Forestry

Forest ecosystems play important roles at global as well as local levels. They are providers of environmental services to nature in general, but also as providers of a wealth of resources to humans in particular, including timber, biodiversity, and valuable carbon sinks, which help to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Furthermore, forests represent a large potential energy resource which, if used in a sustainable manner, is completely renewable and practically neutral with regard to the emission of greenhouse gases.

Used as source of energy, woody biomass of trees in forests can be converted into convenient solid, liquid or gaseous fuels to provide energy for industrial, commercial or domestic use. About 55% of the 4 billion m3 of wood used annually by the population of the world is used directly to meet daily energy needs for heating and cooking, mainly in developing countries. Of the remainder, 40% ends up as industrial process residues that are viewed either as waste material for disposal, or as a potential source of renewable energy. In total, 70-75% of the global wood harvest is used or is potentially available for bioenergy production.

Human impacts often damage forest environments, where much of the damage is the result of direct deforestation for timber and for the conversion of land for agricultural purposes, while the collection of woodfuels is currently only a minor contributor. Forests can also be damaged by pollution including acid rain and by natural causes such as fires and storms. Large areas of forest around the world caught fire in the last few years as a result of drought conditions.

Mechanised cutting in a commercial forest in Austria		Forestry operation in Canada		Oak timbers in Southern Hungary		Bamboo forest - a promising biomass resource in Japan