All language subtitles for RTE.The.Future.of.Nature.3of4.Forests.1080p.x265.AAC.MVGroup.org_track3_[eng]

Life...

The closer you look,

the more mysterious it seems.

We can't see
the invisible forces at work.

But what if we could?

It's time to look at our home...

..in a whole new way.

Imagine carbon
cycling through nature.

It's one of the building blocks
of life.

And it's stored in our forests...

..oceans

and grasslands

on an incredible scale.

But we've released too much of it
into the atmosphere,

risking our future.

We can halt emissions
and draw that carbon back down.

And our best ally for that

is nature.

Restoring it to abundance
is the biggest challenge of our time.

But we can do it.

If the future of nature
looked brighter,

so could the future for us all.

To me personally,
forests are special

because you're surrounded
by giant beings, these trees.

A forest is much more

than the individual bodies,
objects that you can see,

the trees or the soil
or the animals.

There's a huge world
of interaction and communication

beyond our immediate experience.

And through science, we begin
to get glimpses of that world.

Professor Yadvinder Malhi
from Oxford University,

has been studying this forest
for over 20 years.

It's a profoundly
central part of my being,

I think, being out,

realising that you're just one being

in a community
of species and entities

and different forms
of consciousness all around you.

Research at Wytham Woods
began in the 1920s.

It's one of the first places

that scientists came up
with the concept of an ecosystem.

So here, we've got this caterpillar
consuming the leaves of this tree,

and it's what makes up
a forest ecosystem -

not the individual tree
or the individual caterpillar,

but this interaction
between the two.

This caterpillar may end up
being consumed by a blue tit,

taking the food
to feed its young chicks.

And the leaf is also probably
creating chemical signals

to attract birds to tell them
that this caterpillar is here.

This is just one small example

of thousands of such interactions

between species occurring
above the forest,

in the canopy,

and below in the ground as well.

These connections
keep the forest healthy.

All living trees
are adorned with leaves.

Beneath every single one
are thousands of tiny holes -

stomata.

They draw in carbon dioxide
from the air,

which the trees turn into food
to help them grow.

And nowhere is carbon drawdown
more powerful

than in the great
tropical forests of our planet.

Fed by constant rain and sunshine,

the trees grow rapidly here.

It's been like this
for millions of years.

Dense forests are
the hardest to study,

the animals often impossible to see.

So the few places where we can learn
about how the forest works

are invaluable.

Kibale National Park

lies on the eastern edge
of the Congo rainforest ecosystem.

Here, our closest relatives
are under observation.

Margaret Kobusingye

is the field manager
of the Kibale Chimp Project.

She leads a team of researchers

who keep up with the chimps
from dawn until dusk.

Every detail of their lives
is recorded.

Who's grooming who.

What they eat.

And where they go.

A fig tree in fruit
brings them all together.

Chimps are fast eaters,

consuming up to ten figs a minute.

And they can eat for up to
eight hours at a time.

By feasting on these fruits,

they provide an invaluable
service for the trees,

helping to spread their seeds
across the forest.

Chimps are critical
to the health of the forest.

Yet across the whole of Africa,

less than 250,000 remain.

Here in Kibale,

protection is making a difference.

The Congo rainforest

is home to some of the largest trees
on the planet.

And when it comes to carbon,

the bigger the tree, the better.

Giants here can tower
over 60 metres tall.

But to reach their full potential,

they need help from another creature.

Smaller than their savanna cousins,
forest elephants

still eat an incredible 200 kg
of vegetation per day...

..mostly the shrub layer
that's easy to reach...

..which gives larger trees
more space to grow.

There are over
10,000 animal species here.

They're all part
of a complex web of life

that keeps the ecosystem working.

The Congo rainforest covers
more than 1 million square miles.

It is so large,

it influences the climate
across the entire region.

This rainforest causes humid air
to rise into the atmosphere...

..forming rivers of cloud

that transport billions of tons
of water north...

..where it hits
the Ethiopian highlands as rain...

..feeding rivers which sustain
some of the driest regions.

The influence of a forest
extends far beyond its borders.

And every forest on Earth
has its own unique character.

In the north
are the boreal forests...

..dominated by evergreens
that take time to grow.

It's quieter here.

Not so many animals

and only a few tough species of tree.

Scots pines can live for 500 years.

They're not the fastest
at drawing carbon down,

but they are good at storing it.

To study this,

David Coomes and Aland Chan
from Cambridge University

are using some unusual technology.

We can map the trees

and work out
how much carbon is in them.

We've been working
with this lidar data set.

We've popped it into one
of the bits of software

that game developers use,

and then we just see it
from a person's perspective.

This 3D map gives
a unique view of the forest.

And the lidar can show precisely

how much carbon
is locked up within it.

In this restoration area,

David and Aland can assess
the drawdown benefits

of regrowing a forest.

We have this sort of...

If you look at the mountains
behind us,

that will be around 800m
in elevation.

So naturally,
the forest would extend all the way

back up to 650m
to 700m in elevation,

and the goal is to try to get

the trees and forest
to extend back up there

through natural regeneration.

As it grows,

each sapling has
the potential to draw down

half a ton of carbon dioxide.

And what makes the boreal forest
even more unique

is where that carbon ends up.

So as well as understanding
what these amazing,

ancient trees are doing, we're also

interested
in what's happening below ground.

And in these boreal systems,

the soil is mostly made up
of organic materials like this -

leaf litter, pine cones,

but also roots

and some incredibly important
fungi sitting in there as well.

Together, they form a layer which
is incredibly slow to decompose.

This organic matter

accounts for over half of all the
carbon stored in the boreal forest.

The rest is held in the trees.

It's the largest carbon store
on terrestrial Earth.

Looking after it in the face
of climate change is essential.

So the boreal forest,
first of all, is a forest of cold.

The vegetation grows quite slowly.

It stores twice
as much carbon per hectare

as any other terrestrial ecosystem,
including the tropical forests.

I'm a member of the Innu community
of Mashteuiatsh.

But I'm also the executive director

of the Indigenous Leadership
Initiative.

Because of my connection
as an Innu woman,

I've always known
that I would be doing

work to protect
and work with nature.

The boreal is very much home
to the iconic species of caribou,

and it's such a fundamental
part of Canadian identity.

I mean, it's on our quarter.

It is what has allowed my people
to survive in this landscape

for over 10,000 years.

Because the caribou
are so sensitive,

when they're present,

it's a good indication
that other species

who are a little bit less sensitive
will also be present in that area.

They're kind of like canaries
in the coal mine

or a way of really giving us
an alarm

about what's coming
in these ecosystems.

And so we're definitely looking,

as foresters and as people
who manage these areas,

to find caribou,

because it's a good way of telling
that the whole system is healthy.

Caribou need old-growth forests.

In this cold environment,

the lichens they eat
take up to 50 years to grow.

But even the slowest ecosystems

need a boost now and then

to get the nutrients moving.

Boreal is an ecosystem of fire.

The soils in the boreal
are quite poor.

And because that organic matter
decomposes so slowly,

over time, that soil can break down

and become less and less
productive over time.

Well, what brings back
that productivity,

in part, is fires,

because what it does is
it breaks down that organic matter

and all the nitrogen
that is in that matter

gets released into the soil.

Natural fires are
usually started by lightning.

Big burns used
to happen once a century,

giving time for the slow-growing
forest to recover.

Fires are becoming more intense,

larger and more persistent
than the norm.

Canada has had a long
forest management history,

so we know what is
the natural cycle of fires.

And so every once in a while,
there's a big fire.

Then there's a lot of little fires.

But what's happening is

we're not getting
a lot of little fires any more.

We're just getting big fires.

More frequent storms and hot,
dry weather

are causing infernos
that are actually damaging soils,

impacting the old-growth forest,

caribou and also local residents.

I've got a lung disease

that was probably exasperated
by the fires last year.

Two weeks after the fire started,

did I notice that I was having
shortness of breath.

Peter Durocher lives
in Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan.

I feel like I'm grounded
when I'm right here.

I don't feel grounded in my house.

Here, I'm grounded.

It's beautiful. Forest is healing.

Peter belongs to
the Métis Indigenous community.

The boreal forest has been
their home for generations.

Indigenous people need forest.

I feed my family
off the forest and the water,

whether it's the rabbit,
or the deer, or the moose.

But under the pressure
of climate change,

life in the forest is getting harder.

This fire was only about four
hectares the first time it was seen.

Four hectares.

And it ended up burning
close to a million hectares.

That's a crazy number, eh?

The initial fire seemed too small

and too far from habitation
to be a priority for the province.

There was no response
to the community's calls for help.

By the time action was taken,

the fire was bigger than Chicago.

In all my life, all my 62 years
of living on this earth,

I never seen a fire
behave like that.

Fire was burning at 2:00
or 3:00 in the morning,

as hot as it was burning
at 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon.

By the time May 29th came around,
the fire was uncontrollable.

In 2023,

the hot, dry spring caused
fires to burn so intensely,

they destroyed over 70,000 square
miles of boreal forest

and sent a veil of smoke
to New York City and far beyond.

Hundreds of wildfires continue
to burn across Canada,

many of them out of control.

An ominous orange haze envelops
the Statue of Liberty.

Wildfire smoke from Canada
has billowed across the border.

As firefighters
try to contain the fires,

officials in many US cities
warn air quality is at code red.

100 million Americans
are under air quality alerts.

The potential health threat
posed by wildfire smoke

spanning as far south
as Georgia and Texas.

Normally,

where it burnt here

would have slowed down,

but because the fire was so hot,

look how high it burned.

Look at my hands.
I mean, this is just from one tree.

You know?
This is only from one tree.

One little tree that's probably
only 15 years old.

Now, if you look at a fire
of our size here that has

10 million trees, you know,

how much carbon
is actually being released?

If this tree released
that much carbon,

what happens if a million trees
burn like that?

What happens if a billion trees
burn like that one year?

There's a problem out there,
just nobody's listening to us.

Keeping the infernos in check

is essential

if we want the boreal forest
to help balance the Earth's climate.

The generations
that are coming up behind me,

what are they going to see?

Change is going to happen.

The biggest worry I have is
how fast the change is coming.

I love my grandkids, all of them,
and the forest is up there.

And I want my granddaughter
to experience it.

I call her an old soul
because she feels what I feel.

And how do you say rabbit in Cree?

Wapos. Wapos, yeah.

See right there? Look. Yeah.

Yeah, wapos.

We went hunting moose,
and she came with me,

and we were sitting there,
and she says, uh, "Listen."

I said, "What?"

I said, "You hear a moose?" "No."

She said,
"You can hear the forest,"

you know, which is the wind, right?

So... And I thought
it was just a blessing,

a blessing for her to feel that,
to understand that.

Indigenous people take care

of more than a quarter
of all the land on Earth.

But they need support.

In Canada,

the government has pledged $800
million to fund that stewardship.

It's a start,

but there's an urgency for us
to recognise the value of forests.

To understand what forests do
for our global climate...

Buongiorno. Morning.

..we have to take
a more mathematical approach.

Forests are
the cathedrals of nature.

They are where most
of the biodiversity lives.

And so it shouldn't be
a surprise that forests

are central to the carbon story
of this planet.

I'm Giulio Boccaletti, I'm the
Scientific Director of this centre,

which is the Euro Mediterranean
Centre on Climate Change.

And we're all trying to understand

the climate system and help society
fight against climate change.

Now, part of that fight

is understanding precisely how
carbon moves across the planet,

in and out of our ecosystems.

Building on years of scientific data,

the Climate Centre
has created detailed maps

that show us where the carbon flows
in and out of our forests.

They show that it's not just
the tropical and boreal forests

that are significant
in the global carbon story.

One of the world's
largest temperate forests

is found along
the Appalachian Mountains

on the eastern side of North America.

Temperate forests
can be extraordinary sinks.

If managed well,
they can draw down carbon

at rates that are comparable
to the other forests of the planet.

And because we live
with and next to them,

we have an extraordinary opportunity
to really manage them better.

The Appalachians
are 2,000 miles long,

and they're home to 26 million people

who live amongst
the deciduous forest.

Each farmstead has a different story.

My grandfather purchased
this property in 1943,

and we've held it since then.

Susan Benedict
is the third generation manager

of her family's land.

Today, the area it's filled with over
2,000 acres of mixed hardwood forest.

But this hasn't always been the case.

In the early 1900s,

great swaths of it were harvested.

There was so much
environmental damage

done with all of that clear-cutting,

the streams were all
clogged with mud.

I'm sure that species
that need trees weren't here then.

Since that initial felling,

trees have been planted
and cut several times.

Often just a single species
was used for easy timber.

But this left the trees vulnerable
to pests and disease.

The year my father died, in 2006,

we had a three-year outbreak
of gypsy moth,

coupled with a drought,

and our consulting forester
estimated that our losses of timber

was in excess of $1 million.

And there's no insurance for that.

That's just an economic loss
that we can't make up.

To hold their place
in this working landscape,

forests have to be
economically viable.

And that means healthy...

..which is where nature comes in.

Even in those woodlands
managed for timber,

animals like black bears,

which spread seeds far and wide,

can really enhance
forest biodiversity.

They're a keystone species
along the entire Appalachian range.

But biologist Katie Martin
has noticed

what looks like a worrying decline.

Bears are a pretty good
indicator of healthy forest.

Forest and the wildlife
are truly linked.

They all work together
in a working ecosystem.

For the forest to function
as it should, we need the wildlife.

And vice versa,
the wildlife need the forest.

If one is out of balance,
the whole thing can fall apart.

Virginia bear populations
have been a huge success story,

but unfortunately, in recent years,

we have noticed
a change in our bears

and something
that's on the landscape

that's making us pretty nervous

about what's happening
with our bear population.

The bears are unwell...

..and many are dying.

Katie is trying to find out why.

We've actually got these
little field kits we've developed

where you can do a skin scrape
really easily on the bear

while you've got it down,

look at it underneath the scope.

This bear is suffering
from a severe outbreak of mange,

a painful skin condition
caused by mites.

It's something bears
normally survive,

but recently it's becoming fatal.

And unfortunately, here in Virginia,
we see a lot of really severe cases

that do end up leading
to the death of the bear.

So it's really sad
and heartbreaking to see.

It is certainly
a wide variety of factors

that we think are probably
impacting the bears

and maybe causing
these impacts from mange.

The mites are likely
able to live longer

out on the landscape
if we have warmer winters

because they're just, you know,

not succumbing
from cold temperatures

in a den site
or out on the forest floor.

Potentially,
that's helping the bears

that are picking up
mites more frequently,

because the mites can live longer.

A mite population unchecked by winter

may be impacting
less resilient bears.

As we've seen winters get a little
bit warmer over the past few years,

this obviously,
when it's 70 degrees in January,

a bear is a hot animal,

they're going to get up
and start wandering about.

There's still not food available
in the forest at that time of year.

So unfortunately, that means likely

getting into more urban
or residential areas

where garbage
can be available to them.

All of these things that are
not natural foods for a bear

end up becoming maybe
a primary source of their diet.

Junk food could be
weakening the bears' immunity,

and in the south, they're waking
early because of rising temperatures.

To help this whole region become
more resilient to climate change,

an ambitious project is needed.

I'm Marc Anderson.

I direct The Nature
Conservancy's Centre

for Resilient Conservation Science.

My generation's spent so much time

convincing our peers that climate
change was real and serious,

that we didn't realise the effect
we were having on our own kids,

who were losing hope
and not seeing a future.

But there is a future, and now
we have to focus on solutions.

And a big part of that solution

is healthy, functioning,
thriving nature.

The Appalachians are one
of the largest remaining areas

of temperate forest in the world.

Running north to south,

they are also a major
corridor for wildlife.

We call it a climate highway,

where most of nature
will be moving northward

or upward to adjust
to a warming temperature.

It's predicted that, every decade,

plants and animals will move
11 miles north and 11 metres higher.

Mark's project aims to ensure
that they have the space to do so.

So the key to creating a resilient
landscape for the future

is understanding
where we need to work.

That's what I've been working
on for the last 15 years.

And we've produced a map
of the results of that

which we're now sharing publicly.

The green areas on this map

are the lands most resilient
to climate change,

and the blue areas connect
those places together

into a connected,
resilient landscape.

To create effective
wildlife corridors,

landowners in the Appalachians
will have to help out.

One of the reasons we've created
this tool and released it

is because we need people
as part of the solution.

So we need to involve them
in the science

and involve them
in the conservation.

That would be interesting. Yeah.

Susan has recently enroled
in the Family Forest Carbon Program,

a new market
for sustainable forestry.

So, Susan, how's the
program working out for you?

We really have benefited from it.

This area here is part
of our mature forest

that's enroled in the program.

Through the project,
carbon offsets can be sold

and experts help people
manage their forests better.

Right now, I think
our our biggest project

is to train the next generation

in how to steward this property.

That's why we involve
the grandchildren.

This is the forest for them
that we're planting now.

They're the ones that will be able
to enjoy it and benefit from it.

Riley is our expert tree planter.

She does a good job.

I love coming up here.

It is my favourite place
in the world.

Being up here makes me think
of the future

and what I can have
and what I want to have.

I'm gonna own this place one day.

And I just think
that it's really cool

that I have to learn
all this stuff from my family.

I think that climate change

is one of the biggest
problems in our world.

And my family is trying to help by,
like, keeping this forest healthy.

And personally, I feel like
we're doing a good job.

Family tree farms like this one

can be part of a connected
and resilient landscape,

enabling wildlife to move around
and settle in newly restored areas.

Recently, we're very excited

because beavers have come back
to our stream and our pond,

and we feel like that is
a real ecological success for us,

that they've chosen to be here,

and we're very happy
to have them with us.

Our forests are holding on
in the face of climate change...

..but they're under extreme pressure.

Keeping them strong and resilient
is key to their future...

..and ours, too.

There are nearly 400 billion trees
in the Amazon rainforest.

That's three times more
than the stars in the Milky Way.

But if the world continues
to burn fossil fuels,

this entire ecosystem
is at risk of failure.

How this might happen

is what an experiment in the heart
of the forest is trying to find out.

I usually scared of heights,
but then, you know,

the first time I flew on this
was so amazing.

Here in Brazil,
Dr Carlos Alberto Quesada

runs a project called AmazonFACE.

It stands for
Free-Air Carbon Enrichment.

The idea is to try to mimic
these conditions,

particularly with the CO2,
the best we can,

so we look how the forest
will behave

and try to understand
what's going to happen

to the Amazon in the future,
and then we can get prepared.

It took ten years to get the funding

to build these structures
deep in the forest.

16 towers 30 metres tall,

encircling 90 adult trees.

Carbon dioxide is pumped in,

simulating the elevated levels

that scientists are expecting
in the near future.

We really need
to get this right, you know,

to understand,
OK, how this will work.

This will influence your life,
my life, everybody's life.

So we really need to study

everything we can
inside of those rings.

How the trees respond will help
predict the fate of the forest.

As well as increased carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere,

climate change is predicted to make
the area four degrees hotter,

with only half the rainfall.

If this happens,

conditions couldn't support
a rainforest at all.

The tests will help to indicate

how soon this scenario
might become reality.

Without this giant forest
absorbing carbon dioxide,

the effects on the world's climate
will be catastrophic.

This great forest pump
can't be allowed to switch off.

Protecting the Amazon
should be a high priority.

But as well as suffering
climate change,

it's under constant human pressure.

Over a million acres are still
destroyed every year in Brazil alone.

The country has pledged
to cease deforestation by 2030.

But so much has already been lost.

The only hope for restoration

is with the communities
who know it best.

Like the Xingu people of Mato Grosso.

When people have to help nature,

it requires an intimate knowledge
of the ecosystem.

Some of the seeds the women gather

will be used
by the Xingu Seed Network,

an organisation funding
forest restoration.

Working for this network

is Milene Alves de Oliveira Lima.

Since joining the Seed Network
ten years ago,

Milene's life has transformed

from a young girl
in a poor neighbourhood

to a mother embarking
on a master's degree.

She's now using her academic training

to find out if any of these seeds

will survive
in the fast-warming climate.

Seeds that can still germinate
in heat wave temperatures

are now essential
for successful reforestation.

Some species will be lost,
but there is hope.

The tests show
that the larger, harder seeds

can survive extreme heat waves.

This helps Milene choose
the perfect cocktail,

mixed together
in a process called Muvuka.

The mixing mimics
the chaos of nature,

and it's nearly four times
more effective

than traditional tree planting.

Many of the farms here
are agricultural wastelands.

Regulation requires them
to restore forests

to a fifth of their land...

..and some farmers have responded
with promising results.

Valmir Schneider has been on his
reforestation journey for many years.

The seeds of over 40 species
of native trees were planted here.

These pockets of trees
will draw down carbon as they grow,

but if they're isolated
by miles of farmland,

the biodiversity
that makes them sustainable

will never return.

These small patches
must become so much more.

Whatever challenges we face,

we are stronger
when we work together.

Nurturing a connection
with our forests

is the first step
to looking after them.

You have to think forward
to the next generations

and take joy
in the hope of the future.

Resilient forests

are the best carbon drawdown
tool we have.

Imagine a world where forests
can thrive and flourish

hand in hand with humanity.

While we still have forests,

we still have hope.

There still remains

huge opportunities
to really protect what's left.

Not only for our own benefit,

but that of the rest of the world.

Well, we need nature to adapt
to a changing climate

because we need a living,
breathing world.

With forests in our future,

that future will be brighter.