Please note - This news release has now been archived and may contain outdated information.
A landmark NSW report published in an international forest journal has for the first time highlighted the potential role of production forests in reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The report has now been published in the international journal, Forests (www.mdpi.com).
Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Research Leader for Climate in Primary Industries, Dr Georgina Kelly, said Australian scientists are leading the world in this area and are contributing to the global debate on the role of forests in addressing climate change.
"In an Australian first, the report compared the full greenhouse gas (GHG) potential of NSW production forests against conservation forests," Dr Kelly said.
"The report authors found that production forests have a significantly higher greenhouse benefit than conservation forests when considering the full lifecycle of timber products as well as standing carbon in trees.
"Unlike conservation forests, production forests provide additional greenhouse gas reduction benefits through wood products, generation of bioenergy, providing substitutes for more greenhouse-intensive building products such as concrete and steel and minimising the need for greenhouse-intensive imports."
Dr Kelly said it’s critical to understand these whole of life cycle impacts of production forests.
"These findings provide a strong scientific contribution to the current debate on greenhouse gas emissions and helps policy makers understand the full greenhouse potential of Australia’s production forests," Dr Kelly said.
Dr Kelly said the report 'Harvested forests provide the greatest ongoing greenhouse gas benefits'' was written by a team of research scientists from the Department of Primary Industries, Forests NSW and University of New England.
"The study examined two key native forest production areas in coastal NSW and assessed two different management scenarios – a conservation forest only and a multiple use production forest," she said.
"For both areas, we found that converting production forests to conservation forests will not provide additional greenhouse benefits."
Key findings:
The report, along with a YouTube video, can be downloaded at: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/research/topics/climate-change
Email:
Media contact: Steve Green 6391 3686 or 0427 192 658