Abstract
The forestry and forest-based sector play a significant role in climate change mitigation strategies and can contribute to the achievement of a climate-neutral economy. In this context, the ability of harvested wood products (HWP) to sequester carbon is of significant importance. The objective of this work is to make a projection of climate change mitigation potential of HWP, under different scenarios of wood utilization in Slovakia. This study builds on the comparison of different scenarios of industrial wood utilization till 2035 and presents the resulting impacts on the national carbon balance. The results suggest that the development of timber supplies after 2020 in Slovakia will be influenced, in particular, by the future changes in the age distribution and tree species composition as well as the extent of future accidental felling. Consequently, a predicted structure and availability of wood resources in Slovakia will be reflected in a higher share of the production of products with shorter life cycle and thus will negatively affect the carbon pool in HWP. By comparing the results of the four designed scenarios, it follows that the scenario with the greatest mitigation potential, is the one assuming the optimal use of wood assortments and limitation of industrial roundwood foreign trade.
Highlights
Global climate change is a serious issue influencing the whole planet
The objective of this work is to make a projection of climate change mitigation potential of harvested wood products (HWP), under different scenarios of wood utilization in Slovakia
This study aims to project a future development of volumes and structure of wood supplies and their utilization in Slovakia, based on the defined modelled situations and to estimate the contribution of produced HWP to mitigate climate changes in terms of their potential to store carbon
Summary
Global climate change is a serious issue influencing the whole planet. Due to the increasing release of greenhouse gases and global warming it has gained great attention in the world [1]. [10] concluded that the EU mitigation potential of HWP is about 10% of the sink forest pools From this perspective, considering that the lifetime of wood products is variable, priority should be given to long-term applications such as wooden constructions. The contribution of HWP to climate change mitigation occurs when they substitute fossil-based resources, as production and application of wood products is related to lower emissions of CO2 [15,16]. Long-term forest management strategies aiming at the increased production of sawlogs could further favor the climate benefits These benefits follow from the use of sawlog supply for the production of long-lived materials, substitution of fossil-emission and energy intensive materials by wood, and recycling after their useful life to bioenergy [18]
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