Importing Timber, Exporting Ecological Impact

Mayer, Audrey L.; Kauppi, Pekka E.; Angelstam, Per; Zhang, Yu; Tikka, Päivi M.

doi:10.1126/science.1109476

Cited by 156 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Because the low energy content of firewood makes its distant transportation impractical, its inclusion would likely add more to the numerator than the divisor and thus lower the export percentage. Nevertheless, in some cases, trade can export the impact of one nation's timber consumption to another nation that harvests the timber (22,23).…”

Section: Carbon Concentration Tons͞tonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Returning forests analyzed with the forest identity

Kauppi

Ausubel

Fang

et al. 2006

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

333

245

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Carbon Concentration Tons͞tonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Returning forests analyzed with the forest identity

Kauppi

Ausubel

Fang

et al. 2006

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

333

245

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, when there is international trade between regions, it is possible to adjust the territorial-based emission inventories to obtain consumption-based inventories by adding the emissions associated with imports and subtracting the emissions associated with exports (Munksgaard and Pedersen, 2001;Peters, 2008;Peters and Hertwich, 2008a;Peters et al, 2009). While most research on consumption-based emission inventories has focused on CO 2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion (Peters and Hertwich, 2008b;Hertwich and Peters, 2009;Davis and Caldeira, 2010;Davis et al, 2011;Peters et al, 2011b), international trade is also important in accounting for emissions from land use (Hubacek and Giljum, 2003), forestry (Mayer et al, 2005;Kastner et al, 2011a), biomass more generally (Krausmann et al, 2008;Erb et al, 2009), and constructing regional carbon budgets (Ciais et al, , 2008…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A synthesis of carbon in international trade

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. In a globalised world, the transfer of carbon between regions, either physically or embodied in production, represents a substantial fraction of global carbon emissions. The resulting emission transfers are important for balancing regional carbon budgets and for understanding the drivers of emissions. In this paper we synthesise current understanding in two parts: (1) CO 2 emissions embodied in goods and services that are produced in one country but consumed in others, and (2) carbon physically present in fossil fuels, petroleum-derived products, harvested wood products, crops, and livestock products. We describe the key differences between studies and provide a consistent set of estimates using the same definitions, modelling framework, and consistent data. We find the largest trade flows of carbon in international trade in 2004 were fossil fuels (2673 MtC, 37 % of global emissions), CO 2 embodied in traded goods and services (1661 MtC, 22 % of global emissions), crops (522 MtC, 31 % of total harvested crop carbon), petroleum-based products (183 MtC, 50 % of their total production), harvested wood products (149 MtC, 40 % of total roundwood extraction), and livestock products (28 MtC, 22 % of total livestock carbon). We find that for embodied CO 2 emissions, estimates from independent studies are robust, and that differences between individual studies are not a reflection of the uncertainty in consumption-based estimates, but rather these differences result from the use of different production-based emissions input data and different definitions for allocating emissions to international trade. After adjusting for these issues, results across independent studies converge to give less uncertainty than previously assumed. For physical carbon flows there are relatively few studies to be synthesised, but differences between existing studies are due to the method of allocating to international trade, with some studies using "apparent consumption" as opposed to "final consumption". While results across studies are sufficiently robust to be used in further applications, more research is needed to understand differences and to harmonise definitions for particular applications.

show abstract

“…Poorer countries tend to devalue their forest resources, producing trade differentials that encourage further harvest and fail to account for increasing scarcity of over-harvested forests (Barbier, 1999). Imported high quality logs from the Russian Far East into China, and from Indonesia (and now Russia) into Japan, are other examples of this dynamic (Yamane, 2003;Mayer et al, 2005). This option might increase the sustainability and biodiversity persistence in both Finland and northwest Russia, but it could shift the negative ecological effects to other countries.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is important but insufficient unless conservation measures are coordinated with improvements in forestry technology, forest industry processes, and consumption patterns. Domestic measures for forest protection based on a ''denial approach'' can be dangerous, if logging is pushed elsewhere (Sedjo, 1995;Berlik et al, 2002;Mayer et al, 2005). An international context is essential (Rodrigues and Gaston, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If the current logging rates and harvest practices in Russia continue, Northwest Russia will suffer a loss of large and old forest patches. This in turn will reduce suitable habitat area and consequently possible source populations for Finland's ecological communities, thereby degrading the effects of conservation efforts in Finland-the boomerang effect (Mayer et al, 2005).…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation