Eco-efficient Resource Wood with Special Focus on Hardwoods

Almost a third of Germany’s land area, i.e. 11.1 million hectares, is covered with forests. The wood stock is larger than that of the traditional forest countries, Sweden and Finland. The main use of Germany’s forests concerns just a few tree species. At present, several softwood and broad-leaved tree species play a minor role in forestry. Spruce accounts for the largest share among the tree species (28 %), followed by pine (24 %), beech (15 %) and oak trees (10 %). Since 2010 the energetic use of raw wood and wood-based products is higher than the material use in Germany. Wood’s share including industrial wood residues and waste wood – in respect of energy generation as well as private households’ wood consumption for energy purposes alone increases steadily. The heterogeneous situation of the raw wood supply and demand in the European Union is presented against the background of raw wood shortage in the future. At present, several factors promote a development which can lead to a medium-term supply shortfall on the German timber market regarding the coniferous raw wood. The main reasons are a strong prospective advancement of deciduous tree species and an implementation of forest policy abandoning programs. Several possible approaches for securing raw wood supply are discussed: Tree species with a promising future should be strongly promoted from a sustainable forest management as well as from innovative wood utilisation point of view. Mobilisation of unused timber stock in small private forest area and short rotation plantations on farmland are additional possible approaches. Further renewable resources are available in the landscape area. Renewable resources from agriculture and forestry can basically be used as raw materials, as energy or both. The quantities and qualities of the raw materials, the market situation and the political conditions impact the subsequent production processes strongly. All three aspects need to be considered when defining resource efficiency. Raw materials’ quality and quantity can be influenced by processing and, in the long term, by research and development, but they are also always liable to natural processes like annually changing weather conditions, or unpredictable catastrophes, also caused by climate change. Combined production as well as the reuse and recycling of by-products on an industrial scale is well established in respect of forestry resources. Likewise, product and resource substitution and their effects concerning the supply and demand sides play an important role. However, the increasing substitution of fossil-based energy production with bio-energy concepts leads to a competition for renewable products on the market. Utilisation conflicts thus occur between energy use, material use and food production. Open research questions concern the cascading use of bio-materials, since at present often only certain parts of a plant can be used in one or another application. IAWS PLENARY MEETING 2014 SOPRON (HUNGARY) – VIENNA (AUSTRIA) ECO-EFFICIENT RESOURCE WOOD WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON HARDWOODS Sopron & Vienna, 2014. (14) 15-18th September _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 10 POSTER FLASH PRESENTATIONS I IAWS PLENARY MEETING 2014 SOPRON (HUNGARY) – VIENNA (AUSTRIA) ECO-EFFICIENT RESOURCE WOOD WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON HARDWOODS Sopron & Vienna, 2014. (14) 15-18th September _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 11 Investigation of carbon sequestration on different fast growing tree species A. Benke, Sz. Komán, S. Fehér, A. Borovics, K. Rédei, E. Führer 1 NARIC Forest Research Institute, Hungary; benkea@erti.hu 2 University of West Hungary, Institute of Wood Sciences, Hungary; szabolcs.koman@skk.nyme. hu 3 University of West Hungary, Institute of Wood Sciences, Hungary; sandor.feher@skk.nyme. hu 4 NARIC Forest Research Institute, Hungary; borovicsa@erti.hu 5 NARIC Forest Research Institute, Hungary; redeik@erti.hu 6 NARIC Forest Research Institute, Hungary; fuhrere@erti.hu