Forestry

Forest fires release significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere¹, but also convert a fraction of the burning vegetation to charred black carbon.

24 August 2010: Frances Seymour, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), delivered a keynote address titled "Forests, Climate Change, and Communities: Making Progress up the Learning Curve" at the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO)

COMMENT In the last three weeks, Sarawak was abuzz with news of a particular climate change mitigation mechanism called REDD (Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries).

First, a news article by Reuters informed that an Australian carbon trading company has signed a carbon offset deal with nine tribal leaders that would purportedly preserved more than 100,000ha of forests in the state.

Unemployment among forestry workers and amount of denuded timber harvest land will rise dramatically over next 20 years, a report says.

Beijing has worked out a plan to invest up to 20 billion yuan (US$3 billion) in the next decade on forestation and develop alternative energies.

Wu Jian, a senior engineer with the State Forestry Administration, said at a news conference that the trees will fight climate change by absorbing carbon and will produce material for bio-diesel and ethanol fuels by 2020.

The plan aims to have 23 percent of the country covered with forests in 10 years, up 3 percent increase from the current level.