Why are forests vital to us?
Forests are one of the most important biological resources, ecosystems, carbon sinks and living habitats for us.
Forests are the most important source of renewable biological resources. The goods and services that forests offer are priceless from timber, fuel, and fiber.
Forests are one of the most "efficient" ecosystems on Earth that support life and help the planet adapt to change. Forests are the most vital terrestrial source of oxygen, water and biodiversity, and our most important terrestrial carbon sink.
Forests provide habitats for more than half of the world's land-based species.3 Millions of people rely on forests for essential ecosystem services and living.
©️ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Why are forests vital to us?
Forests are critical to our planet as they serve as a valuable resource for biological diversity, carbon storage, and habitats for wildlife and humans. They are a key source of renewable materials such as timber, fuel, and fiber, and provide a wide range of goods and services that are invaluable. Forests are among the most efficient ecosystems on earth, providing essential elements for life such as oxygen, water, and biodiversity, and acting as a crucial carbon sink. They are home to over half of the world's land-based species and provide essential ecosystem services and livelihoods for millions of people.
©️ Cmon/Fotolia
Wood buildings can reduce embodied carbon, store carbon in themselves for generations and sequester carbon by promoting sustainable forest management and forest regeneration.
Sustainable forest management takes a holistic approach to ensure that forest activities provide social, environmental and economic benefits. However, only about 11% of the world's forests are currently sustainable certified.
Can Wood Buildings become a global CO2 sink?
Wood buildings can reduce embodied carbon, store carbon in themselves for generations and sequester carbon by promoting sustainable forest management and forest regeneration.
The built environment sector is critical to responding to the climate crisis. Buildings currently account for 37% of global carbon emissions in 2020 6, making construction decarbonization one of the most valuable ways to mitigate the climate change.
Carbon emissions are produced not only during the operational life of buildings, but also during the manufacturing, transportation, construction, and end-of-life phases. These emissions, known as embodied carbon, have previously been largely ignored, despite accounting for approximately 11% of total global carbon emissions. 7
Compared to fossil resources, the use of bio-material e.g. wood does not add new carbon to the carbon cycle. Replacing steel, concrete and other fossil products, wood can avoid the consumption of fossil fuels and the consequent CO2 emissions in the production of construction materials, significantly reducing the embodied carbon.
What is sustainable forest management?
According to EU Forest Strategy and adopted by UN Food and Agriculture Organization, sustainable forest management means using forests and forest land in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national, and global levels, which does not cause damage to other ecosystems.
Sustainable forest management is a key objective of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ( UN SDG 15) and further highlights the carbon sequestration role of forests. Sustainable forest management entails ensuring continued growth by keeping the biomass in forests at a high enough level, and it requires detailed forest inventories and long-term management plans.
The two major sustainable forest management schemes are the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). In addition to carbon benefits,these schemes also address the many ecosystem services that forests provide such as healthy soil and water, biodiversity habitat protection, and chemical fertilizer limits, indigenous peoples' rights, fair labor, and traceability.The area of certified forests worldwide is 435.5 million ha till mid-2020, a new all-time high,.4 However accounting with total forest area, there are only around 11% of the world‘s forest areas are certified. 5
©️ Voll Architects
Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing, protecting and storing carbon dioxide from the environment. Trees sequester carbon dioxide into the forest through photosynthesis and store the carbon in wood products. The carbon absorbed by a tree is locked up in the harvested wood products over its lifetime. Carbon can be safely stored in the wood building for generations.
To combat the climate emergency, we should recycle wood products in multiple forms, empower wood products to become larger and longer-term carbon storage, and achieve safe carbon sequestration by promoting sustainable forest management and forest regeneration.
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Can Wood Buildings become a global CO2 sink?
Wood buildings can reduce embodied carbon, store carbon in themselves for generations and sequester carbon by promoting sustainable forest management and forest regeneration.
The built environment sector is critical to responding to the climate crisis. Buildings currently account for 37% of global carbon emissions in 2020 6, making construction decarbonization one of the most valuable ways to mitigate the climate change.
Carbon emissions are produced not only during the operational life of buildings, but also during the manufacturing, transportation, construction, and end-of-life phases. These emissions, known as embodied carbon, have previously been largely ignored, despite accounting for approximately 11% of total global carbon emissions. 7
Compared to fossil resources, the use of bio-material e.g. wood does not add new carbon to the carbon cycle. Replacing steel, concrete and other fossil products, wood can avoid the consumption of fossil fuels and the consequent CO2 emissions in the production of construction materials, significantly reducing the embodied carbon.
Images
Multiple
Author
Jade Wang
Location
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Published
28/02/23
Reading time
10 min
TRENDING TOPICS
Sustainable Forest Management
Forests are one of the most important biological resources, ecosystems, carbon sinks and living habitats for us.
Author
Jade Wang
Credits
Location
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Published
28/02/23
Reading time
10 min
Images
Multiple
What is the status of the world's forests?
Forests cover nearly one-third of the land globally.The world’s forest area is decreasing, but the rate of loss has slowed.
The world has a total forest area of 4.06 billion hectares (ha), covering nearly one-third of the land globally. More than half of the world’s forests is in only five countries – the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America and China. 1
World forest area has reduced 1/3 since the last ice age due to the expansion of agriculture. Today half of global habitable land is used for farming. 2
Since 1990, the total amount of forest in the world is shrinking, but the rate of loss has slowed as a result of decreased deforestation in some nations and gains in forest area as a result of afforestation and natural forest growth in other nations.