The industrial logging of native forests and woodlands and the use of forest biomass as a fossil fuel substitute is disastrous for climate and biodiversity and should end, immediately.
Warnings of the danger of forest bioenergy that have gone unheeded are summarised in six points, below.
They include reasons why native forests and woodlands must be immediately protected.
1. Emissions from forest biomass combustion at the smokestack exceed those of coal per unit of energy produced; it is not carbon neutral’
2. The opportunity cost of logging forests for bioenergy or fuel is immediate diminution or loss of forests capacity to draw carbon down from the atmosphere and safely store it.
3. Forest biomass for energy is the second major driver of forest logging and degradation
4. Nature Based Solutions: The need to protect and enhance the biological integrity of natural systems to improve resilience to climate change so that carbon dioxide can continue to be drawn down from the atmosphere and stored in natural ecosystems.
5. Flawed emission accounting creates the ‘convention’ that forest bioenergy is renewable, thereby attracting misinformed social acceptance (social licence) and financial benefits.
6. Alienation of scarce land resources to log and/or grow forest biomass feedstock
Prepared by Frances Pike May 2019, revised and updated May 2021
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Why NF Logging And Clearing Must End And Forests Not Be Burnt For Electricity (Revised 2021)