Effects of wood fuel burning have less of an impact on
CO2 emissions than previously thought
Yale
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
The harvesting of wood to meet the heating and cooking demands for
billions of people worldwide has less of an impact on global forest loss and
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than previously believed, according to a new
Yale-led study.
Writing in the
journal Nature Climate Change, a team of researchers,
including Prof. Robert Bailis
of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES),
concludes that only about 27 to 34 percent of wood fuel harvested worldwide
would be considered “unsustainable.”
According to the assessment, “sustainability” is based on whether
or not annual harvesting exceeds incremental re-growth.
According to the authors, the findings point to the need for more
nuanced, local-specific policies that address forest loss, climate change, and
public health.
They also suggest that existing carbon offset methodologies used
to reduce carbon emissions likely overstate the CO2 emission reductions that
can be achieved through the promotion of more efficient cookstove technologies.
The study identifies a set of “hotspots” where the majority of
wood extraction exceeds sustainable yields. These hotspot regions — located
mainly in South Asia and East Africa — support about 275 million people who are
reliant on wood fuel.
"If forests and woodlands would have been cut down anyway,
then the projects designed to reduce wood fuel demand are not actually going to
reduce deforestation."
However, in other regions, the authors say, much of the wood used
for this traditional heating and cooking is actually the byproduct of deforestation
driven by other factors, such as demand for agricultural land, which would have
occurred anyway.
“If forests and woodlands would have been cut down anyway, then
the projects designed to reduce wood fuel demand are not actually going to
reduce deforestation,” said Bailis, an associate professor at F&ES and lead
author of the study. “Sure, you’re reducing wood use, but the underlying
pressures driving deforestation are still out there.”
The results stand in contrast to a long-held assumption that the harvesting
of wood fuels — which accounts for more than half of the wood harvested
worldwide — is a major driver of deforestation and climate change.
Continue reading at Yale School
of Forestry and Environmental Studies.