Its a common perception that using wood products leads to deforestation and thereby increasing global warming. However, in recent years it has been established that Wood based products actually helps to fight climate change if the Forest wood products (HWP ) are harvested sustainably. Whereas , Agroforestry based wood products essentially reduce global warming and more importantly , enhance farmers income considerably.
HWP ( Harvested wood products) are defined as wood-based materials harvested from forests, which are used for products such as furniture, plywood, and paper and paper-like products, or for energy.
HWP form an integral part of the carbon cycle. They have an effect on the carbon cycle because CO2 pool of long-lived wood products can stay at the same level, increase or decrease (by decay or combustion) thereby impacting the Carbon cycle. Changing the demand for wood products can thus have an important role in the global carbon cycle and the fight against climate change.
Tree farming in India and Forests
In India , Most People don’t know that most wood products such as paper, plywood, biomass comes from Tree farming not from forests. Unlike wood harvested from forests, Agro-forestry models based on Poplar , eucalyptus tree are not only sustainable but also providing additional income to tree farmers. The Poplar based Agroforestry is a success story in Yamunanagar , Haryana.
Profitable tree farming in India
The Yamunanagar , Haryana have the Asia’s biggest timber market but counter- institutively, the Yamunanagar agriculture farms are more greener than rest of farms in other place. In simple language , Tree grown on farms store carbon by capturing CO2 from atmosphere. These tree are harvesting for useful wood products such as plywood, paper , furniture etc. Thus, useful wood products found in every one home helps to fight global warming in a cheap and natural way in addition to increase in tree farmers income . A poplar tree farmer can expect an income of 1500 to 2500 Rs per tree in 3-4 year.
Considering these benefits, the Indian government had launched Sub-Mission on Agroforestry (Har Medh Par Ped) Scheme in 2016-17 to encourage tree plantation on farm land along with crops/cropping system to help the farmers get additional income and make their farming systems more climate resilient and adaptive.
Buildings can become a global CO2 sink if made out of wood instead of cement and steel
Wood products can contribute to climate change mitigation in a number of ways. Long-lived wood products form a storage pool of wood-based carbon. As a raw material and energy source, wood can substitute for more energy-intensive materials and fossil fuels.
The production and processing of wood uses much less energy – known as embodied energy – than most other building materials, giving wood products a significantly lower carbon footprint. As a result wood can be used as a low-emission substitute for materials that require larger amounts of fossil fuels to be produced. As a rule of thumb, if you convert one cubic metre of a solid material, such as concrete or brick, for a cubic metre of timber, you will eliminate approximately one tonne (1000kg) of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.
Australia’s tallest engineered timber office building opens in Brisbane
Australia’s largest engineered timber commercial building has opened in Brisbane, designed by Bates Smart. At 10 stories, and 45 meters in height, the “25 King” open plan office complex is the tallest timber structure in Australia, and “establishes new frontiers in the design of commercial buildings.
Such engineered wood buildings also acts as a CO2 sink and thus helps to fight climate change.
By Rohit Kansay
Reference :
- Wood based products act as a carbon storage.
- Swap steel, concrete, and brick for wood – wooden buildings are cheaper and cleaner
- Carbon Sequestration – wiki
- Carbon Storage in Harvested Wood Products (HWP) – UNECE
- ” Challenges and Opportunities of Accounting for Harvested Wood Products” – Background Paper to the Workshop on Harvested Wood Products in the Context of Climate Change Policies , 9-10 September 2008, Geneva, Switzerland
- Engineered Wood Products as a Sustainable Construction Material: A Review
- Australia’s tallest engineered timber office building opens
