Carbon Accounting in Forest and Wood Products

Carbon accounting in forest ecosystems and wood-based products involves the systematic quantification of carbon stocks and fluxes across the lifecycle of trees, harvested wood products and end-of-life pathways. It integrates forest inventory data, growth models and product decay functions to estimate the accumulation and release of carbon in living biomass, deadwood, soils and manufactured goods. Accounting frameworks distinguish between in-forest carbon pools and post-harvest pools, recognising that harvested wood products (HWPs) can act as temporary carbon sinks before eventual oxidation or recycling. Key components include the quantification of removals through harvest, the allocation of harvested biomass to product categories with different half-lives, material and energy substitution benefits, and losses during processing and disposal. Robust carbon accounting underpins national greenhouse-gas inventories, informs sustainable forest management and supports climate mitigation policies by demonstrating how the timing of carbon release and the longevity of wood products influence net emissions. Advances in spatially explicit datasets, life-cycle assessment and dynamic flow analysis have improved the accuracy of carbon budgets, revealed the importance of product use patterns and recycling rates, and highlighted the trade-offs between biomass harvest levels, ecosystem integrity and long-term carbon storage.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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Carbon Accounting in Forest and Wood Products publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in carbon accounting in forest and wood products across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Carbon accounting: A methodological framework for quantifying carbon stocks and fluxes in ecosystems and products over time.

Harvested wood products (HWP): Wood-based materials and goods derived from forest harvests, including paper, panels and structural lumber, that store carbon for variable durations.

Carbon stock: The quantity of carbon held in a specific pool, such as living biomass, dead organic matter, soils or wood products.

Carbon flux: The rate of carbon transfer between pools or between the biosphere and atmosphere, often expressed per unit time.

Life-cycle assessment: A comprehensive analysis of environmental impacts, including carbon emissions, across all stages of a product’s life from raw material extraction to disposal.

Substitution effect: The reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions achieved when wood products or bioenergy replace more carbon-intensive materials or fossil fuels.

References

1. Dynamic material flow analysis of wood in Germany from 1991 to 2020. Resources Conservation and Recycling (2024).
2. How much wood do we use and how do we use it? Estimating Danish wood flows, circularity, and cascading using national material flow accounts. Journal of Cleaner Production (2023).
3. National forest carbon harvesting and allocation dataset for the period 2003 to 2018. Earth System Science Data (2024).