Adventure Australia: We Need to Protect Temperate Forests Not Tropical Jungle

Sunday, June 21, 2009

We Need to Protect Temperate Forests Not Tropical Jungle

It is not much use trying to save the Amazon forests when the most carbon-dense forests in the world are in Australia. To be precise the most carbon-dense forest is in the Central Highlands of Victoria. A research project examined 132 forests around the world. The findings were a surprise. It was commonly believed that tropical forests held the most carbon.

The forest in question is a mountain ash forest. So we need to look after forests in temperate regions of the world, not so much those on the equator. Tropical forests have a very thin level of fertile soil and biomass decays very quickly. Temperate forests on the other hands have much thicker soils where biomass breaks down slowly. Consequently carbon is stored for much longer periods.

There is another reason: trees grow quickly in tropical forests whereas temperate trees grow more slowly. The dense, heavy wood holds carbon. After a fire this kind of plant growth, namely dense wood, still remains in the forest. It is not washed away when it rains. The sapling trees begin to grow quickly thus retaining carbon.

This research has a message - we need to stop cutting down trees in temperated zones in order to store the carbon and stop it moving into the atmosphere.