Project
Forests, trees and wood. A dialogue on the cutting of trees for the biobased building transition
The last decades, more attention has gone to forest conservation instead of forest management in terms of cutting wood for human needs. Pioneers in the building sector are arguing that using wood as building material will store the carbon over a long period of time and substitutes carbon intensive products such as steel and concrete. In addition, the annual carbon uptake capacities of trees shows an S-curve; cutting trees at the right time, keeping the wood intact, and planting new trees can contribute to storing more carbon instead of only conserving forests
WUR can contribute to this dialogue, also explaining about responsible harvesting, biodiversity and the economic consequences. We link this also to the niche development of agroforestry trying to contribute to their search of stronger / long term revenue models for different types of agroforestry farming systems.
Social and ethical concerns with regard to the cutting of trees are important barriers in using (local) wood for the construction of buildings. Our core message will be about the potential sustainability impact of responsible wood harvest and the usage of this wood as a building materials, without downplaying social and ethical concerns. Our aim is to start a conversation / dialogue with agroforestry stakeholders, nature lovers, and opponents to wood harvesting on the topic of (Dutch) wood as a building material.
To reach a large audience we would like to start with a (popular) article in a magazine such as Landschap and explore if a daily newspaper is interested in our story (we cannot promise this as it is up to the paper if they ‘pick it up’. The article can be the basis for a face-to-face dialogue at the campus or at another event. For this dialogue we invite the agroforestry network and nature lovers.
The objective of the proposed activity is to contribute to transformative bioeconomies, specific building materials domain, by supporting the wider dialogue about the cutting and usage of wood. Especially in the agroforestry network this topic is not yet discussed. At this moment the economic value of trees in agroforestry is mainly focussing on the harvest of nuts and fruits. Or agronomic benefits such as wind protection and carbon storage credits. We want to open the dialogue on the potential pros and cons for the cutting and using of the wood in agroforestry farming systems.