Paavo Pelkonen
University of Eastern Finland School of Forest Sciences
The concentration of the atmospheric carbon dioxide reached the 400 ppm level this year according to the measurements of the famous Mauna Loa observatory. A great majority of human beings are demanding strong mitigation measures to stop further increase the atmospheric carbon. Emissions need to be reduced and sequestration strengthened. Societies are waiting for new technical solutions to capture and store carbon dioxide.
Trees can capture carbon for the growth of biomass and release it because of the biological degradation and thermochemical combustion. Between capture and release carbon is stored in the above ground and underground tree biomass. The utilization of forests for mitigating problems related to increasing concentration of the atmospheric carbon dioxide has not been discussed seriously. There are globally at least 1 billion hectares land available for afforestation. Only in the EU there are even more than 10 million hectares of set-a-side fields presently available for the cultivation of dedicated biomass tree crops. The most severe debt of the humanity is not a carbon debt of forest based bioenergy rather a reforestation debt of the former forested areas which are treeless today. This debt has been accumulated during hundreds or even thousands of years.
Human beings have innovated wooden houses since our ancestors left their caves. The oldest wooden buildings have provided people with shelter and have stored carbon more than one thousand years. Millions of families need today proper shelters in refugee camps and slums. Wooden constructions and frames of houses stand earthquakes perfectly.
The UNFCCC Paris agreement is urgently demanding for sustainable forest management and timber utilization. The new concept of sustainability could be based on the capacity of enlarging forests areas everywhere to store and circulate carbon. This effort would respect the great innovation of Hans Carl von Carlowitz whose scientific article on sustainable forest management was published in Germany in 1713.
