Europe’s Potential Wood Supply by Harvesting System
Forests cover about 1/3 of Europe’s land area and are an important source in providing goods and services such as timber, drinking water, biodiversity, and carbon storage. They are important for a bioeconomy to mitigate climate change effects by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-02-01
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| Series: | Forests |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/14/2/398 |
| _version_ | 1797620967435927552 |
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| author | Christoph Pucher Gernot Erber Hubert Hasenauer |
| author_facet | Christoph Pucher Gernot Erber Hubert Hasenauer |
| author_sort | Christoph Pucher |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Forests cover about 1/3 of Europe’s land area and are an important source in providing goods and services such as timber, drinking water, biodiversity, and carbon storage. They are important for a bioeconomy to mitigate climate change effects by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels. The purpose of this paper is to assess Europe’s potential wood supply by harvesting system. Gridded forest characteristics data are combined with other European spatially-explicit data. A set of eight mechanized harvesting systems is applied to assess the “forest available for wood supply” (FAWS) in Europe. The results show that 74.9% of the total forest area in Europe can be considered FAWS and has the potential to be harvested under the current economic and technical harvesting conditions. The remaining forest area is under legal protection (4.3%) or has limited accessibility with the current mechanized harvesting systems (20.8%). Around 79% of the FAWS can be accessed with ground-based machinery, and another 16% if their operation range is extended using special attachments (e.g., chains or band) or winch-assisted systems. Around 5% of the FAWS is only accessible by cable yarding machinery. With the fully mechanized harvesting systems (i) harvester and forwarder and (ii) winch-assisted harvester and winch-assisted forwarder, about 80% of the harvestable forest area and growing stock can potentially be utilized. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:49:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9e0db677b8354138a990091a0715a688 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1999-4907 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:49:03Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Forests |
| spelling | doaj.art-9e0db677b8354138a990091a0715a6882023-11-16T20:35:25ZengMDPI AGForests1999-49072023-02-0114239810.3390/f14020398Europe’s Potential Wood Supply by Harvesting SystemChristoph Pucher0Gernot Erber1Hubert Hasenauer2Institute of Silviculture, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Peter Jordan Strasse 82, A-1190 Vienna, AustriaInstitute of Forest Engineering, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Peter Jordan Strasse 82, A-1190 Vienna, AustriaInstitute of Silviculture, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Peter Jordan Strasse 82, A-1190 Vienna, AustriaForests cover about 1/3 of Europe’s land area and are an important source in providing goods and services such as timber, drinking water, biodiversity, and carbon storage. They are important for a bioeconomy to mitigate climate change effects by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels. The purpose of this paper is to assess Europe’s potential wood supply by harvesting system. Gridded forest characteristics data are combined with other European spatially-explicit data. A set of eight mechanized harvesting systems is applied to assess the “forest available for wood supply” (FAWS) in Europe. The results show that 74.9% of the total forest area in Europe can be considered FAWS and has the potential to be harvested under the current economic and technical harvesting conditions. The remaining forest area is under legal protection (4.3%) or has limited accessibility with the current mechanized harvesting systems (20.8%). Around 79% of the FAWS can be accessed with ground-based machinery, and another 16% if their operation range is extended using special attachments (e.g., chains or band) or winch-assisted systems. Around 5% of the FAWS is only accessible by cable yarding machinery. With the fully mechanized harvesting systems (i) harvester and forwarder and (ii) winch-assisted harvester and winch-assisted forwarder, about 80% of the harvestable forest area and growing stock can potentially be utilized.https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/14/2/398harvesting systemsEuropean forest databioeconomyharvestable forestFAWS |
| spellingShingle | Christoph Pucher Gernot Erber Hubert Hasenauer Europe’s Potential Wood Supply by Harvesting System Forests harvesting systems European forest data bioeconomy harvestable forest FAWS |
| title | Europe’s Potential Wood Supply by Harvesting System |
| title_full | Europe’s Potential Wood Supply by Harvesting System |
| title_fullStr | Europe’s Potential Wood Supply by Harvesting System |
| title_full_unstemmed | Europe’s Potential Wood Supply by Harvesting System |
| title_short | Europe’s Potential Wood Supply by Harvesting System |
| title_sort | europe s potential wood supply by harvesting system |
| topic | harvesting systems European forest data bioeconomy harvestable forest FAWS |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/14/2/398 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT christophpucher europespotentialwoodsupplybyharvestingsystem AT gernoterber europespotentialwoodsupplybyharvestingsystem AT huberthasenauer europespotentialwoodsupplybyharvestingsystem |