Biden’s Land Protection Agenda Must Advance Environmental Justice in the South
Co-Authored by Reverend Leo Woodberry
On January 27th President Biden signed a series of Executive Orders on Climate Change. One was an Executive Order to protect 30% of US lands by 2030. Another was on Environmental Justice directing all federal agencies to invest in “low income and communities of color” including Black, Indigenous and Latinx communities that have borne the brunt of pollution impacts. These actions create the right context for addressing long-standing inequities related to forest protection in the US.
Standing forests are vital to solving the climate crisis, providing natural flood control, and ensuring fresh, clean drinking water. Yet, the South is at the forefront of global wood production. Experts estimate the rate and scale of Southern forest destruction from logging is four times that of South American rainforests. Though Southern forests are the nation’s most diverse, they are the least protected.
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Low income, communities of color across the rural Southern Black Belt (a stronghold for Biden in the election) are at the epicenter of our nation’s industrial logging and wood production. Along with forest destruction, large wood product factories release harmful pollution into the air and water. These communities also suffer from disproportionately high poverty rates, unemployment rates, and other indicators of socioeconomic distress. They are also on the frontlines of climate change, having suffered devastating impacts from the extreme flooding of the past five years.
The Biden Administration can ensure that its actions to protect land address these long-standing inequities by committing to the following:
1- Invest in forest protection in low income communities of color on the frontlines of industrial logging in the South
Recently, rural communities across the Southern Black Belt have become the target of a rapidly expanding global market for wood pellets. Power stations in Europe burn these pellets under the guise of “green”, “renewable” energy. Decision-makers continually ignore community concerns about the health impacts of air pollution as they approve permit after permit. Decision-makers likewise ignore concerns about increased flooding and the ongoing clearcutting of forests along rivers that provide natural flood protection.
Demands for truly green jobs are met with the same old rhetoric about how “green” and “sustainable” the forest industry is.
Eight new permits for wood pellet mills, which emit toxic air pollution were issued over the past two years. More wood pellet mills are projected to be built across the South in the coming years and they are twice as likely to be sited in environmental justice communities.
It is vital that the Administration develop community-led solutions that work for people who suffer the negative impacts and not just for rural forest landowners who profit from logging. For too long, policy-makers have developed forest policy with landowners and the forest industry in mind, to the detriment of communities of color. Only approximately 10% of the forestland in the South is in public ownership compared to 33% nationwide. Of the 90% in private ownership, Black Americans own less than 1%.
The disparity in landownership disproportionately restricts access to unspoiled nature, its associated community benefits, and economic development opportunities. Investments in protected lands and outdoor recreation, which generates six times more jobs than the forest industry, can help lift these communities out of poverty while creating a more diverse, healthy and equitable rural economy.
2- Embrace the science documenting forest industry climate impacts
Scientific warnings about the climate impacts of industrial logging are being ignored at every level of government. Large-scale logging and the conversion of natural forests to plantations releases vast amounts of carbon that would otherwise be stored. Logging is the single biggest driver of US forest carbon emissions, with the largest emissions coming from Southeastern forests. Logging diminishes forests’ ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere, degrading the US carbon sink by at least 35%. Burning wood to generate electricity releases up to 50% more carbon than coal.
Logging also compromises biodiversity and forests’ ability to provide natural flood control and other life-supporting functions. Protecting existing natural forests from logging is the single most effective US land strategy for achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
3-Reject forest industry greenwashing
Well-resourced forest industry lobbyists and allies claim that industrial forestry is a “natural climate solution”. In fact, it is a significant part of the problem. Last year, 200 scientists from across the country signed an open letter urging Congress to “oppose legislative proposals that promote logging and wood consumption, ostensibly as a natural climate change solution” stating that there is “no scientific evidence” to support such claims.
Equity, justice, and science must be at the center of Biden’s policies around land protection. The ongoing expansion of polluting wood pellet facilities in low income communities of color must stop. It’s time to invest in a new generation of protected areas in rural communities of color across the South who have too long borne the brunt of our nation’s forest destruction impacts.
