Your LULUCF Glossary

9 June 2010

Recently the mysteries of ‘land use, land use change and forestry’ (LULUCF) have come to broader attention.
ECO feels that full appreciation of the wonders of LULUCF is often hindered by the technical jargon that surrounds the subject.  To help move the process forward, we offer delegates this glossary of commonly used terms in the debate on forest management.

Forest management: Logging.
Sustainable forest management: Mostly logging.
Harvesting: Logging.
Temporarily destocked: Logged (usually logged natural forest).
Age class structure: Age of forest.
Wrong age class structure: Old trees 
= needs logging.
Conversion: Logging a natural, carbon and biodiversity-rich forest and 
replacing it with a low carbon, low 
biodiversity forest with no penalty (see also temporarily destocked, empty forest, displaced local and indigenous people and Australia).
Unique national circumstances: Need to log (often thought just to apply to New Zealand but can apply to any country wanting to log).

Forward looking baseline: A means of hiding logging emissions (see also Canada and others).
Bar with a band to zero: A means of hiding logging emissions (see also Russia).
Incentive: Not penalising logging emissions and/or allowing them to be hidden, as in ‘give us an incentive (logging loophole) and we will take on a more ambitious  target’
Voluntary: If you might have a high emission from logging then you can opt not to tell anyone.  Notable as being the only term that means roughly the same in English.  (See also ‘not electing for forest management’ and Austria.)
Cap: Term used by the G77 and China but not understood by Annex I.
Harvested wood products: The logging industry’s little joke.