Modeling the CO2-effects of forest management and wood usage on a regional basis

Abstract

BackgroundAt the 15th Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Copenhagen, 2009, harvested wood products were identified as an additional carbon pool. This modification eliminates inconsistencies in greenhouse gas reporting by recognizing the role of the forest and timber sector in the global carbon cycle. Any additional CO2-effects related to wood usage are not considered by this modification. This results in a downward bias when the contribution of the forest and timber sector to climate change mitigation is assessed. The following article analyses the overall contribution to climate protection made by the forest management and wood utilization through CO2-emissions reduction using an example from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Based on long term study periods (2011 to 2050 and 2100, respectively). Various alternative scenarios for forest management and wood usage are presented.ResultsIn the mid- to long-term (2050 and 2100, respectively) the net climate protection function of scenarios with varying levels of wood usage is higher than in scenarios without any wood usage. This is not observed for all scenarios on short and mid term evaluations.The advantages of wood usage are evident although the simulations resulted in high values for forest storage in the C pools. Even the carbon sink effect due to temporal accumulation of deadwood during the period from 2011 to 2100 is outbalanced by the potential of wood usage effects.ConclusionsA full assessment of the CO2-effects of the forest management requires an assessment of the forest supplemented with an assessment of the effects of wood usage. CO2-emission reductions through both fuel and material substitution as well as CO2 sink in wood products need to be considered.An integrated assessment of the climate protection function based on the analysis of the study’s scenarios provides decision parameters for a strategic approach to climate protection with regard to forest management and wood use at regional and national levels.The short-term evaluation of subsystems can be misleading, rendering long-term evaluations (until 2100, or even longer) more effective. This is also consistent with the inherently long-term perspective of forest management decisions and measures.

A regional assessment of land‐based carbon mitigation potentials: Bioenergy, BECCS, reforestation, and forest management

“…The distribution of harvested wood to the different product pools and the decay rate differed from the standard LPJ‐GUESS procedure (see Supporting Information). For the material substitution of wood products we assumed a mitigation factor of 1.5 (Knauf, Köhl, Mues, Olschofsky, & Frühwald, ). This means that for every ton of harvested carbon that goes to the mid‐ or long‐lived product pool, 1.5 tons of carbon emissions are avoided because the replaced energy‐intensive material is never produced.…”

“…We note that the effect depends on the substituted material and higher or lower values are also found in the literature (Klein et al, ; Leskinen et al, ; Sathre & O'Connor, ). For energy substitution from wood, we used a mitigation factor of 0.67 (Knauf et al, ; Rüter, ). We assumed that 90% of the short‐term product pool (e.g., fuel wood and paper) is directly burned for energy production, while the remainder is oxidized without providing energy.…”

Mitigating environmental impacts through the energetic use of wood: Regional displacement factors generated by means of substituting non-wood heating systems

“…Its decentralized structure and lacking obligations to report fuel consumptions and emissions pose a challenge when determining the heating mix and subsequent displacements. For this reason, typically a mix of light fuel oil (LFO) and natural gas, or only one of them is used when assessing the GHG mitigation potentials of a heating system (Jäppinen et al, 2014;Felder and Dones, 2007;Ghafghazi et al, 2011;Esteban et al, 2014;Katers et al, 2012;Knauf et al, 2015). This can, due to the aforementioned importance of the reference system, lead to skewed results and flawed interpretations and the actual GHG mitigation through using wood for heating is not depicted.…”

Wald und Forstwirtschaft

“…Energetische und stoffliche Verwendung von geerntetem Holz können den Verbrauch und damit die Emissionen fossiler Energieträger vermindern. Zudem wird Kohlenstoff in der Biomasse, im Waldboden und in Holzprodukten gebunden (FAO 2010;Knauf et al 2015).…”

“…B. Ziegel, Kalksandsteine, Stahl, Aluminium). Damit lassen sich ebenso Emissionen aus fossilen Energieträgern einsparen (stoffliche Substitution) (Bergman et al 2014 ;Knauf et al 2015 (Lindner et al 2010;Müller 2009). Das zieht nicht nur ökologische Folgen nach sich, sondern auch bedeutende ökonomische (Hanewinkel et al 2012 (Hanewinkel et al 2012;Meier et al 2012).…”