Scotland sees the wood and the trees at climate conference

Published on Tuesday 24 November 2009 21:50

LET'S cut down trees to combat climate change! It might not sound like much of a clarion call for next month's climate change conference in Copenhagen, but it does reflect half of an important story.

Forests were largely left out of the 1997 Kyoto climate change treaty – and this was a big mistake.

Deforestation, largely in the tropics, continues, and is responsible for around 18 per cent of global carbon emissions. However, forests elsewhere in the world, including Scotland, are doing a crucial job on two fronts – by both locking up carbon AND providing wood products that reduce our carbon emissions.

International discussions are under way to tackle deforestation at Copenhagen, partly through recognising that forests have value and to stop them being cleared for agriculture or mineral extraction. This involves placing a value on the carbon in the trees.

Safeguards are required; for example existing forest should not be converted to plantation forests of fast-growing trees to create "timber factories" and when any trees are harvested, it should be as part of the sustainable management of the forest.

The most recent meeting of EU heads of state in Brussels agreed there was a need to create "incentives for reduced deforestation and forest degradation and for the sustainable management of forests in developing countries". It is hoped this will be supported by the US, China and the large bloc of developing countries, the so-called G77, at Copenhagen.

So what does all this mean for Scotland?

In 1900, forest cover in Scotland was 5 per cent – it is now 18 per cent against a European average of 40-plus per cent.

Our expanding forests currently absorb around 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (Mt) per year, around 15 per cent of Scotland's annual emissions. A 50 per cent increase in forest area by 2050 could increase carbon absorption by 4.4 Mt. This is a significant amount – especially if we consider that meeting Scotland's target of reducing emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 means annual emissions will be in the region of 14 Mt.

But Scotland's forests can do even more. Trees grow, they die and the carbon is released back into the atmosphere. This does little to combat climate change. In Scotland's newer forests, simply leaving trees to fall over and die does little for carbon, biodiversity or rural employment.

If we are to tackle climate change, we need to do so with people's standard of living very much in mind, and this is where cutting down trees comes in. Our newer forests benefit from sustainable management, harvesting trees in a way that maintains the integrity of the forest, while also providing infinitely renewable supplies of wood. Once dense single-species plantations in Scotland are currently undergoing a transformation into modern, mixed species open forests that also provide real opportunities for public access and biodiversity.

These forests will play a valuable contribution in the transition to a low-carbon economy – tackling emissions, but also providing jobs which provide the taxes required to continue to pay for essential services.

Scotland's forests already support businesses that employ 40,000 people and contribute nearly a billion pounds a year to Scotland's economy. They also reduce our need to import wood and crucially, the more wood they produce, the more carbon benefit they provide.

&#149 Stuart Goodall is Chief Executive of Confor (Confederation of Forest Industries).