In New Brunswick we are experiencing too large-scale intensive forestry practices for our landbase. NB born researcher Matt Betts wrote this article about his peer-reviewed research on fores degradation and bird populations in the Maritime provinces.
“Given that the total area of plantations and intensive forest management is increasing worldwide, and that plantations may be increasingly relied upon to satisfy “nature-based climate solutions” globally, it will be critical to examine the impact of these practices at broader scales. Do other areas in North America with rapid forest loss, then forest gain (see Figure 2) also exhibit forest degradation and reductions in biodiversity, or is this most apparent in the Acadian forest? What about Scandinavian and Brazilian forests where intensive management is common? We encourage others to more closely examine the role of forest degradation, not just deforestation, as a driver of biodiversity loss worldwide. We need solutions that balance providing wood for human communities with the conservation of the roughly 4 million species that inhabit forest systems.”
Forest Degradation: a hidden driver of biodiversity loss?
Betts et al. 2022 Forest degradation drives widespread avian habitat and population declines.
Nature Ecology and Evolution DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01737-8 LINK: https://ecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/forest-degradation-a-hidden-driver-of-biodiversity-loss?fbclid=IwAR1DGw1zZ7Oq3EaFptu3uSHVChLkXY_TgEbPu5kgnWXJ1eY2VaIB0ttAE3w
Research paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01737-8?fbclid=IwAR12QCaBkG6_nLgOxZi8eIr_x2PFqgLVEDVt6Kg7wtpwajFzD4roOwlWdbk
