(01)
Scale
The impact of the rise of construction
As the majority of the forest owners
1
revenue comes from the sale of large logs, increased construction with wood can provide incentives for the active management and maintenance of forests as a carbon pool in the long-term. The possible rise of construction’s impact on the raw material may remain moderate – a market share of 100% of the timber construction of all the buildings in Europe would be reflected in a maximum annual procurement of 400 million m³. This is equivalent to approximately 50% of the annual growth of EU forests, in other words, 50 million m³ more than the industrial roundwood produced in the EU in 2015[1]
. Based on realistic assumptions, the impact of increased construction of the demand for resources continues to be relatively minor – for example, with a 20% market share and the same utilization of light frame and massive frame timber structures, the long-term annual procurement would be close to 50 million m³ in the EU
[2]
.(02)
Notes
[1]
The EU’s building stock is renewed at an annual rate of 1% – meaning that an area of 240 million m2 is built annually. The utilisation of wood in construction can vary between 0.2 m³/m² (light frame) to 0.6 m³/m² (massive frame). So, a simple calculation suggests that 100% of the European construction markets could be covered by 45-145 million m³ of timber products, reflected in approximately 100-400 million m³ of raw wood (conversion factor for roundwood equivalent (RWE) which varied between 2.0 for sawn wood and 2.8 for . Given that, the increment of forests available for supplying timber was 769 million m³ in 2010 in the EU27 (Eurostat), a 100% market share of construction in Europe would require a maximum of 53% annual growth of European forests in the long-term.[2]
Homens, A., Bastrup-Birk, A., Baycheva, T., Bonhomme, C., Bozzano, M., Bücking, W., Camia, A., Caudullo, G., Cienciala, E., and Cimini, D. 2011. State of Europe’s Forests 2011: status & trends in sustainable forest management in Europe. UNECE, FAO.