Another reason to protect old growth forests
Some recent research at ANU has found that natural forests are a much better carbon sink than plantation forests. As well as storing up to three times more carbon, natural forests hold the carbon for much longer because they aren’t cut down on a rotation basis like plantation forests.
This is one reason that paying money to plant trees is not always the simple option it appears. Many carbon offsetting options in Australia are based on tree planting. In some cases tree planting projects lead to a mono-culture that reduces bio-diversity. Also, when a tree dies, perhaps because of fire or through land-clearing, then the carbon it has stored is released back into the atmosphere.
Interestingly in 1990, the baseline year for calculating emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol, land clearing was responsible for an incredibly high 24.5% of Australia’s overall emissions (Terms and Impacts of the Kyoto Protocol). Thus we have the infamous ‘Australia Clause’ in the Kytoto Protocol giving credit for reducing land clearing and the reason we have been meeting our recent Kyoto targets.
Tags: Australia, carbon offsetting, kyoto, news
