Thread by @Fern_NGO

.@GreenpeaceEU & @greenpeace_de just published an important report showing the carbon absorption potential of EU forests, if they were to be managed differently.

Here's a short thread on its main findings and their implications:

First, the bad news: forests are being logged very intensively. 77% of annual EU forest growth is harvested, and forest harvesting rates rose approximately 20% between 2000 and 2018.

One of the main drivers of this increase is burning trees to produce energy. The report indicates that harvesting of wood for energy increased by 47% between 2000 and 2018.

This has a disastrous impact on the health of the #forests and biodiversity.

fern.org/publications-i…

Now the good news: forests could remove 2 times more #CO2 if the harvesting rate was reduced to 50% of new growth, letting trees grow bigger and get older.

This is in line with the finding of a report we released with @Canopee_asso, looking at France.

fern.org/publications-i…

Close to nature forestry could also make EU forests more resilient to future climate shock and provide higher value wood for long-lived products, which also continues to store some of the CO2 that was captured by the tree (whereas burning releases stored CO2 into the atmosphere!)

Kuddos to our @GreenpeaceEU colleagues!

Their full report is worth reading :
greenpeace.org/eu-unit/issues…