 2° C. This session took a look at the impact climate change as well as mitigation measures potentially have on forests, soil conservation and carbon mitigation. Read more…
IUFROLAT III Session Highlights: Impacts of logging on biodiversity in tropical forests
Impacts of logging on carbon storage and biodiversity in tropical production forests of Latin America
Moderator: Plinio Sist, CIRAD-ES, France
Friday, 14 June 2013, 8:00-10:00 (Chirripó)
Find more information on the IUFRO Task Force on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services at:
www.iufro.org/science/task-forces/biodiversity-ecosystem-services/
The session addressed the very important issue of the trade-offs between biomass harvest, carbon storage and biodiversity. Biomass harvest is negatively correlated with biomass storage and, in most cases, with biodiversity.
A key finding of the first presentation, which dealt with a permanent plot experiment in the Amazon, is that logging intensity affects biomass recovery rate and period. The study determined that increased logging intensity is ensued by increased recovery rate, but increases the recovery period.
Another presentation highlighted the effects of logging after 30 years on tree diameter, timber species and floristic diversity. Floristic diversity had recovered to the original state. Conversely, diameter distribution was less heterogeneous and tree species composition had shifted to pioneer and other light demanding species.
The role of individual big trees was also highlighted in a presentation. The study conducted in Pará, Amazon, found that selective logging caused a net biomass storage decrease. Moreover, selective logging creates instability in stands, which results in elevated natural mortality of individual big trees, even 8 years subsequent to logging.
Another presentation emphasised the role of disturbance regimes, showing data that El Nino decreased standing biomass more than logging; where mature stands suffered more damage than newly logged stands. Emphasis was placed on the importance of rotation cycles, as the risk of devastating disturbance regimes increased with increasing rotation periods.
Presentations in this session:
Is Tropical Forest Conservation through silviculture possible? The contribution of Tropical Production Forest Observatory Sentinel Landscape. (Plinio Sist, CIRAD-ES, France)
Thirty years after logging: Three species dynamics in the Tapajos National Forest, Eastern Amazon. (Ademir Ruschel, Embrapa Amazonia Oriental, Brazil
20 years forest dynamics study case in the Embrapa Acre Forest in Acre State, Brazilian Western Amazon. (Marcus d’Olivera)
La dinámica a largo plazo de la diversidad taxonómica y functional de especies leñosas en bosques lluviosos tropicales aprovechados y con tratamiento silvicultural en Costa Rica. (Bryan Finegan, CATIE, Costa Rica)
Post-logging biomass recovery: a pan-tropical analysis (J Putz, Alexander Shenkin)
IUFROLAT III Session Highlights: Forests, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Bosques, Biodiversidad y Servicios Ecosistémicos / Forests, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Session moderator: Bryan Finegan, CATIE, Costa Rica, IUFRO Task Force Coordinator
Thursday, 13 June 2013, 14:00-16:00 (Chirripó)
Find more information on the IUFRO Task Force Forests, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services:
www.iufro.org/science/task-forces/biodiversity-ecosystem-services/
The session offered insight into functional ecology, with emphasis on climatic conditions along elevation gradients showing that biodiversity decreases with increasing altitude. It also dealt with the provision of ecosystem services in relation with biodiversity. Biodiversity is essential for pest damage resistance, for example. Source dilution, chemical signals and activity of natural enemies are identified as being essential for ensuring low pest damage. With increased source dilution, pests are less likely to establish themselves in a diverse setting. With increased chemical signals associated with diverse flora, pests are less likely to find their favourite source. And with a high number of natural enemies, whose presence is correlated with high biodiversity, pests are less likely to cause damage. Hence, diversification on a stand/landscape level is needed to ensure the provision of forest ecosystem services.
Plant conservation in Southeast Asia was another topic. In Malaysia, for example, efforts to preserve plants have become a prevalent goal for scientists. Diversity is vast, and since 40 – 50 % of the preserved species are endemic, 24% of which are either endangered (EN) or critically endangered (CR), conservation is a central goal. While the pleas of scientists are being heard in some cases, legal frameworks are needed to protect these species.
A presentation on the carbon sequestration potential for complex mosaic forest landscapes in western Mexico aimed at addressing shifting cultivation, framed in the carbon emission discourse. With shifting cultivation, carbon is released to the atmosphere, adding to GHG concentrations. However, the study showed that on a landscape level, there are no net carbon dioxide emissions, as the carbon sequestration rate of forest re-growth compensates for the carbon emission from shifting cultivation.
The presentation entitled “Native forest cover increase: drivers and implications on ecosystem services”, focused on why some areas in the Piracicaba river basin were allowed to reforest. Satellite imagery helped determine deforestation and reforestation from 1990 – 2010. Having preselected variables, the results demonstrate that natural reforestation occurs when slopes exceed 30%, when water proximity is less than 100 m, when annual rainfall exceeds 1400 mm, when elevation is lower than 400 m below sea level or more than 800 m above sea level, and when vicinity to towns is more than 7 km.
The final paper focused on Chakras, forestry systems that are employed by indigenous peoples in the Amazon. Plant composition in Chakras is heterogeneous; they provide multiple sources of food, are biodiverse and function as stores of carbon. The presented study demonstrated that in Chakras, fauna is more diverse, carbon storage is higher in both biomass and necromass than in comparable Cocoa plantations.
Presentations in this session:
Bosques lluviosos tropicales, biodiversidad y servicios ecosistémicos en la era de cambio global; nuevas perspectivas desde la ecología functional (Bryan Finegan, CATIE, Costa Rica)
Forest biodiversity and resistance to pest damage. (Eckehard Brockerhoff, Scion, New Zealand)
Challenges in Developing Practical Plant Conservation Strategy in SE Asia. (Su See Lee, FRIM, Malaysia)
Carbon sequestration potential for complex mosaic forest landscapes in western Mexico. (Lucia Morales Barquero, Bangor University, UK)
Native forest cover increase: drivers and implications on ecosystem services. (Paulo Molin, Laboratorio de Hidrología Florestal, Brazil)
Variación en el almacenamiento de carbono, conservación de la biodiversidad y productividad en dos sistemas productivos, comparados con bosques primarios en la Amazonia ecuatoriana. (Bolier Torres Navarrete, Universidad Estatal Amazónica, Ecuador)