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Managing Forest Ecosystems: The Challenge of Climate Change pp 205–218Cite as

Use of Forests and Wood Products to Mitigate Climate Change

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Part of the book series: Managing Forest Ecosystems ((MAFE,volume 34))

Abstract

The increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are one of the most severe current environmental problems. The annual atmospheric increase of carbon is estimated to be 3.2 Pg (IPCC 2001, p. 190). In comparison, the annual harvest of roundwood is about 3.5 billion cubic meters (FAO 2006) and contains approximately 0.8 Pg carbon in roundwood (assuming 0.23 Mg C/m3) and is, hence, significant also for the global carbon balance. The estimated amount of carbon in forested areas is approximately 650–1200 Pg (House et al. 2003; Grace 2004; FAO 2006), most of which is located in forest soils. Recent aboveground biomass estimates are between 257 Pg (Kauppi 2003) and 359 Pg (IPCC 2001). Given the large amounts, even a small proportional change is influential.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Economics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    L. Valsta & J. Pohjola

  2. College of Forest Resources, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    B. Lippke & J. Perez-Garcia

  3. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland

    K. Pingoud

  4. Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, Norway

    B. Solberg

Authors
  1. L. Valsta
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  2. B. Lippke
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  3. J. Perez-Garcia
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  4. K. Pingoud
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  5. J. Pohjola
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  6. B. Solberg
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to L. Valsta .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. ETS de Ingenierías Agrarias - Universidad de Valladolid & iuFOR - Sustainable Forest Management Research Institute Universidad de Valladolid - INIA, Palencia, Spain

    Felipe Bravo

  2. Forest Resources Management Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Valerie LeMay

  3. Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW), Vienna, Austria

    Robert Jandl

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Valsta, L., Lippke, B., Perez-Garcia, J., Pingoud, K., Pohjola, J., Solberg, B. (2017). Use of Forests and Wood Products to Mitigate Climate Change. In: Bravo, F., LeMay, V., Jandl, R. (eds) Managing Forest Ecosystems: The Challenge of Climate Change. Managing Forest Ecosystems, vol 34. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28250-3_10

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