Research on Efficient Use of Forest Products — Engineering Evaluation of Good Tactile Warmth for Wood

Abstract

Recently, the concept of “sustainable development” has been taken seriously in the fields of resources, energy and environment, which are commodities essential for continuous development of human society. The sustainable use of resources without damages to environment is our challenge and duty to meet not only the need of the present society but also one of the future generations. From viewpoint of this idea, the importance of forest and forest products has been reevaluated. Because wood as one of the forest products is a sustainable industrial resource if the sustainable forestry, i.e., the cycle of felling, planting and growing trees would be continued, against the limited mineral resources such as metals, oils and gasses, which are estimated to be mined all up in the near future [1]. Wood is also the sustainable energy source. In fact, fifty-five percent of sawn wood production in the world was used as fire wood at mainly the developing regions in the year 1997 [2]. In addition to the problem of mineral resource shortage, we also face to the serious global environment problem, i.e., the global warming, caused by greenhouse effect with several gasses such as carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, methane, nitrous oxide and so on. Especially, carbon dioxide is estimated to have 57% greenhouse contribution [3]. Forest can fix carbon from carbon dioxide by photosynthesis against this environmental problem. So forest supplies us forest products as industrial resource and energy source without damage to the environment. But the role of forest against the global warming and the usage of wood as resource seem to conflict each other. Generally speaking, younger and sound forests have the higher ability to fix carbon from carbon dioxide [4]. The stage from felling into planting trees in the cycle for sustainable forestry means to replace the older trees with the younger ones. The affirmative usage of wood as the substitute of mineral resources can save the mineral resources and contribute to continue the sustainable forestry, i.e., the cycle of felling, planting and growing trees. Then we can expect the sustainability of forest and forest products. For the realization of this philosophy, the technologies to improve the bad points of wood and to evaluate of good points of wood have been expected.