Forests have been one of the most significant biomes in earth history. They were the original source of the fossil fuels that we now burn as coal, oil and gas, while the tropical forests of the Amazon, West Africa and tropical Asia support the richest biodiversity on earth. Forests help to reduce or prevent soil erosion and protect water resources. The Amazon forest appears to have a role in the circulation of earth's atmosphere. Since the rise of farming some 8 to 10,000 years ago, forests have been cleared for farmland and pasture throughout the northern hemisphere. And within the last few decades millions of acres of tropical forests have suffered the same fate as result of timber extraction or clearance for the plantation of tropical crops such as tea, coffee, cocoa or oil palms.
Native New Zealand has shared the same fate. 85% of New Zealand was forested before the arrival of human beings. With the arrival of human beings, New Zealand's forest cover has shrunk to 23% of land cover.
However, the Economist, a well respected international magazine, recently published an interesting and heartening article on forests. According to the Economist the relative decline in forest destruction that has flattened in the past few years and there are signs that countries around the world are restoring forests (as in northern hemisphere countries such as Canada, the US, Sweden, Norway and Finland, or reducing the wholesale destruction of forests (http://www.economist.com/node/17093495?story_id=17093495&fsrc=scn/tw/te/rss/pe ).
However, the Economist article warns that more than market forces will be necessary to reverse the loss of forests, and the services that forests perform. Market forces and regulation together can reduce wasteful forest clearance, but they many not be sufficient to ensure the full range of forest services such as soil and water protection, climate regulation and biodiversity.
New Zealand's Emissions Trading Scheme, particularly the provisions relating to forestry, are an important incentive for forest protection. Briefly, the Scheme provides for payment of carbon credits for forest growth that will absorb atmospheric carbon. The owners of exotic and indigenous forest established after 1989 on previously unforested land are eligible for carbon credits at the current rate of $25 per tonne of carbon dioxide. Conversely, it requires the payment of carbon credits for removal of exotic forest planted before 1989 (i.e. for harvesting of exotic trees without replanting).
Native forest established before January 1990 is not included in the scheme because they are considered to be in a steady state and not mopping up atmospheric carbon.
Carbon credits for forest growth is an example of an important economic tool. However, it depends for its effectiveness on the relative economic value of production from land rather than the full value of ecoservices provided by forests. For example, if dairying can provide higher profit than forestry, land is likely to be converted to dairying. Equally, the money for carbon does not recognise and include the other functions which forest provide such as soil and water protection and habitat for species.
Leave a comment