INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FORESTS

Forests are part of our life in more ways than we realize. They produce the vast majority oxygen we need to survive. Furthermore they provide us with much needed shade on hot days and they are just beautiful. For all of those reasons and many more, protecting the trees on our planet should be a real priority for all of us and thankfully, recently, it has.

Each year, since 2012, various events celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests, and trees outside forests, for the benefit of current and future generations. 80% of all terrestrial biodiversity lives in forests, and each year many species go extinct as a result of them being destroyed. Of course, forests also play a critical role in climate change deforestation results in 12-18 percent of the world’s carbon emissions and accelerated global warming. Forests also provide food, fiber, water and and even medicines for approximately 1.6 billion of the world’s population, especially the poorest people.

TIMBER BUILDING FACTS:

Actual research results are shown that timber buildings have specific properties in comparison to other materials. Increasing the proportion of wood in construction can facilitate a reduction of not renewable energy sources. Especially materials like steel and brick require a great deal of energy for their production and they entail higher emissions of carbon dioxide.

The EU’s long-term plan for a competitive economy with low carbon emissions is called Roadmap 2050. The key driver of this transition will be energy efficiency. A low carbon economy will have much greater need for renewable energy sources, energy-efficient manufacturing of construction materials, energy-efficient structures and low-energy modes of transport. So increasing the use of wood products is a big part of the solution.