HARVESTED WOOD PRODUCTS HELP THE ENVIRONMENT

Using wood from sustainably managed forests to make paper and packaging can help the environment and could be a weapon to fight the climate crisis. The forest sector involves the farming of specific trees for timber, pulp and paper applications, and the recycling of paper fibre.

Despite the widely held belief, deforestation is not caused by wood and paper production and indigenous trees are never used for pulp, paper and packaging. Sustainable forest management seeks to maintain a stable forestry landscape by managing the environmental quality and resource base on which it depends – such as land, water and biodiversity, for human needs.

All plants take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; they keep the carbon for growth and give us back the oxygen. The trees used for harvested wood products keep that carbon locked up.

By using more sustainably farmed wood-based products and planting more trees to replace the harvested stock, the carbon cycle is kept in balance and the sector’s potential to take up and store more carbon is increased.

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