A study published this week shows how European countries’ need for wood biomass is contributing to an increase in deforestation. The discovery comes from a team of researchers at the European Commission’s Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy, whose findings are based on satellite data.
Between the period 2011–15 and 2016–18, ‘harvested’ forest area – defined as the part of a forest where trees are cut and others are planted in their place – increased by about 50% , increased from 0.76 million hectares to 1.13 million hectares. Of the 26 member states assessed, only 2 – Finland and Sweden – accounted for half of the increase.
This is an important discovery. This has implications for biodiversity and climate-change policies, and forests for part play in nations’ efforts to reach near-zero emissions. Forests cover about 38% of the total land surface of the European Union, and offset about 10% of its total greenhouse-gas emissions by acting as a carbon sink.
The authors say that increased harvesting may reduce the ability of forests to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. One reason for this is that large amounts of carbon are quickly released when older trees are cut down – but the same amount of atmospheric carbon takes longer to be absorbed by the smaller, smaller trees planted in their place.
Paradoxically, the increase in harvested forest area is driven, in part, by the demand for green fuels, some of which are generated from wood biomass. This includes bioenergy, which comprises about 60% of the EU’s renewable energy. This increase in biomass products can, in turn, be traced to the EU’s Bio-economy Strategy, a policy that promoted the use of forest resources for energy as raw materials for industries and to create jobs. Have given.
The bio-economy strategy has been successful in a way: between 2012 and 2016 total economic output from EU forests increased by 25% from €43 billion to €54 billion – and in Poland and Sweden that growth doubled to 50% Gone. But the economic success has come at an ecological cost.
Many of the continent’s leaders are advocates of ideas known as the European Green Deal, which aims to grow economies and create jobs by promoting green growth. However, these objectives can contradict each other. For example, in its new Biodiversity Strategy published in May, the European Union proposes to plant 3 billion trees. But it also suggests designating 30% (up from 26%) of protected land, including old-growth forests, by 2030. If deforestation continues at the current rate, such an ambition will be difficult to achieve.
The EU has a target to double its share of low-carbon and renewable energy to 34% from 2015 to 2030. The European Parliament agreed that burning wood could count towards this goal. But if wood were to supply 40% of the additional energy, which would mean burning all of Europe’s existing crop, the world’s forests are at deep risk.
The European Commission is preparing a new forestry strategy, expected in 2021, which will complement the Biodiversity Policy. The Joint Research Center has been asked by the Commission to set up a permanent EU Observatory on Forests.
This will draw on the type of satellite data used in the current study for more regular monitoring of deforestation, forest degradation and changes in global forest cover – and make the data accessible to the public. The researchers obtained data from the joint NASA/US Geological Survey Landsat series of Earth-observation satellites and the Global Forest Change data set, and used the Google Earth Engine, a feature that allows researchers to process satellite imagery, including Google’s Super enables the use of a computer.
The Planned Forest Observatory is a significant development, and for which the Commission should be commended. Once its data is available, EU member states are required to include them in the official statistics that policymakers use to make decisions – for example, when to reach net-zero emissions. to plan strategies.
Forest data for many countries – including those reported to Eurostat, the EU statistics office – are based on manual forest surveys. Such surveys are important, but in some cases they are carried out only at decade intervals, partly because they are expensive. A dedicated observatory will provide more timely data to decision-makers and help them identify unintended consequences of their policies.
Ultimately, the data must take action. And, as we have often written, time is running out. Forests provide valuable services on which people and the environment depend. Their exploitation cannot continue at the present rate.
