By Steve Roebuck, Director of Health, Safety and Environment, Norbord Europe

Since the middle of the 20th Century, the developed world has become increasingly aware of the ecological importance of forests, in particular the tropical rainforests.

They are, we all know, the “lungs of the world”* absorbing CO² and breathing out the oxygen we all need to live. They are home to a mind-boggling wealth of plant and animal life – a biodiversity so rich that myriad species remain unknown to science.

It’s no wonder, then, that global deforestation is widely regarded as Mankind’s most heinous crime against the planet. The wanton destruction of forest in the pursuit of mineral deposits and land for development is rightly condemned by all who care about the environment.

So chopping down trees is bad, right?

Wrong! Although nobody would argue that the destruction of the rainforests is to be condemned, responsible forest management is a world away from the slash-and-burn plundering we all deplore; and actively benefits the environment.

Timber and timber-based products are indispensable to our way of life – used as a building material, for furniture or in the form of paper.

All these products rely on softwood grown and harvested as a crop in managed forests across the temperate regions of the world. Far from depleting a finite resource, modern forestry is all about sustaining constant growth and managing production.

Just as an arable farmer sows, grows and harvests his produce year on year, so the forestry industry raises trees for timber. Only the timescale (up to 80 years for a mature Douglas Fir) is different.

A tree’s ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in the form of wood fibre is greatest when the tree is young and needs the carbon to fuel its growth. So the forestry practice of felling mature trees and replanting young seedlings in their place helps to maintain carbon absorption at a consistently high level.

The carbon in the harvested tree remains locked away if the wood fibre is used in the manufacture of products such as the OSB and MDF boards manufactured by Norbord. Only if the wood fibre is burned, or is allowed to rot, does that carbon get released back into the atmosphere.

It is normal practice in the forestry industry to plant two or three new seedlings for every tree harvested. As these grow, they are thinned out to prevent overcrowding, leaving the best specimens to grow to maturity. The thinnings and sawmill residues, essentially by-products, are put to good use by Norbord as the raw material for its OSB and MDF products.

Today, environmentally sustainable wood products are easily identified thanks to the adoption of schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council certification scheme which provides an independently verifiable path from forest to consumer. Norbord, in partnership with a leading DIY chain, was instrumental in introducing FSC certification to the wood panel products industry during the early 1990s.

The belief that cutting down trees is bad is a widespread misconception, but the facts prove that sustainable forest management has a net beneficial effect on the environment. We all use forest products every day of our lives; as long as those products are from sustainable sources, we can carry on using them with a clear conscience.