On International Forest Day, the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) states that it is vital that we recognize that forests support our civilization, climate and biodiversity.
In a statement to the International Day of Forests for NEFA President Dailan Pugh said that forests are under endless threat due to increasing droughts, heat waves, forest fires and floods, at the time we need them for our carbon from the atmosphere to take and store it safely. in their wood and soil, and to reduce flooding by storing and slowing down water during extreme rainfall events.
Big old trees are awesome
“Large old trees are ingenious, hundreds of years old, tower 8-12 stories high, apartment complexes for cave-dependent animals with boxes for koalas, gliders, possums and a large number of honeycombs.
Forests improve our health, generate rainfall, cool the land, regulate currents, sequester and store carbon, reduce flood risk by storing water and slowing down rivers, reducing landslides by strengthening the soil, and most of our biodiversity support. “
Mr Pugh says nineteen Australian ecosystems have been identified as having already collapsed. “In the marine environment, climate change is causing the downfall of the Great Barrier Reef, which is once again excited by another mass coral bleaching event. Most of the huge kelp forests off South Australia have already disappeared, and many species are moving south as the water warms.
Forest ecosystems are collapsing
‘Forest ecosystems identified as already collapsed: mountain ash forest; Murray-Darling River Basin – riverine; Gondwanan Coniferous Forest; Wet tropical rainforest; Mediterranean-type forests in woodlands; Australian Tropical Savanna; and mangrove forests. ‘
Mr Pugh says NSW’s coastal forests suffer similar fates as droughts and heat waves kill many trees and animals that spread back through degraded forests while more and more forest fires eliminate our alpine forests and burn a third of our vine forests in the Black Summer forest fires. .
‘Last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that many forests are already severely affected by climate warming, with many forest ecosystems potentially collapsing when warming exceeds 1.5.oC for too long. Australia has already warmed by 1.4oC, our forests can no longer afford it.
Humans depend on the forests of the world to absorb one third of our annual carbon emissions and save them from harm. As trees die, and forests collapse, they stop removing our carbon and release the large quantities they store. Loss of our forests threatens volatile climate warming.
“Stopping climate warming not only requires us to stop our emissions, it also depends on more carbon being released from the atmosphere, and we need trees to do that.”
Mr Pugh says that recorded native forests have already lost more than half of the carbon they once stored, if we allow them to recover, they can remove enormous volumes from the atmosphere and help us deal with this existential crisis.
Logged by forests they dry up
Forest logging dries them, increases the risk of fire, reduces river flow, increases the risk of flooding, reduces nectar, reduces weeds, spreads weeds, creates erosion, and makes them more vulnerable to collapse.
‘Last October at the UN Biodiversity Conference Australia signed the Kunming Declaration, saying that we are committed to “protect 30 percent worldwide from land and sea areas“by 2030. Last November at COP 26, Australia signed the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use with the aspirational goal”Stop and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030“.
‘NSW protected only 9% of our land area (18% nationally). We have a long way to go to honor our commitments and there is not much time left.
We must act immediately to tackle the accelerated climate and biodiversity crisis before it is too late. Two simple changes we need to make are to stop shortening the public-born forests and clearing the forests.
“If the NSW and federal governments continue to refuse to do that, it is your responsibility to stand up and speak up to do so.”
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