Ghost forests

The condition of Europe’s forests has been deteriorating, as the European Union itself concluded in a 2021 study. The strategy for 2021-2030, based on the European Green Deal, aims to improve the quantity and quality of Europe’s forests and make them more resilient to the ‘uncertainty of climate change’. Carbon neutrality, which Brussels aims to achieve by 2050, is a key element in this process. So is the ambitious 55% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. As Europe heads straight for GHG reduction, it’s fair to ask how we got here.

The Landes Forest, France. Image by Erika di Benedetto.

Several factors explain the balance of emissions in forest ecosystems. When it comes to monocultures, studies show that they generally lack resilience to extreme climate events. Single-species plantations and fast-growing trees are more likely to be severely damaged by fire, disease and storms, disturbances that cause forests to release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

While it is well known that decomposing or burning trees release carbon dioxide (CO2), attention should also be paid to forest soils, which often store more carbon than the trees that grow on them. Storms and forestry practices such as clear-cutting and the use of heavy machinery can disrupt the amount of carbon in the soil.

In this investigation, we present some of the most serious European cases and link forest management to emissions, to explain why some forests went from being carbon sinks – which remove CO2 from the atmosphere –  to carbon emitters. In Portugal, eucalyptus, an essential raw material for the paper pulp industry, has long been at the centre of intense public debate. In France and Germany, the wild pines of Les Landes and the spruce of the Harz are also the subject of discussion.

There is little doubt that monoculture forestry has a negative impact on the environment. Many disagree that these impacts are significant, namely the economic actors who need the forest for raw materials. In this debate, Europe’s environmental interests are on one side of the scale and its economic interests on the other – can a real balance between them ever be achieved?

Crossing the Landes forest in the Southwestern French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine is quite a special trip. For over three hours, one can drive through seemingly endless rows of maritime pines. With more than 1 million hectares, these monoculture plantations now form the largest man-made forest in Western Europe.

These maritime pines, with a fourth generation of hybrids recently developed, are growing faster than ever, providing a greatly appreciated material. The Landes forest alone produces over a quarter of France’s timber harvest and the annual turnover of the wood industry in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region is estimated at over €10 billion.

Monocultures of maritime pines in Les Landes. Image by Erika di Benedetto.

However, this mode of production is increasingly being questioned. And for good reason—over the past few decades, the Landes forests seem to be cursed, with extreme weather striking approximately every decade, exposing their clear lack of resilience.

In 1999, Cyclone Martin ravaged the region. Just ten years later, Klaus devastated up to 60% of the Landes massif. Then, in 2022, fate dealt another blow as the Landes forest was struck by massive wildfires. The summer was the hottest on record since 2003. The consequences were severe: over 30,000 hectares were burned, and around 1 million tons of CO2 were released into the atmosphere.

Wildfires destroyed over 30,000 hectares in the summer of 2022 in the Landes region. Image by Erika di Benedetto.

Despite these events, the same monocultures of maritime pine were replanted and forest production continued to accelerate, using the same forestry practices: Clear-cutting, cross-breeding of pines to make them grow faster, use of machines that deplete the soil by crushing vegetation and root systems… Trees used for the production of timber, energy wood and industrial wood are now harvested every 35 years, compared to 60 years in the past.

In this region, where 90% of the forests are privately owned,  the number of forest managers who have chosen a different forestry model can be counted on less than one hand. Eric Castex is one of them. This forest manager, based in the Landes region since the late 1990s, is involved in the Pro Silva network. This European confederation of professional foresters promotes mixed continuous cover forestry, respectful of the natural processes of forest ecosystems.

For example, Eric Castex never practises clear-cutting. Instead, he selectively removes up to 20% of his trees to maintain continuous canopy cover. He is also a firm believer in natural regeneration, the principle being that seeds will grow naturally where conditions are favourable. Pedunculate oaks, tauzin oaks, aspens, chestnuts… and of course the local favourite, the maritime pine. These species have naturally established themselves on the Castex estate.

Eric Castex advocates for natural regeneration and mixed cover forestry. Image by Erika di Benedetto.

‘For me, it’s all about the living world, and there are certain types of knowledge that we simply cannot ignore,’ says the forest manager, who specialises in the production of high-quality large logs. For example, he explains that a forest with a diversity of species is crucial for maintaining a robust mycorrhizal network. In the humus or below the soil, invisible to our eyes, trees, fungi and other forest organisms interact to form this network. Through these connections, water, nitrogen, carbon and other essential minerals are transferred, helping to regulate moisture in the forest. This process is vital to ensuring that forests are resilient to fire and disease. In monoculture forests, mycorrhizal associations are greatly reduced compared to those in biodiverse forests.

The members of the Pro Silva network were in favour of changing forest management practices after the climate events. But in France, the forestry lobby is powerful and its intensive forestry model is promoted through policies, financial support and education, as conventional forestry is the only management method taught in forestry schools.

These lobbies use sometimes surprising arguments to continue promoting the ‘monoculture/clear-cut’ model, such as claims that soils are too poor or that forests degrade naturally.

Eric Castex and his diverse forest, which has so far escaped disease and fire, are a powerful example of how a different approach is possible in Les Landes. ‘My aim is to plant seeds,’ he says, expressing his desire to inspire others to be more sensitive to the needs of the forest and our own.

Portugal’s abandoned land

In 2018, two American forest fire experts travelled to Portugal to investigate the tragedy that had struck the country’s central region the previous year. ‘Portugal has entered a new era of fire,’ they later wrote in their report. In an era of climate change, they warned, small reforms would not be enough to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires. Behind the tragedy, the report said, was a lack of forest management. The authors estimated that 80% of Portugal’s forests were unmanaged. Poor management practices, particularly associated with eucalyptus and pine monocultures, were responsible for the creation of ‘large, overcrowded, single-age-class monoculture areas’.

Abandonment is one of the major fire risks identified in a report by American experts following the fires at the Centro region in 2017. Image by José Sergio.

Looking at data from the last two decades, the Portuguese forest has been a carbon sink in most years. The negative cumulative balance is caused by the overwhelming increase in emissions in years with large fires, such as 2003, 2005, 2013, 2016 and 2017, and is particularly visible in the Centro region.

The Portuguese have become accustomed to the mathematics of death and destruction: how many hectares burned, how many houses destroyed, how many livelihoods shattered, how many people injured, how many lives lost. For them, it is a fact that the forest burns in Summer. In addition to all the human, social and economic impacts, fires also have serious environmental consequences, as they affect one of the forest’s most basic functions: carbon sequestration.

Maritime pine, Portugal’s second most common forest species, can be cut every 40 to 60 years, while eucalyptus is a short-cycle species that can be cut at 10 to 12 years of age. Image by José Sergio.

Portuguese forest is mostly in private hands: about 84%, way above the 60% EU average. Despite the weight of the private sector, the lack of long-term prospects leads many owners to invest in fast-growing species that make a quick profit – like the eucalyptus.

The importance of the eucalyptus-fed paper pulp industry to Portugal’s economy is undeniable. Of the country’s total exports in 2022, 9% stemmed from the forestry sector – more than half of that coming from the paper pulp, paper and cardboard industry. 

But the environmental impact of paper pulp production grants it criticism regarding its seemingly unstoppable expansion. Portugal currently has 845,000 hectares of eucalyptus, about 23% of which is managed by the industry. In the aftermath of the 2017 fires, a law was passed to limit this expansion. The new legislation significantly impacted the numbers of new plantations, but the industry says it needs more raw material to support its growth. A year ago, Portuguese paper producer Navigator’s CEO publicly defended the expansion of eucalyptus to guarantee the company’s sustainability, and the National Federation of Forest Owners’ Associations asked the government to review the law. The current government has guaranteed they will not do that. As for the industry’s perspective, our questions were met with silence. Nonetheless, their public perspective is that the sector acts as a carbon sink.

Eucalyptus burns more, because it accounts for about 26% of the Portuguese forest, and because its natural features accelerate the progression of flames. ‘Perhaps, a eucalyptus plantation, per unit of time, per year, has much more potential to retain carbon because it grows extraordinarily fast and is therefore absorbing carbon dioxide faster than an oak forest’, explains biologist Francisco Moreira. On the other hand, he says ‘from the point of view of fire risk, it is generally higher in a plantation, compared to an ancient oak forest. Therefore, the environmental balance of replacing one thing with another would have to integrate these different parameters, which are subjective’, says the researcher.

In the meantime, the sector has already expanded beyond Portugal’s borders.  The two biggest paper production companies have set sights in the Spanish region of Galícia, to the North of Portugal. Navigator has started a campaign aimed at renting from Galician private owners. And its competitor, Altri, has plans to build a factory in the region, which sparked a demonstration that gathered thousands against the environmental impacts the facility would have. 

The future of Portugal’s forest, abandoned by hopeless landowners and neglected by Lisbon’s lawmakers for decades, hangs in the balance. Recent years have seen a growth in awareness and new measures have been taken, such as the law limiting eucalyptus plantations and regulations for fire prevention. Right now, as Southern Europe faces climate change, the prospect of bigger and more destructive fires is in everyone’s minds. 

This summer was no exception. Several seemingly unstoppable forest fires started September 14 and burned for several days, sinking the country in mourning over the lost lives of three civilians and four firefighters. Besides the human cost, these fires resulted in the highest peak of emissions for the month of September in the last 22 years, and smoke travelled all the way to Spain and France. The prime-minister attributed the blame to criminals, sparking sharp public criticism of what many consider to be a gross generalisation and a way to avoid addressing the structural causes behind the fires´destructiveness.

Portugal’s rural regions have been plagued by a decades-long exodus that affects its economic and social fabric. The new government has made a commitment to make these regions more attractive. Image by José Sergio.

The current government told us they are working on investment-promoting measures to make forest and the countryside attractive, thus fighting a decades-long exodus to Portugal’s big cities and abroad. The next few years will tell whether they have been successful in making forest management a viable economic pursuit for small and medium owners, the forest more resistant to fires that will undoubtedly continue to occur, and rural Portugal a place of hope in the future for those who call it home.

Ghost Forests of the Harz

The dead forest seen from the railway line that crosses the Harz. Image by Kai Rüsberg.

The coal-powered Harz narrow-gauge railroads run to the center of the Harz Mountains – a mountain range in the middle of Germany that was almost completely covered in dense forests for centuries. These were mostly commercial forests. Spruce used to be the dominant tree species here. But if you travel by steam train through the once dense and dark spruce forests, all you see are clearings: two thirds of the spruce trees have died. White-grey dead tree trunks tower into the sky, toppled by the storm and lying on top of each other on the slopes like gigantic Mikado sticks.

Like a Mikado game: Dead spruce trees. Image by Kai Rüsberg.

A phenomenon that does not only apply to the Harz. The low mountain ranges are particularly affected, as data from Global Forest Watch (GFW) shows: From 2001 to 2023, Germany lost 1.35 billion hectares of forest, or almost 10%, according to GFW. Four out of five trees in Germany are diseased, according to the national forest status report. Around 180,000 hectares of forest are irreparably damaged or dead, says biologist Pierre Ibisch, Professor of Nature Conservation at the Eberswalde University. The problem is mostly drought, right down to the deeper soil layers. This is a particular problem for monocultures such as those in the Harz Mountains.

Victims of the wind: Broken spruce trunks on the Harz high plateau. Image by Kai Rüsberg.

Getting off the steam train on the high plateau feels like being on a battlefield. Here, the bark beetle has attacked and struck down the once dark forests as far as the eye can see. The boreholes are still clearly visible on the bark of the spruce trees. Reversed, the eroded tunnels run close together. Their larvae live in the bark bast, the tree’s water-bearing lifeline, and feed on the tree’s sap. If there are too many, the tree dies.

However, large areas in the Harz Mountains were weakened by years of drought. Between 2018 and 2022, there was significantly too little precipitation, and it was unusually warm for long periods. These effects of climate change thus enabled the mass invasion and death of huge areas of forest. Once a mass invasion occurs, even healthy trees can die. In addition, the spruce tree species cannot resist, as it is not actually native to this region, but has been cultivated for centuries as high-yield timber.

Meanwhile, a dispute arose over how to deal with the gigantic amounts of dead wood. While many forest owners had the dead areas with roots completely cleared, the administration of the Harz National Park did exactly the opposite. According to the national park administration, dead wood strengthens the forest’s defences. It binds a lot of moisture and in this way even acts as a natural defence against forest fires.

The NGO Naturschutzbund (NABU) also believes that deadwood forms a valuable humus layer and thus provides a habitat for countless organisms such as fungi and insects. Lying deadwood stores carbon in the soil, which counteracts the climate crisis. In addition, heavy forestry machinery is required for clearing, which causes irreversible damage to the soil. The dispute went to court. In the end, the NGO won and a ghost forest of dead spruce trees still stands around the highest mountain, the Brocken.

🤝 This article was first published by Voxeurop within the Come Together collaborative project, supported by Journalismfund Europe.