Carbon footprint in production of round wood, sawn-timber and wood chips produced from acacia plantation in the North East region

Abstract

The amount of greenhouse gas emissions per unit of wood-based product is one of the most important indicators in monitoring and assessing green growth of many countries around the world. In Vietnam, in the context of high demands for domestic consumption and export of wood products, the emission potential in wood production and processing activities requires careful calculations to have solutions to timely control and maintain the role of forestry sector in the targets of the carbon capture and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of the country. The research results to estimate the carbon footprint in round wood, sawn-timber and wood chips of acacia plantation in the North East region (Phu Tho, Tuyen Quang, Quang Ninh province) indicated that the average carbon footprint for the whole region was -0.474  0.17 ton CO 2e/1 m 3 round wood, 1.914  0.1 ton CO 2e/1 m 3 sawn-timber and 0.297  0.55 ton CO2e /1 ton wood chips. This means that the amount of carbon sequestrated in wood products is not enough to offset emissions from the production process. The reason may be due to the short harvest cycle (5 - 7 years) with low rate of timber utilization in accordance with low the ability to carbon compensation. Changing technology as well as reduction of fossil fuel consumption in production process is difficult solutions. Instead, increasing the harvesting cycle of acacia plantation is an effective solution that should be encouraged to increase the wood productivity as well as help better offset emissions in the production chain.