[MCN] Debate: Logging or no logging as paths to forest carbon sink

[Lance Olsen]

"There has been extensive debate about whether 
the sustainable use of forests (forest management 
aimed at producing a sustainable yield of timber 
or other products) results in superior climate 
outcomes to conservation (maintenance or 
enhancement of conservation values without 
commercial harvesting) (1-8). Most of the 
relevant research has relied on consequential 
life-cycle assessment (LCA), with the results 
tending to show that sustainable use has lower 
net greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions than 
conservation in the long term (1-5). However, the 
literature cautions that results are sensitive to 
forest- and market-related contextual factors: 
the carbon density of the forests, silvicultural 
and wood processing practices, and the extent to 
which wood products and forest bioenergy displace 
carbon-intensive alternatives. Depending on these 
issues, conservation can be better for the 
climate than sustainable use (1,6-8). Policy 
institutions are another key contextual factor 
but, so far, they have largely been ignored 
)(1-6). Using a case study on the Southern 
Forestry Region (SFR) of New South Wales (NSW), 
Australia, we show how policy institutions can 
affect the assessed outcomes from alternative 
forest management strategies. Our results 
highlight the need for greater attention to be 
paid to policy institutions in forest carbon 
research."

Andrew Macintosh, Heather Keith and David 
Lindenmayer. Rethinking forest carbon assessments 
to account for policy institutions. Nature 
Climate Change  Published Online:
29 JUNE 2015 | DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2695
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"Š the race between climate dynamics and  climate 
policy will be a close one Š." and " Š requires 
an industrial revolution for sustainability 
starting now." 

Hans Joachim Schellenhuber.
"Global warming: Stop worrying, start panicking?"
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 
September 23, 2008  vol. 105  no. 38



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