A very important report on greenhouse gas emissions and Australia’s native forests has been released:

Brendan G. Mackey, Heather Keith, Sandra L. Berry and David B. Lindenmeyer, Green Carbon: the role of natural forests in carbon storage. Part 1, A green carbon account of Australia’s south-eastern Eucalypt forests, and policy implications. The Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University.

The report demonstrates that Australian forests have far larger carbon stocks than previously recognised. According to the report:

Our analysis shows that in the 14.5 million ha of eucalypt forests in south-eastern Australia, the effect of retaining the current carbon stock (equivalent to 25.5 Gt CO2 (carbon dioxide)) is equivalent to avoided emissions of 460 Mt(2) CO2 yr-1 for the next 100 years. Allowing logged forests to realize their sequestration potential to store 7.5 Gt CO2 is equivalent to avoiding emissions of 136 Mt CO2 yr-1 for the next 100 years. This is equal to 24 per cent of the 2005 Australian net greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors; which were 559 Mt CO2 in that year.

So the carbon in Australia’s south eastern forests is equivalent to approximately 25.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. But the report also suggests that native forest logging has degraded forests to the extent that 7.5 billion extra tonnes of carbon dioxide are in the atmosphere. Unfortunately greenhouse gas emissions from logging native forests do not count as a “change of land use”, so emissions from forest degradation do not have to be accounted for under the Kyoto protocol.

Native forests are also more reliable than plantation forests as carbon stores, especially over long time periods.

The green carbon in natural forests is stored in a more reliable stock than that in industrialized forests, especially over ecological time scales. Carbon stored in industrialized forests has a greater susceptibility to loss than that stored in natural forests. Industrialized forests, particularly plantations, have reduced genetic diversity and structural complexity, and therefore reduced resilience to pests, diseases and changing climatic conditions.

The report also states:

It is possible to achieve protection of the carbon stocks in natural forests by switching to timber sourced from existing plantations and, if necessary, from new plantations on previously cleared land. In this way, the commercial demand for wood fibre can be met and the contribution of natural forests to greenhouse gas mitigation can be maximized.

Sounds like another good reason for not logging native forests.

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