1 Dec 2011

Urban Trees

From Our Changing World, 9:34 pm on 1 December 2011

Old Government House grounds at the University of Auckland, and Neil Mitchell and Luitgard Schwendenmann next to a 150 year old puriri

The park-like grounds of Old Government House at the University of Auckland were planted more than 150 years ago (left) and contain fine specimens of native and introduced trees, such as this puriri (images: A. Ballance)

The 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference kicked off earlier this week in Durban, South Africa. A primary focus is to try and secure a new global climate agreement as the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period is about to end.

Also meeting this week in Auckland is a workshop to discuss ways of measuring and reducing carbon dioxide in the urban atmosphere.

Alison Ballance catches up with workshop organiser Luitgard Schwendenmann and her colleague Neil Mitchell in the lovely park-like grounds of Old Government House, at the University of Auckland, to hear about their research into carbon use and storage in urban and native trees, and find out why they believe urban trees should be more highly valued. Neil Mitchell begins by explaining that he believes the Kyoto Protocol is flawed as it only measures carbon in production forests planted since 1990.

Botanist Neil Mitchell and ecosystem ecologist Luitgard Schwendenmann are both in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland.

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