Search Results for: eco log

South Korea is becoming a significant user of wood and recent changes in government economic development plans indicate that the country could see significant growth in the construction of wood-frame single- and multi-family houses over the next 15 years. In contrast to Japan (a country with a long tradition of building wooden homes) and China,[…]

Despite the slowing housing market and subsequent downturn afflicting lumber mills, forests in the Pacific Northwest remain a valuable resource with important products that are still in demand. The lumber industry is down 20% from normal production levels as many mills reduce shifts, take downtime or permanently shut down, said Gordon Culbertson, Pacific Northwest region[…]

Paso Pacifico, Carbonfund.org, the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) and the Rainforest Alliance have announced an innovative reforestation project, Return to Forest, aimed at combating climate change, conserving biodiversity and supporting local communities in Nicaragua. This project uses carbon finance to restore approximately 410 ha of tropical forest in Central America’s most critically endangered[…]

The Center for Biological Diversity says one-third of America’s national forests are protected from road-building and other industrial development by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule — but now the administration is working state-by-state to open these treasured places to logging, mining and other development. “As it gets ready to head out the door, the Bush[…]

Procter & Gamble and Domtar Corp have joined the North America Forest & Trade Network (NAFTN) in a bid to make their wood-based products more sustainably sourced. This announcement from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is the second development to cast a spotlight on the issue of sustainable forest sourcing. On Tuesday, ForestEthics and Dogwood[…]

A report from the United Nations has warned that the loss of more than 28,000 km2 of forest every year in Asia must be stopped and reversed immediately, according to a Reuters report. A UN climate conference in Bali last year agreed to launch pilot projects to grant poor countries credits for slowing deforestation under[…]

New Zealand’s wood supply chain is a NZ$1billion cost centre. Currently, it’s estimated that, as an industry, it is leaking around NZ$150m each year. Neither the forest owners nor service enterprises are capturing this loss. This declining level of industry financial performance is not sustainable with New Zealand forestry’s international competitiveness seriously at risk. Resin[…]

WWF published its WWF Paper Scorecard at the end of last year. The PEFC (Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes) Council has welcomed WWF’s acknowledgement that “several schemes have made contributions to improving forest management”. However, the PEFC says, “this is not reflected in the scorecard, and an opportunity to make the scorecard[…]

This paper gives an overview of the concerns, perceptions and reactions surrounding ‘Conversions’. Given the universal appreciation of the importance of forests, especially tropical forests, and concern at their potential demise the solution appears to be to simple – either leave them alone or replace the trees that we use. So why has the debate[…]

Wayne Keith has converted his pickup to run on scraps of wood from his Alabama (US) sawmill. The heart of the wood-powered vehicle is a gasifier, which basically converts solid fuels into gaseous ones. Though the fuel in their tanks is liquid, gasoline and diesel engines actually run on vapour. Thus, the wood gas produced[…]