By JATAN**
June.8.1998
1. The Japanese government should not attempt to expand definition of the (limited) Net Approach prescribed under the Kyoto Protocol.
The Japanese government should propose calculation methods that reflect timber imports contributions to CO2 emissions in the importing, as opposed to the exporting, nation. This would be consistent withthe way in which petroleum use emissions are counted as emissions from the consuming, rather than the exporting nation.
2. The Japanese government should acknowledge that the minimum imports of timber in the year 2010 are Japan's contribution to forest depletion in other countries, and not the CO2 emission responsibility of timber exporting countries.
3. The Japanese government should implement substantial measures to increase rates of timber self-sufficiency in Japan, aiming to reduce timber imports to well below the current level by the year 2008.
4. Japan should make efforts to convince other nations that implementation of trade regulations such as import quota or trade tariffs are necessary to improve the domestic forestry for sustainable basis, which will also promote environmental conservation.
*STSTA/SBI is Subsidiary Bodies of the Conference of the Parties(COP) of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC). STSTA/SBI-8 was held on 1-12 Jun. 1998 in Bonn.
** Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN) struggled ten years to curb the Japanese wasteful comsumption patterns of plywood made by tropical hardwoods of South East Asia. These days, Paper & pulp plantations or OilPalm plantation devastate ASEAN countries to convert the degraded rainforests into tree farms. Its social and environmental impacts are of our concern too.
Following the agreements reached at the Third Conference of Parties of Framework Convention on Climate Change in Kyoto last year, the Japanese government is now trying to manipulate figures and modify its own stated goals.
1. The Japanese government is seeking to extend the definition of forests which act as domestic carbon sinks from just 'newly planted forests' to 'Whole forests and plantations.'
Newly planted forests in Japan would account for just 0.3% of Japan's CO2 emission at 1990 levels prescribed as the target under the Kyoto Protocol.
Should existing natural forests and plantations be included in calculations this figure would rise to 3.7%.
2. The Japanese government is ignoring the fact that the amount of annual timber imported to Japan exceeds the rate of increase in domestic forest deposit. Forest deposit which acts as carbon sink increased domestically by approximately 80 million m3 in 1995. Imports of wood for the same year amounted to 89 million m3.
Timber imported annually by Japan has grown by absorbing (storing) 73.5 million tons of CO2. This amount is equivalent to 6.2% of Japan's CO2 emissions at 1990 levels.
Given that logging operations inflict high levels of incidental damage on targeted forests, it can be estimated that the imported timber is obtained as a result of CO2 emission activities (forest logging) in exporting countries at levels of up to 13% of the annual CO2 emission rate of Japan.
It can be said that Japan's storage of CO2 in its domestic forests is only made possible by the large quantities of wood imports. From the 'joint implementation' viewpoint Japan may be asked to pay for its part in the collaboration.
3. Most of the large scale plantation/reforestation projects conducted by Japanese companies, or as part of ODA, follow the pattern of Japan's domestic post-war "expanded reforestation" schemes. These schemes do not create new forests on non-forested land. Instead they log out existing hard wood forest for fuel wood and replace them with more profitable tree species such as Japanese cedar (sugi) and Japanese cypress (hinoki).
According to satellite sampling research conducted by FAO (FRA 1990, FAO 1995) in the 1990s, 75% of the new plantation forests in developing countries in the tropics were made by replacing closed natural forest that had existed there ten years earlier. Most of these new forests were plantations for oil palm or paper pulp production. Expanded reforestation projects therefore serve as agents of destruction for natural and primeval forests.
Original tropical forest stores carbon at average rates of 220 tons per hectare. Replacement plantations store carbon at average rates of 120 tons per hectare. The result of initial logging and subsequent plantation is therefore an increase in the net carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
Most afforestation schemes such as those initiated by Japanese paper companies are large scale and involve profitable non-native species. This extension overseas of Japan's "expanded forestation" paradigm is causing social, environmental and human rights problems in many targeted areas.
4. In the process of paper/pulp production half of the carbon stored in the trees is consumed as biomass energy resource and emitted into the air as CO2.
Paper products are subsequently used for only one year on average. Half of these products are then recycled, but the other half are burned producing further CO2 emissions.
Wood used for paper/pulp production is therefore fundamentally different from wood that is used on a long term basis. Large scale overseas reforestation/plantation projects planned by Japan's paper industry cannot be accepted as joint implementation or CDM.
CONCLUSION:
Japan's self sufficiency rate for timber accounts for just 20% of its total consumption. This rate continues to decline. Japan's status as "the world forest eater" has not changed at all.
The most effective measure Japan could take to counter global warming is to efficiently utilize its own domestic plantation forests. These have already been created at the expense of domestic ecosystems and reforestation combined with timber extraction on such sites could be truly described as sustainable forestry. This would reduce imports and slow forest destruction in other countries.