Abstract
Among the many public policies that directly and indirectly affect the forestry and wood sector, those related to climate are gradually gaining in importance. The debate in Europe in recent years has focused on different strategies to enhance the already considerable role of forests in mitigating climate change.
Forestry is such an activity, which while mitigates climate change, in the meanwhile it also adapts to the consequences of the change, and by this, enhancing resiliency to more serious difficulties and ensures the continuous availability of forest ecosystem services. The research focuses on the development of forestry and the wood industry, which by their activity remarkably affect the potential of carbon sequestration by forestry and by using wood products, and both can contribute to higher ratio of wood in material substitution.
Decision-makers must therefore decide how to manage forests in order to best mitigate climate change via four possible CO2 emission limitation tools:
• carbon storage within the ecosystem;
• carbon storage in wood-based products;
• the reduction of CO2 emissions from human activities by substituting wood-based products for products made from materials that produce higher emissions;
• the reduction of CO2 emissions from energy sources by substituting fossil fuels with wood as an energy source.
In simple terms, the interplay between these four (non-independent) tools results from two major trade-offs, which are relatively easy to manage via public policies. The first concerns the use of forested land (resuming management, or even intensification, from planting new forests and forecasting the effects of climate change and increasing adaptation to management restrictions). The second concerns the respective importance of the different industrial forest carbon uses (solid wood, fibre, chemicals, energy, etc.), along with the competition and synergies between these uses, basic technologies and competing materials.
Relevance of the research
The research focuses on the development of forestry and wood industry in a changing natural environment, which results in enhanced carbon stocks by forestry management and wood product utilization to contribute to climate protection. Therefore, the University of Sopron plans to do research through integrative cooperation between its specializations on three topics which build on each other, and which are interconnected.
Based on the most likely scenarios which are available so far, climate change could result in decreasing production and increased mortality in the forests, and there will probably also be further extreme biotic and abiotic events, which are likely to be more frequent and more intense, thus disorienting the expected gain of carbon sequestration in the forest ecosystem, and therefore decreasing the amount of wood available for the industry in an uncertain extent, and the competitiveness of the industry. This, from the point of national economy and security, justifies the launch of broad scale research on forests and trees, which involves all the linking scientific fields through integrative cooperation.
1. Provident preparation to prevent and solve difficulties that threatens the sustainability of forest cover and diverse forestry services
The factors of climate and water balance of the site conditions have been changing up to today, and further changes are expected in the future. Active human assistance is needed in the adaptation processes of the forests, in order to prevent large scale difficulties in the forest cover and the availability of forestry services. While helping the adaptation, there will be need to define interventions to compensate the changes.
2. Enhancement of the wood industry sector for competitiveness and in service of climate protection
Product development is needed based on the assortment characteristics of the domestic tree species, which serves the industrial development of the country and helps to reach the climate protective objectives in the meantime. The carbon sequestration potential of wood products can be extended, it can be increased by reusing and recycling the wood in a cascade-like manner, or by extending of the life cycle of the product.
3. Development of forest-based bioeconomy, economical and social assessment of the forests, forestry and the wood industry
Forestry and the wood industry are tools in fighting climate change, therefore it is necessary to focus research on their social and economic aspects as well. Better understanding of the societal and economic role of forests is needed, as well as making clear the obvious benefits of forestry and the wood industry for the whole society.
Hungary