Green Carbon, the Role of Natural Forests in Carbon Storage by the Australian National University: Summer 2008

Green Carbon, by the Australian National University, concludes that "reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is important in all forest biomes - boreal, tropical and temperate - and in economically developed as well as developing countries".

By using the carbon storage numbers of eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia and comparing those to other intact global forest areas, the study suggests the UN has been undervaluing the carbon stored in untouched forests and soil, especially in temperate forests.

The study also supports the concept that protecting intact and old growth forests in Canada is vital to mitigating the impacts of climate change.

�Biomass and soil store approximately three times the amount of carbon that is currently found in the atmosphere, and the annual exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and natural forests is ten times more than the annual global carbon emissions from humans burning fossil fuels. Despite natural forests storing such significant amounts of carbon, to date there has been scant consideration given by policymakers to the role of forests in addressing the climate change problem. (Page 9)

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