Centuries-old forests in Britain Columbia, a region in the western part of Canada, have become the battlefields of two climate change schools: one that seeks to use their biomass to produce green energy, the other that seeks to protect carbon-absorbing trees.
Scientists and campaigners are putting the regional government in charge of conserving the ancient forests, which often contain biodiversity and vast reserves of carbon.
But increasing seasonal climate has also boosted the growth of the biomass industry in British Columbia, which produces wood leaflets that we consider to be “carbon neutral”.
Major manufacturers include the electronics company Drax, which has demanded it to start again itself as a white power generator. The UK-based company acquired Canadian woodworker Pinnacle last year, and wants to increase production and sale of pellets by 2030.
Although biomass oil has been a major source of energy for the EU and Asia, some scientists are skeptical natural knowledge of firewood.
In British Columbia, some trees from old trees end up in pellets. While this is still valid, campaigners fear the practice is unstable, and say it alleviates the controversy among biomass advocates that pellets are another way to make oil.
Some farmers fear that the provincial government will set up a strict harvesting system to reduce deforestation.
British Columbia “does not have to issue entry permits [old] forests, ”said Michelle Connolly, chief of Conservation North. “They have the power and they need to know better,” he said.
The growth of old trees was “crazy”, says Rachel Holt, a member of the Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel, an organization set up by the state government last year. “These are extremely rare, precious forests. . . You can’t cut down 200-year-old trees permanently, ”he said.
According to government statistics, about a quarter of all the forests that are cut down each year in British Columbia are called “old-fashioned” – meaning trees that are more than 140 or 250 years old, depending on the area.
Regional pellet companies are rapid growth from the early 2000s, when similar activities such as paper production were in short supply. The market has attracted funding from companies that want to convert coal-fired power plants into biomass plants. Pellet mills often produce firewood from surrounding areas – especially residues and wood residues that are harvested for other purposes, the manufacturers said.
All seven of Pinnacle’s British Columbia mills are surrounded by forests that include “original” forests – native trees and often the oldest that have not been disturbed by human activities – according to government data analysis by Conservation North.
A a recent Drax-commissioned report found that the availability of two Pinnacle mills could be reduced as a result of local government efforts to protect the old forests that grow.
Drax said its Canadian pellets “were made from garbage that had been burned on the side of the road, discarded or left to rot. Eighty percent of this waste comes from sawmills and 20 percent comes from crop residues.”
Pinnacle mills around British Columbia, Houston (central). The green is a large forest, red is a deforested forest or an area that has been transformed into an alternative, such as a road, white no data. The area shown is approximately 50km in length © Conservation North
Forced to reconsider how old forests should be managed, the provincial government issued an independent review in 2019. The report, published in 2020. he concludes that the economy “relied heavily on deforestation for early deforestation” and described ideas such as slowing development in difficult areas.
Garry Merkel, a forestry member, a member of the Tahltan region and the secretary-general of the report, said the old forests were “essential” to environmental health and “could not be rehabilitated”, adding: “We need to think about this. Mining.”
The British Columbia Ministry of Forestry said it was “committed to improving the way we manage our forests” and complied with the report.
The forestry industry in the region is scrutinizing whether strict sanctions will be enforced.
A 2020 report by Drax-commissioned on supply to Pinnacle’s mills states that government efforts to protect biodiversity and old growth “have led to deforestation…
Other restrictions may be “coming”, the report said.
Canfor, a logging company and Pinnacle salesman, stated in the documents that it harvested old crops, referring to the transition “from the old-fashioned harvest to the old-fashioned harvest. [of trees]”Occurred after 20 years of deforestation in one area.
Canfor said the company was “committed to a sustainable global harvest and forest management program” and to “compliant approvals approved by the BC government”.
Drax has transformed four of the six components in its power plant in Yorkshire, England from coal to wood biomass. However, it was released from the S&P Global Clean Energy Index in October due to “carbon intensity”. Meanwhile, a Citian expert from December said “we do not see biomass as a viable source of energy”, expressing concern about the use of wood as a nature reserve.
The British Columbia Council of Forest Industries stated that the region has a “permanent global harvest and forest management strategies”. It said lumber companies reduced litter by selling discounts – whether old-fashioned or small-scale forests – to groups including paper and mills.
But Merkel, the state’s forecaster, said even though this approach had endangered species, he added that “there is no such thing as destruction”.
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