This page kindly reproduced with permission from cooforests.org: Conservation Cools the Planet.
A bibliography of references, research and reports detailing the carbon-storage value of mature native forests and woodlands and the importance of preserving them in the fight against global warming.
Climate Change Policy Agenda
Author(s): Australia’s Environment Groups
Publication: ACF Online
Description: A joint policy statement from Australia’s leading environmental NGO’s. Includes a statement on tackling emissions from logging and highlights values of old growth forests.
Smokescreen Hides the Truth
Author(s): Boyer, Peter (The Climate Project)
Publication: The Mercury Newspaper, Tasmania, 29 May, 2008.
Description: Opinion article, details climate impacts of Tasmanian native forest logging and burning.
Briefing paper on carbon sinks
Author(s): Climate Action Network Australia (CANA)
Publication: CANA Website
Description: Discusses CANA’s position on forests as carbon sinks. Outlines value of preserving old forests as opposed to establishing new plantations.
Turning Down the Heat- A climate change action agenda for Australia.
Author(s): Climate Action Network Australia (CANA)
Publication: CANA Website
Description: A comprehensive strategy document produced by Climate Action Network Australia.
Growth Modeling of E. regnans for Carbon Accounting at the Landscape Scale.
Author(s): Dean, C. et al.
Publication: Modelling Forest systems, Edited by Amaro, A., Reed, D., Soares, P. , 2003 CABI Publishing, pp 27-39.
Description: Details higher carbon storage capacity of old growth forests in Tasmania and Victoria, and reductions in carbon storage after logging rotations.
Forests, vital for climate protection
Author(s): The Green Institute
Publication: Green Institute website
Description: Native forest have a vital role in Australia’s greenhouse gas profile, as a very large store of CO2 and as a source of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily resulting from logging. This paper estimates that logging produces emissions of 38 Mt CO2 per annum, equivalent to 7% of Australia’s total emissions. Depending on the age of the forest, it will take up to several centuries to recapture all of the CO2 emitted.
Biocarbon, biodiversity and climate change. A REDD Plus scheme for Australia
Author(s): The Green Institute
Publication: Green Institute website
Description: Working Paper 3. Outlines the need for Australia’s own REDD Plus scheme, which reduces emissions from forest degredation and maximises the value of “biocarbon” stored in living ecosystems.
Effects on Carbon Storage of Conversion of Old-Growth Forests to Young Forests.
Author(s): Harmon, M. et al.
Publication: Science, Vol. 247. 9 February, 1990. pp. 699-701. Available Online –
Description: Outlines decreasing carbon storage capacity of younger regrowth forests after logging.
Green Carbon: the role of natural forests in carbon storage. Part 1.
Author: Mackey, Brendan. et al.
Publication: Published 2008 in book format by ANU
Description: groundbreaking scientific report by ANU experts, reveals higher carbon storage values in Australian native forests and carbon losses from logging.
Save the forests – they are crucial to reducing carbon dioxide.
Author: Mackey, Brendan.
Publication: The Age newspaper, August 7, 2007.
Description: Great, concise article by Australian National University Professor and expert on the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and biodiversity.
Tree farms won’t halt climate change
Author(s): New Scientist
Publication: New Scientist, October 2002.
Description: Explains how conserving existing old forests is a more effective means of carbon sequestration than planting new trees.
The Straight Facts on Forests, Carbon and Global Warming.
Author(s): Oregon Wild
Publication: Available online at http://www.oregonwild.org/
Description: American focussed factual summary with good background information and helpfull responses to logging industry “myths”.
Managing Forests After Kyoto.
Author(s): Schulze E. et al
Publication: Science, Vol 289. 22 September, 2000. pp. 2058-2059.
Description: Recommends preserving older forests as a more effective mitgation measure than planting younger forests.
Assessing the carbon sequestration potential of managed forests: a case study from temperate Australia
Author(s): Roxburgh, S.H., Wood, S.W., Mackey, B.G., Woldendorp, G. and Gibbons, P.
Publication: Journal of Applied Ecology, Volume 43, Number 6, December 2006, pp. 1149-1159
Description: Shows that logging dramatically reduces the level of carbon
stores despite significant regrowth because the older larger trees account for the majority of the carbon in the forest. It was estimated that in a mixed Eucalypt forest in NSW it would take at least 152 years for a forest’s carbon carrying capacity to return to greater than 90% of its pre-logged levels.
The Wilderness Society (Australia)
Title: Trees- the forgotten solution to climate change.
Publication: 2006 Briefing paper. Click here to download.
Description: Seven page briefing document highlighting the carbon storage values of Australia’s native forest and the impacts of logging on emissions.
Arborvitae 34, October 2007
Author(s): World Wildlife Fund and World Conservation Union (IUCN)
Publication: IUCN/WWF Forest Conservation Newsletter. Click here to download.
Description: A collection of articles and opinion analyzing the political and practical dimensions of protecting forests in the light of post-Kyoto climate change negotiations.
Old-growth Forests Can Accumulate Carbon in Soils.
Author(s): Zhou, G. et al.
Publication: Science, 1 December 2006: Vol. 314. no. 5804, p. 1417
Description: Challenges conventional view that old growth forests do not continue to sequester carbon by examining ongoing carbon storage in soils in old growth forest in China.