ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS
Thought you were out of the woods? Think again
The Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor) recently warned that the UK faces declining supplies of home grown wood due to lack of productive tree planting. With the country currently needing to import over 80% of its wood requirement, the UK could be sleepwalking into a timber shortage crisis in the not too distant future. Stuart Goodall, chief executive, Confor, examines the threats to supply and why the UK must urgently move productive tree planting up the agenda
T
he UK is the world’s second largest importer of wood after China, importing around £7.5 billion annually. This is because the UK currently grows only around 20% of its wood requirement, leaving it exposed to a very significant balance (80%) needing to be imported from other countries. In 2020 the UK imported 48 million cubic metres of wood products, of which 22% was sawn wood and wood- based panels destined for use by the building and construction industry. By 2021 this had increased by 15%, with the UK importing an average of one million cubic metres of timber and panel products every month. Specifically, softwood import volumes increased by over 21%, hardwoods by 26% and plywoods by over 13%, demonstrating increased demand even during ongoing Covid restrictions.
Productive tree planting can deliver financial and employment benefits to rural economies Credit: Image @ Stefanie Kaiser
Beyond the UK, it is estimated by the World Bank that global demand for wood products will treble by 2050, driven by an increased population of 7.8 billion today, to 10 billion in less than 30 years. These trends are being compounded at a time when a number of other global developments are coalescing. In particular, security of supply of natural resources is under ever greater threat from geo-political upheavals, as witnessed by the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and soaring energy prices. While the UK may not be directly affected by Vladimir Putin’s incursion into Ukraine – overall Russian timber imports into the UK are relatively small at only 1.25% – Russia remains the world’s largest supplier of timber globally. With potentially longer-term economic sanctions placed against Russian exports, there will inevitably be significant disruption to supply chains, price hikes and pressure on countries typically supplied by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, to seek building material imports from other sources – including those Scandinavian countries that the UK relies upon so heavily. Even before the Russian invasion, 2021 was a year when demand for wood outstripped supply and timber prices rose significantly – with imported sawn or planed wood jumping by more than a fifth during the summer - leading to an increase in construction costs and delays in completing projects. The National Federation of Builders called for ministers to step in and urge councils to show greater flexibility on materials changes, while the Building Back Britain Commission warned in November that the Government’s housebuilding targets might be at risk.
While the upward trend in UK and global demand for wood is clear, the UK Government’s own forecasts show that supplies of home-
Productive forests can make a significant contribution to Net Zero as they sequester large amounts CO2
grown wood will fall from the 2030s, meaning there will be less wood available in future than there is now.
An overlooked partner for Net Zero
The UK’s commitment to become Net Zero by 2050 is, in part, dependent on the greater sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) for which productive tree planting in the UK can make a significant contribution. Wood in all its versatile forms is a unique natural material that is truly sustainable. Not only is wood a readily available substitute for many materials which have much higher emissions loads, including brick, concrete, steel and polyurethane, but the tree from which it evolves sequesters large amounts of CO2 as it grows.
The opportunity is here
The UK has ideal conditions for growing wood to build low-carbon homes and is a global leader in certifying that its forests are sustainably managed, yet while the UK government has stated its ambition for more tree planting, there has been little action on the ground outside of Scotland. Confor is now calling for much greater impetus behind those aspirations to ensure we have enough wood to help meet increasing construction demand.
Most of the land that could be planted with
trees is currently agricultural. The Committee on Climate Change, noting a reduction of around 20% in cattle and sheep numbers over the last 20 years, anticipates a further drop of about 10% by 2050 and has called on government to encourage further reductions in dairy and red meat consumption. Much sheep farming is marginal and reliant on continued public subsidy. Confor has noted that diversifying land-use by the greater planting of productive trees will help more farms to become viable while helping the farming sector to contribute to Net Zero.
The situation has also, on occasion, been made more challenging by vocal concerns expressed by certain environmental interest groups campaigning for native broadleaf tree planting only. This ignores the considerable
8 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER JUNE 2022
Imports of sawn wood and wood panels for the construction industry increased by 15% in 2021 Credit: Image ©Daniel Shearing
biodiversity benefit that can be provided by planting mixed woodland in accordance with strict standards for forest design that have been developed with many of the same environmental groups. Confor believes there is a step-change needed in attitudes towards productive tree planting, which, if achieved, will enable government to meet its own ambitious tree planting targets, and meet its ambitions to use more homegrown timber in construction – without one you can’t achieve the other. Achieving this will require the Government to communicate the benefits of productive woodland for the building of more energy efficient low carbon homes, carbon sequestration, as well as biodiversity and flood control, in order to combat the misconceptions that hamper productive tree planting applications.
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