050 | WOOD

wood

Achieving sustainable management of the world's forests means reversing deeply ingrained patterns. The determining factor in the use of forests should not be the demand for timber but the ecological capacity of the forests. Europe's forests are not virgin forests threatened by clear cutting: this irreversible damage has already occurred. However, other problems are caused by unsustainable forestry practices, and forests are threatened by pollution. For example, monocultures of fast growing trees (pine in Central Europe and eucalyptus in the Mediterranean) are damaging biological diversity, and non-indigenous species (like eucalyptus) are endangering the water balance. As these monocultures are vulnerable to insect attacks, pesticides are applied which can contaminate ground-water. Acid rain and tropospheric ozone are contributing to forest decline, while natural reproduction of forests is suppressed by overpopulation of grazing animals such as deer. In some areas, high deer numbers result from deliberate winter feeding for hunting purposes.

In the Sustainable Europe study, wood is regarded a continental resource. This means that no structural import deficit of non-European wood may be maintained. Within Europe, access to wood should be equally distributed. Given the unequal distribution of existing forests in Europe, this implies significant trade in timber within Europe. In some subsequent national environmental space studies, timber has been treated as a global resource, reducing the amounts available to European countries much further than is suggested in the table below.

sustainable forestry

The productive forest area in Europe in 2010 is assumed to be no greater than today's. Any trees ready for harvest by 2010, have almost certainly already been planted. Even fast growing varieties take a minimum of 15 to 20 years before they can be harvested. Of the forest area, however, 10 per cent should be set aside for nature protection purposes without any commercial use (including logging). This includes the remaining virgin forests (constituting only 1 per cent of European forests, mainly in European Russia) as well as forests of specific value for the preservation of biodiversity (like regularly flooded riverside forests) or high mountain and watershed forests, as recommended by IUCN.


Region	Actual use in 1990 per cap per year)	Env. Space in 2010 per cap per year
Wood
EU12	0.375 m3	0.316 m3
EU + EFTA	0.665 m3	0.568 m3
Central and Eastern Europe	0.647 m3	0.477 m3
EU + EFTA +CEE	0.661 m3	0.563 m3
EU + EFTA +CEE + Russia	1.175 m3	1.004 m3

Actual use of timber and environmental space (for several definitions of Europe)

Exploitation of forests should be sustainable - but not just in terms of timber. Forests provide society with wood for pulp and paper production, construction and energy generation. But their other functions include the preservation of biodiversity, the balance of water supply, the protection of the landscape and use as recreational and leisure areas. This means that multi-functional silviculture has to be achieved based on specific regional mixtures of indigenous (i.e. naturally occurring) broadleaved and coniferous trees, with selective cutting and natural generation allowed. Ending the (already significantly reduced) use of fertilisers and pesticides as well as substituting the plantation of fast growing exotic varieties by indigenous ones (particularly in the Mediterranean) may reduce yields. However, experience indicates that sustainable forestry does not necessarily imply a decrease in total wood production, but rather, the production of different types of wood: relatively more roundwood and significantly less waste wood. Whereas the availability of longwood will not suffer significantly, wood for energy generation and paper production may be reduced. The income from forestry may even rise: natural reproduction makes planting and intermediate felling superfluous, while the yield in longwood is of a higher quality and value.

In the Sustainable Europe study the availability of timber was therefore assumed to equal 90 per cent of the 1990 production. This is equivalent to 0.56m3 per capita per year for Europe in 2010 (EU 12 + EFTA + CEE, excluding the NIS). Since the current use is 0.66m3 per capita per year, this means a reduction of 15 per cent is needed.

A crucial but open question is the development of Russia. Sustainably managed forests in European Russia could offer a reliable source of income for Russia. However, a necessary precondition for such a transition is to stop clear-felling now and to shift towards sustainable management practices. If the Russian forests become a reliable part of the European timber supply this might permit an increase in wood use from 0.66 to 1.0m3 per capita per year. Such an increase in supply could be highly desirable when substitution of non-renewable resources by renewable raw materials is required in the medium to long run.

On the other hand, if timber is treated as a global resource, the availability of wood falls to between 0.12 and 0.24 m3 per capita, necessitating a reduction from current use of over 60 per cent.