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Abstract

One of the few initiatives to address ongoing global
warming that did not completely stall at the UNFCCC
climate change negotiations was the reduction emissions
from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). REDD
has a focus on the forests of the tropics. Unfortunately
forest mensuration in most tropical countries has been
inadequate to accurately determine forest carbon stocks,
much less the effects of land use and changes in land use on
them (Houghton et al. 2009; Bryan et al. 2010a). Whilst
tropical logging is known to be widespread, the exact areas
of tropical forest subject to logging have not been
accurately mapped (Asner et al. 2009) or mapped with
sufficient regularity to provide adequate data on the areas
subject to this activity. Biomass losses due to logging have
usually been derived from limited plot data, or derived via
various models from estimates of regional biomass and
timber extraction volumes (Houghton et al. 2009) and thus
encapsulate considerable uncertainty. For these reasons the
carbon impact of tropical logging remains an open
question, and one that needs to be closed before any
international institutional arrangement considers promoting
forms of timber extraction as a tool for controlling carbon
emissions. Here, we examine the current state of forest
carbon research in Papua New Guinea (PNG) to illustrate
the problems that can arise by developing forest management
policy prematurely from incomplete forest research.

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Bryan, JE and Kirkpatrick, JB and Shearman, P and Ash, J
Journal or Publication Title:	Annals of Forest Science
ISSN:	1286-4560
DOI / ID Number:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-011-0042-x
Additional Information:	The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.com
Item Statistics:	View statistics for this item

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