Intact Native Forest Reduce Climate Change Impact

David Lindenmayer

Professor of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Australian National University

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In a drive to make the US self-sufficient in lumber, the Trump administration is encouraging expansion of commercial logging in that country’s native forests.

In a world facing climate change, this is not a good idea for the US or Australia or any other country.

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Forests are critical for supporting biodiversity¹, storing carbon, and providing key environmental services such as clean water². Yet human disturbance, such as clearing and logging, is prevalent throughout much of the world’s forest estate. Indeed, forests are among the most disturbed of the major terrestrial habitats globally³. Between 2000 and 2013, for example, 2.3 million square kilometres of forest were lost worldwide, while only 0.8 million square kilometres were gained through natural regeneration and replanting⁴.

Almost one third of global forest loss and disturbance can be attributed to permanent land use change for commodity production, such as agriculture and the establishment of oil palm plantations, or for new urban settlements. A further quarter was lost to forestry operations⁵. Increasingly, forest loss also is occurring because of wildfires across subtropical and temperate Australia, the tropics, and northern Eurasia⁶. 

Research increasingly shows that intact forest ecosystems are not only fundamental for conserving biodiversity^1,2, but also for supporting the underlying economic fabric of the world. Indeed, in 2023 the World Economic Forum estimated that half of the world’s annual GDP or $US44 trillion was at risk as a result of biodiversity loss and the erosion of ecosystem conditions⁷.

In this article, I briefly highlight the importance of intact forests for biodiversity conservation, resistance to climate change, and fire management in Victoria. I also discuss why an expansion of National Parks and reserves is essential, but at the same time why these areas need to be well managed by providing adequate resources to support their conservation and upkeep. 

Intact forests and biodiversity 

It has long been recognized that protected areas are critical for the conservation of biodiversity, because they support greater populations of plant and animal species than unprotected areas. Protected areas are believed to have prevented the extinction of about a quarter of the world’s birds⁸, for example. There are also “spill-over effects”, whereby unprotected areas adjacent to reserves support larger populations and greater species richness than unprotected areas further away⁹. So reserves have significant benefits for biodiversity that extend well beyond their boundaries.

In a Victorian context, several studies have demonstrated the conservation values of intact forests¹⁰. This work highlights the fact that the habitat of more than 30 threatened species has been saved by ending native forest logging in the State¹¹. 

Intact forests and storing carbon

Forest disturbance, such as that which results from logging, can generate large emissions of carbon. Prior to the cessation of the logging of native forests in Victoria, for instance, the State Government estimated that logging would generate carbon emissions equivalent to those from 730,000 motor vehicles every year. On the other hand, protecting intact forests is an important way to avoid emissions and store large amounts of carbon. The tall, wet forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria have been found to be among those that store the highest concentrations of carbon on Earth¹².

Intact forests and fire risk

Over the past decade, an increasing body of evidence has shown that logged and regenerated forests are at risk of burning more fiercely. This includes work from Victoria, Tasmania, and New South Wales^13-15. The relationship between logging and fire severity can last from 40 to 70 years after logging operations have finished and the forests have regrown^14,15.

Conversely, the lowest severity wildfires typically occur in older forests of between 80 and 102 years¹⁴. This is because these older forests tend to be wetter, cooler and less micro-climatically variable than younger-aged stands. In addition, there can be up to 450 tonnes per hectare of logging debris left in harvested and regenerated forests that can add significantly to fire fuel loads¹⁶.

An analysis of the 2019-2020 Black Summer wildfires showed that the intact forests nearly always burnt with lower severity than logged and regenerated forests¹⁷. In fact, fire in intact forests burning under extreme weather conditions was up to 20% less severe than in logged and regenerated forests burning under moderate fire weather conditions. 

High severity wildfires can, in turn, have major impacts on biodiversity^18,19, especially in areas where there has been a history of repeated disturbance¹⁹. Indeed, studies following the Black Summer wildfires showed that biodiversity recovery was severely impaired in burnt areas that had a history of repeated prescribed burning and past logging, especially in wetter forest types²⁰. This reinforces the importance of protecting existing intact forest as well as expanding them in future as part of conserving Victoria’s forest biodiversity²¹. 

Given the additional long-lived fire burden associated with past management – such as the 40 to70-year elevated fire severity risk^14,15 – and the effects of climate change on fire regimes²¹, a key emerging issue in forest management is how best to deal with the high levels of forest flammability that have been created.

One way is to assist forests to mature to a less flammable old-growth state²³ and thereby expand the intact forest estate significantly. This will take time, however, and, in the interim, resources will be needed to suppress fires when they are ignited in young flammable forests. New technologies such as fleets of drones and/or autonomous vehicles that can readily and rapidly carry large payloads of more than 1000  kilograms of water and/or fire retardant to ignition points may be part of the solution to this problem²⁴. 

The importance of National Parks

As outlined above, intact forests, including those in Victoria, play critical ecological roles in biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, and reducing fire risks. The best way to maintain and eventually expand the intact forest estate is conservation within formally protected areas such as National Parks. In Victoria, successive empirical analyses show that the State’s network of National Parks is inadequate for protecting threatened forest-dependent species²⁵. A significant increase in the spatial extent of National Parks is therefore needed. This is entirely consistent with public sentiment. The vast majority of people in Australia want more National Parks²⁶.

Notably, National Parks also are a substantial financial contributor to Victoria’s economy²⁷. This contrasts with the significant economic losses associated with other kinds of forest use, such as the logging of native forest (see Frontier Economics²⁸). Environmental accounting has revealed that nature-based tourism in the Central Highlands region of Victoria, for example, contributed 20 times more to regional GDP than native forest logging²⁹. 

There needs to be an appropriate level of resources to ensure that both existing and new protected areas of forest can be managed adequately, including the control of invasive species and the management of human visitors and fire. But budget cuts have seen organisations like Parks Victoria substantially defunded and unable to manage the existing protected area estate adequately. This situation needs to be reversed.

It may be necessary to develop novel financing mechanisms to support the management of National Parks better. Possible examples include an environment levy (similar to the Medicare Levy) and green bonds. In these (and other) cases, there will need to be rigorous monitoring to ensure that any investments made to enhance environmental outcomes are actually realised, and that science-based forest management interventions are environmentally effective and cost-effective. 

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Acknowledgments

I thank Luke Gordon and Karen Brock for editorial assistance. I am grateful to Emma Coath, CEO of RSV, for inviting me to write this article.

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David Lindenmayer is Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Conservation Biology in the Australian National University’s Fenner School of Environment and Society.

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25. Taylor, C., & Lindenmayer, D. B. (2019). Ibid.

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30. Main banner image by Walter Coppola via Unsplash