Canada is not paying enough attention to the role that healthy forests could play in climate change, laments one of the country’s best-known scientists.
Posted at 2:07 p.m.
“We have to talk about forests,” says Suzanne Simard, a researcher from the University of British Columbia whose studies on primary forests have transformed the discipline and inspired novelists and directors.
“Forests have been ignored in the climate change debate,” she insists.
Author of In Search of the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forestwhich will be published in France in April, Mme Simard points out that Canada’s primary forests are one of the largest sequestered carbon reserves. The way they are mined releases this greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
“Our biggest carbon store is the primary forest. We must protect our primary forests. We continue to clearcut like 30 years ago”, regrets the researcher.
In British Columbia, the forestry industry and wildfires release up to four times more carbon than the fossil fuel sector.
The federal government is due to unveil its plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 early next week. It should include measures to prevent logging in areas not yet exploited, asks Mme Simard.
“We really need to stop cutting trees in primary forests. »
In forests, most of the carbon stays on the ground, she explains. Industrial logging disturbs this soil. Result: two-thirds of the sequestered carbon escape almost immediately into the atmosphere.
Mme Simard says it is a mistake to think that planting new trees makes logging carbon neutral. The unexploited forests contain several centuries of carbon, the stands of trees are cut down every 60 years, it is not enough to replace what has been lost.
“It’s not comparable in terms of carbon and biodiversity. »
It is also likely that the primary forests will not be able to grow back completely.
“Once the primary forests have been razed, they will not live again given the climate in which we live,” says Ms.me Simard.
She has studied since the 1980s how trees in natural forests use soil-based fungal networks and biochemicals to inform each other of dangers, share nutrients and help each other during difficult times. His research has greatly contributed to advancing knowledge of forest ecology. movies like Avatarnovels like The world tree or TV series like Ted Lasso helped to publicize his findings.
Mme Simard says that forests are “regenerative”, a benefit that the population appreciates.
“We are going through a climate crisis. Almost everyone feels it in one way or another. This worries people. My book allows us to see forests as a regenerative place. There are natural solutions for healthy forests. »