Active forest management makes fire risk worse

August 26, 2025

Peter Sainsbury notes that while the world’s forests still act as a net carbon sink, their capacity to do so has fallen by 75% in just two decades. Some, such as the Bolivian Amazon and Canadian boreal forests, are now even net sources of carbon.

The main cause of deforestation in North America and Asia is wildfire, while in Latin America and Southeast Asia it is permanent agriculture. In Australia, deforestation continues through land clearing for cattle and sheep grazing. In 2024, the Australian Conservation Foundation exposed 50 cases in one week, including the bulldozing of “20 rugby fields’ worth of tropical rainforest” on a Queensland beef property.

Sainsbury rightly calls for an end to native forest logging, but his support for prescribed burning and thinning conflicts with recent science. Research by Professor David Lindenmayer and Dr Phil Zylstra, recently noted in Pearls and Irritations, shows such “active management” opens and dries forests, actually increasing fire risk. As they conclude, true forest stewardship means working with nature’s own resilience, not against it.