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News Release from: Forestry Commission
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 25 April 2008
Centre for forestry and climate change
Forestry Commission to establish a centre for forestry and climate change to co-ordinate research into and action on forest sector's role in mitigating and adapting to climate change.
Tim Rollinson, Director-General of the Commission, announced this today in an address to the Institute of Chartered Foresters' national conference in Edinburgh The conference theme is "Carbon-lean UK - a role for our trees, woods and forests?"
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 23 Jun 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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One potential means of establishing such a centre that the Commission is investigating is by re-focusing the work of its Forest Research agency with a new remit.
The establishment of the centre is just one key aspect of a climate change action plan for the forest sector proposed by Mr Rollinson.
Following is the full text of his address: We have heard over the past two days about some of the key issues involved - about the threats, our weaknesses and strengths and, thankfully, some real opportunities to contribute and to gain.
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The Scottish Executive wants more joined-up woodlands in Scotland.
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Over twelve thousand hectares (30,000 acres) of new woodlands were planted in Britain last year, helping to bring our forest cover to the highest level it has been in over 300 years.
Some of this has been quite technical, so I'm going to ask you to stand back a little now and look at the big picture again.
At our Forests and Climate Change conference in November 2007, we set up six points for action.
They were:.
- protect our forests and manage what we already have.
- breduce deforestation.
- restore the world's forest cover.
- use wood for energy.
- replace other materials with wood.
- plan to adapt to our changing climate.
There was broad consensus that this list was right, that we have the knowledge to see what is needed to be done, and have the skills and the technology to do it.
What we need is the willpower to make it happen.
These conclusions hold not only for the UK, but also internationally.
At the same time that we were hosting our event in London, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its fourth Assessment Report.
This is the authoritative statement of current scientific understanding on climate change.
Chapter 9 looked at forestry, and we were more than a little interested to find that the IPCC experts' list of options or actions mirrored our own very closely.
I would urge you all to read it.
What was equally interesting in the IPCC assessment is the following quote in the forestry section: "Forestry can make a very significant contribution to a low-cost global mitigation portfolio that provides synergies with adaptation and sustainable development".
"However, this opportunity is being lost in the current institutional context and lack of political will to implement, and has resulted in only a small portion of this potential being realised at present".
A pre-requisite to delivering on any of the action points is to bring together authoritative information on how forestry can help in climate change mitigation, and how it can help society adapt to a changing climate.
At present, our knowledge is incomplete, inconsistent, and sometimes confusing.
Finding authoritative sources of information can be difficult, and the good intelligence we do have is not always communicated effectively.
I'm now going to explain what we can do to change that.
There are four core elements: an assessment of forestry's contribution to tackling climate change, the establishment of a forestry and climate change centre; the establishment of a framework for woodland carbon management and emissions offsetting; and the establishment of a forests and climate change network.
Assessment of forestry's contribution to tackling climate change.
We will be commissioning a major assessment of the contribution of forestry in the UK to tackling climate change.
This will be our own version of the IPCC review - our own authoritative statement of current scientific understanding.
As we have heard here, there is a wealth of expertise developing in the UK and beyond.
However, we need to draw together the science and knowledge that is currently available.
We need to analyse this information, consider the strength of the evidence, and make an informed assessment of the mitigation and adaptation potential of UK forestry.
At the same time, we will be able to identify areas where we need to improve on existing knowledge, or obtain new knowledge.
The assessment will form the keystone to all our other actions.
It will, therefore, be vital to our success.
Forestry and climate change centre.
The second core element is the establishment of a forestry and climate change centre.
Compiling and creating authoritative information is an important first step, but it will not be enough.
In this rapidly changing area, we will need to continually refresh our knowledge base.
We need to pose and seek answers to the key questions, which are:.
- what does climate change mean for our trees, woods and forests?.
- how can forestry play its full part?.
- how will we have to change what we do and how we do it?.
To focus and direct our efforts, the Forestry Commission is setting up a centre for forestry and climate change.
The new centre will be key to making all this happen.
It will bring together expertise on forestry and climate, assemble and disseminate accessible and authoritative information, identify information gaps and research needs, and take steps to fill them.
It will facilitate strategic actions to support forestry's contribution to tackling climate change, and extend and strengthen working relationships across the range of stakeholders.
The centre will help to steer development of regulations and standards, science and monitoring, business management and communication.
It will have analytical capability, it will develop position statements on forestry and climate change, and ensure that actions on climate change integrate with wider aspects of sustainable forest management.
It will offer financial support for research on forestry and climate change, and lever resources to take forward work to fill knowledge gaps and develop solutions.
At its heart, the centre will be a knowledge hub on forestry and climate change.
To give you a measure of how seriously we are taking this, I have asked my staff to look at how we can re-focus the work of our Forest Research agency as a centre for forestry and climate change - with a new and fresh remit to drive forward our knowledge, analysis and action on forestry and climate change.
Framework for woodland carbon management and emissions offsetting.
The third core element is the establishment of a framework for woodland carbon management and emissions offsetting.
The benefits that forests and woodlands can provide in reducing carbon emissions through sequestration is recognised in the forestry strategies in England, Scotland and Wales.
As we have heard already at this conference, there is potential for voluntary offsetting, and the industry is challenged to establish an industry-agreed standard.
There are also increasing demands from organisations and individuals for emission offsets to help them reach, or get closer to, carbon neutrality.
The voluntary market for woodland-based carbon offsets is attracting significant investments, due in part to the multiple benefits that woodlands provide in addition to climate change mitigation.
But, as we know, confidence among customers and consumers of such products can be undermined by low-quality schemes and associated negative reporting.
There are similar concerns over global markets and carbon trading schemes.
To address these issues, we are working on three key areas of carbon management.
These are: standards and guidelines; protocols for carbon assessment and monitoring; and a code of practice for woodland offsetting schemes.
Forest carbon standards and climate change guidelines - within the UK Forestry Standard - will provide over-arching principles of good carbon management and standards for the industry.
These will provide a clear statement of climate change policy in relation to forestry activities, and will be supported by more-detailed guidance based on scientific evidence.
This might include extending the UK Woodland Assurance Standard to cover the assessment of forestry practice for carbon management, in much the same way as it includes other aspects of sustainable forest management.
Protocols for carbon assessment and monitoring - We must have an agreed approach to calculating changes in carbon stocks and for estimating emissions of greenhouse gases in forest projects that is accurate, consistent, repeatable and transparent.
There is a plethora of alternative carbon calculators out there, so we need scientifically rigorous protocols for woodland carbon management that address the current high levels of uncertainty in the sector.
Code of practice for woodland offsetting schemes - We will develop a means of verifying the quality of voluntary carbon offsetting schemes.
This will mean creating criteria to provide a benchmark against which voluntary offset certification schemes involving domestic tree planting can be accredited or endorsed.
Working through a group of stakeholders representing the offsetting industry, woodland managers and NGOs, we can establish a draft code of practice closely linked to the Defra Code of Practice for the voluntary offset market.
Forests and climate change network Taken together, the new centre, the assessment of forestry's contribution to tackling climate change and the new framework for woodland carbon management and emissions offsetting represent a major shift of emphasis of resources and policy development within the Forestry Commission and the wider forest sector.
To develop and support these initiatives, we will set up a new Forests and Climate Change Network of interested parties to provide expert advice, exchange views and expertise, and take forward the various actions that I have outlined today.
Following through on our London conference in November, we will host a networking event next month (May 2008).
Conclusion.
I deliberately called this talk "An Action Plan for the Forest Sector".
It will mean action from across the whole sector - seeking out the evidence base, challenging long-held beliefs and practices, taking the new opportunities, and not being afraid to change.
We will only realise the benefits if the whole sector plays its part: scientists developing the evidence base, practical foresters managing forests sustainably, arboriculturists promoting town trees and urban woods, timber engineers helping wood to replace less sustainable materials.
Looking back to my concluding remarks at the last ICF conference on climate change in 2000, I see that much of the uncertainty has now been removed.
There is no dispute among the world's scientists about what is happening.
Climate change is real, and it is the biggest challenge we face.
Our knowledge of forests and climate change has grown, although sometimes only to reveal bigger and more profound questions.
In my concluding remarks then, I said, "We will not be practising single-purpose forestry - whether for carbon fixing or any other purpose - at the expense of sustainable forest management".
"The underlying principles of multi-purpose forestry and sustainability become even more important as a strategy for responding to a changing world." Today, I'm more convinced of this than ever before.
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