Amplifying the climate benefits of the forestry sector
Much of U.S. forestland is dedicated to commercial forestry— producing wood products, paper, fiber, and biofuels. Forestry and the continued economic value of wood's supply chains are essential to maintaining forestland, supporting conservation projects, and protecting forests from land conversion.
As the building sector seeks to decarbonize construction, there has been increasing emphasis on the potential for buildings to store carbon, in long-lived wood products like mass timber and engineered wood, locking up potential emissions and protecting them from fire and natural decomposition.
However, there are questions about the full ecological impacts of increased timber production. What happens to forests and ecosystem services as production is scaled up quickly? Can this growth be achieved through climate-smart forest management? Who will benefit from the growth of mass timber? How will the transformation of this sector actually impact rural communities and tribal nations?
What is Climate-Smart Forestry?
Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) is a collection of strategies and management actions that increase the carbon storage benefits from forests and the forest sector, in a way that also supports ecosystem services and cultural values. It 1) reduces carbon emissions, 2) increases forest resilience to climate change, and 3) supports forest economies by increasing forest productivity and incomes.
Leadership Summit for Carbon, Wood, and Forests: Knowledge Hub
It is essential that the building sector move to radically decarbonize construction. This summit works to envisioning how mass timber and the green building movement can be part of this climate solution, while also continuing to support healthy forests for climate, people & ecosystems in North America This interdisciplinary conversation is bringing together stakeholders and experts across the forestry and wood product supply chain to find solutions and opportunities for collaboration.
Climate-Smart Forestry Case Studies
This collection of case studies from across North America highlights the diverse ways in which land managers, forest scientists, wood product manufacturers, and non-profits, and communities are enhancing carbon storage of forest landscapes, building resilience of forest lands to fire and disease, supporting conservation, and forging new ways forward towards a climate-friendlier forestry.
The Climate-Smart Forestry Handbook is a project of the Post-Carbon Futures Lab at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and is in development as part of the Green New Deal for Forests design Studio.
“You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
— A.A. Milne, WINNIE-THE-POOH