Climate change on the agenda at Montréal Process Working Group meeting

 Kevin Swanepoel

 

Climate change, its consequences and opportunities and communication of sustainable forest management were among the key topics discussed at the 20^th Montréal Process Working Group meeting, held recently in Jeju-Do, Korea.

 

The 12 member countries of the Montréal Process discussed how these issues and others were being addressed in their countries, which represent 50 per cent of the world's forests.

 

Most countries reported that bio-energy and specifically the use of biomass were increasing in importance. In Korea, biomass-powered industrial parks and residential areas are now being developed as greenhouse-friendly environments. These support the country’s development of a carbon credits and an emissions trading system. These systems are also supported by a sophisticated system of greenhouse gas accounting that assesses carbon conversion factors by tree species and uses LiDAR to evaluate total biomass.

 

Amongst the other innovative technologies discussed were Chile’s development of second-generation liquid biofuels from forest biomass.

 

The meeting also provided an ideal opportunity to learn about the different countries’ experiences using various media, from indices and scorecards through to innovative web technology, to communicate progress towards sustainable forest management based on the Montréal Process Criteria and Indicators to stakeholders. 

 

As part of this discussion, it was a pleasure to be able to share some of the steps Forestry Tasmania has taken in recent years to engage more pro-actively with our own stakeholders. The most popular part of our presentation was undoubtedly the screening of some segments from the Going Bush television series, with Nick Duigan and Andrew Hart’s unique brand of humour proving to have a universal appeal.

 

My attendance at the meeting was the first time that a Tasmanian representative had attended the Montréal Process Working Group, and I extend my thanks to the Forest and Forests Products Committee, and Forest and Wood Products Council for funding my attendance. 

 

For more information on the Montréal Process and the Montréal Process Criteria and Indicators, go to www.mpci.org.

 

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