The United Nations International Day of Forests on 21 March 2017 will be marked by Forestry South Africa with the launch of an information and illustration-rich website, ‘Forestry Explained’. The International Day of Forests is about celebrating all forests, indigenous and commercial.      

Commercial forests are often forgotten despite the fact that they touch our lives in a myriad of ways. “From roof trusses and benches, to paper, packaging and tissue and the cellulose used in food and medicine, fibre from commercially grown trees plays an integral part in everyday life,” says Forestry South Africa executive director Michael Peter. “If we were to remove wood and paper-based products from our daily routines, we would soon appreciate the important function they perform.”

An indispensable sector

He adds that there is also more to forestry than planting and harvesting trees. “Thorough research, planning and management goes into keeping trees, and the land on which they grow, healthy and productive. The sector also provides jobs and supports communities.” Add to this the diverse animal and plant species that call forestry-owned land home, and you have an environmetally conscious sector that delivers an array of renewable, carbon neutral and versatile end-products.

At a local and personal level, forestry touches people – through the products they use every day without even knowing it – and communities, through education and skills development. Forestry also has a positive influence on climate change mitigation, provides a sustainable alternative to the deforestation of natural forests and is a renewable source of energy and construction materials.

One-stop guide to forestry

The new portal www.forestryexplained.co.za offers itself as ‘a beginner’s guide to forestry in South Africa’ and caters for users of all ages. It covers the basics of forestry and forest products, and everything from water-use to recreation, pest control, ownership and end-uses.

This one-stop resource offers in-depth but easy-to-read content supported by well-illustrated infographics and additional links for those who want to explore the industry further. It is ideal for learners and teachers.

Sustainably managed commercial forests should be celebrated for the benefits they bring to our daily life. To do this we need to understand them and the complex ecosystems that they are. Forestry Explained does this. It’s well worth a visit.

The Forestry Explained website supplements Forestry South Africa’s long-standing online directory platform www.forestry.co.za.

The post Forestryexplained.co.za – a fabulous forestry resource for all first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

These trees are a renewable resource; planted trees will also be the source of a new generation of innovative forest products and derivatives that are essential to develop a low-carbon economy.

With investments in new technologies, many of these products which are already in the research and development phase will move from the Brazilian tree industry’s laboratories into new markets and different sectors, bringing additional benefits to society as a whole.

The importance of trees in supplying a number of products and services is the subject of the infographic “Planted trees and their multiple uses,” which illustrates the production processes of the forest chain, and the products and derivatives of planted trees.

The post Ibá launches infographic on the multiple uses of wood first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

   “Paper, in its countless forms, touches our lives every day and it’s a relationship that often goes unnoticed. We use it without a second thought – from our first cup of coffee and morning ablutions, to eating yoghurt, popping our vitamins or putting on lipstick.”

So says Jane Molony, executive director of the Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA) in the association’s inaugural progress report. “Paper products are an enabler. Without them many industries would not be able to convey their messages, ship their products and deliver their goods. As the basis for tissue, paper is a bathroom essential and helps to improve lives through personal hygiene. As a medium through which learning is facilitated, paper educates and informs,” she adds.

Telling the fibre story

PAMSA’s industry report, Paper in Perspective 2016, tells a number of stories – the economic story, the sustainability story and the recycling story. It also delves into PAMSA’s efforts in the education, training and research space, and entrepreneurship training for recycling collectors.

Presented in an easy-to-read format, facts are abundant. Did you know that South African paper makers’ forests are home to 600 million carbon-absorbing, oxygen-giving trees? Or that only 9% of a plantation is harvested a year and that on average 260,000 new saplings are planted every day to replace what has been harvested?

Paper in Perspective 2016 clearly highlights how wood, pulp and paper – collectively fibre-based materials – are not only renewable but that their cellulosic foundations are taking the industry into new frontiers.

Cellulose used as a fibre additive in food and as a preservative in processed foods. It can be applied in the manufacture of cellphone and laptop screens, as well as through nanotechnology in automobiles, aerospace, defence and medical science.

Sustainability at the centre

The foreword – penned by PAMSA chairman and CEO of Mondi South Africa Ron Traill – sets out in no uncertain terms the value of the industry to the South African economy. In 2015 alone, paper, pulp and other associated products contributed R28 billion to the local fiscus and a significant R4.5 billion to the country’s balance of trade.

Crucially, more than 150,000 people are currently employed in the value chain from tree planting to paper making and recycling. Encouragingly, an estimated 38,000 work formally or informally in the recycling sector.

Valuable reference document – available on paper and online

Paper in Perspective 2016 is a one-stop guide to the South African pulp and paper making industry, its members and the vast scope of their activities. As a reference document, it will be of great value to industry commentators, journalists, economists, educators, students of all ages and people considering making a career in a vibrant and technologically advanced industry with an exciting future.

Naturally the publication has been printed on certified, sustainably produced paper, but is also available for download – and desktop printing.

The post Sustainability at the centre of paper manufacturers’ inaugural report first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

Sappi Limited (JSE),

Feature-rich

The new www.sappi.com features full descriptions of products and services offered; comprehensive award-winning educational materials for customers; in-depth sustainability reporting; easy access to corporate social responsibility efforts like Ideas That Matter; dynamic portals for customers and investors and a prominent social media presence. The site will also feature user personalisation, ensuring that the most relevant information is provided first to frequent visitors.

“A dedicated team of Sappi employees across the world has been working tirelessly over the last year to create a website that not only encapsulates our global 2020Vision, but that serves each of our key stakeholders in a way that is both informative, actionable and personalised,” said André Oberholzer, Group Head Corporate Affairs of Sappi Limited. “Sappi.com is now an essential source of information for all our stakeholders. We’re proud and excited by this launch, but our work is far from done. We’ve laid a solid foundation and will remain dedicated to quality. The team at Sappi will be making continuous improvements for each of our unique stakeholders.”

Two new features: Sappi&You and Investor hub

While the entire website was redesigned, there are two features with increased functionality that offer additional benefits to users. First, the Sappi&You Online portal for European customers offers a personalised online experience for printers, publishers and brand owners. Supported by eCommerce, it provides increased functionality to support our customers. Information is tailored to the customers’ specific needs allowing fast access to transactional information, local specialists, detailed product information, sample ordering or benefit from Sappi’s in depth technical knowledge and support areas. It is not only customers who benefit from Sappi&You Online, companies who would like to learn more about how Sappi&You can support their businesses will find useful information about our co-development approach as well as putting them in touch with our local specialists.

Second, a new hub dedicated to investors will provide background information on Sappi and the industry, as well as regularly updated share pricing, financial results, upcoming financial events, financial presentations and information on the 2020Vision.

Resourceful investment

“We see this investment as a key resource that helps drive our company toward our goal of ‘One Sappi’ – a single global brand,” continued Oberholzer. “With more resources immediately available to our audiences than ever before, and our resulting increased transparency, we will continue our position as a thought leader in the industry. We are excited to enter the next phase of our business strategy, where we will continue to innovate and offer products and services that are of the highest quality to our customers.”

The post Sappi Limited launches new website highlighting global presence, increased functionality and robust educational resources    first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

In South Africa, 1.3 million hectares (ha) of pine and eucalyptus trees are sustainably managed for commercial processing into wood and paper products. Through modern science and nanotechnology, wood fibre – cellulose – is used in automobiles, aerospace, defence and even medicine.

While Arbor Week traditionally calls on all South Africans to plant indigenous trees as a practical and symbolic gesture of sustainable environmental management, timber plantations deserve due recognition for the benefits they bring to the economy, society and the environment.

Wood and paper products touch our lives every day and it’s a relationship that often goes unnoticed, unless we were to take those same products away. From furniture, roof trusses and timber poles to books, writing paper, magazines, as well as boxes and packaging in innumerable shapes and sizes.

“When we grasp that trees are farmed for commercial use, we are able to understand the important role they play,” says Forestry South Africa executive director Michael Peter. “Just like any agricultural crop, trees are planted, harvested and replanted to ensure a sustainable supply of wood. And like any crop, plantations have an impact on the environment.”

Such impacts, Peter explains, are offset by the carbon dioxide absorbed and oxygen released by trees, by the employment and development benefits which forestry brings to communities, and by the biodiversity that is conserved by land owners.

In commemoration of Arbor Week and the theme ‘Forests and Water’, Forestry South Africa shares the facts about timber plantations, water, biodiversity and people.

Plantations and water

• Plantations are not irrigated as trees get their water from rainfall. This means that there are none of the high costs associated with delivering water to other users, such as dams, pipelines, pumping stations and water purification plants.
• Plantations also use a small fraction of the fertilisers and herbicides used in other land uses and, as such, negative impacts from these activities on biodiversity and water quality are very low.
• Plantations are one of the most efficient and beneficial water users – both in respect of the timber produced and the associated carbon dioxide sequestered (absorbed) in the process.

• Plantations use both soil and water resources but these can be measured against the returns they provide:

1. Forestry uses just 3% of available water in the country. This is just 5% of the water used by agriculture (62%). (Strategic Overview of Water Sector in South Africa, 2010. Department of Water Affairs)
2. Forestry occupies about 1.2% of the land used for agriculture
3. Plantations and the forest products sub-sector provide 22.5% of jobs in agriculture

• All forests are vital to the Earth’s water supply as they influence how and where rain falls, filtering and cleaning water.

Plantations and biodiversity

• The South African National Biodiversity Institute concluded in a seven-year grasslands programme funded by the Global Environmental Facility that the grasslands managed by plantation growers were the most diverse and best conserved of all land uses in the programme.
• There are more formally protected grasslands and natural forests under management of the plantation industry, than in any other commercial land use sector.
• Some 80% of the land reserved for plantation forestry is certified to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council. Approximately 25% of this land is not planted to trees and is conserved for biodiversity.
• The Living Planet Report published in 2014 by the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London lauded the Mondi Wetlands Project among the four solutions to global wildlife loss.

Plantations and people

• Apart from the 165,000 jobs in forestry, there are an additional 551,000 forestry-related jobs in upstream and downstream sectors (pulp and papermaking, furniture, timber for mining and construction etc).
• Forestry provides other social benefits to about three million people in rural areas: access to education, training, health care, housing, nutrition, transport, infrastructure and business development and support.

Trees – in all forms – are essential to life on our planet. They absorb excess carbon dioxide and pollutant gases, and provide clean air, water and climate regulation. As a renewable resource and a livelihood for many communities, forests are an important part of the solution to meeting global needs for food, fuel, fibre, medicine and other products essential to daily life.

The post Celebrating trees, wood and water this Arbor Week | 4 – 10 September first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

New study commissioned by Two Sides explains why the popular “go paperless – save trees” slogans are misleading and false.

The post Going Paperless Does Not Save Trees first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

In the comprehensive study, scientists from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) and the University of Washington’s College of the Environment evaluated a range of scenarios, including leaving forests untouched, burning wood for energy, and using various solid wood products for construction.

The researchers calculated that the amount of wood harvested globally each year (3.4 billion cubic meters) is equivalent to only about 20 percent of annual wood growth (17 billion cubic metres), and much of that harvest is burned inefficiently for cooking. They found that increasing the wood harvest to the equivalent of 34% or more of annual wood growth would have profound and positive effects:

• Between 14% and 31% of global CO₂ emissions could be avoided by preventing emissions related to steel and concrete; by storing CO₂ in the cellulose and lignin of wood products; and other factors.
• About 12% to 19% of annual global fossil fuel consumption would be saved including savings achieved because scrap wood and unsellable materials could be burned for energy, replacing fossil fuel consumption.
• Wood-based construction consumes much less energy than concrete or steel construction. Through efficient harvesting and product use, more CO₂ is saved through the avoided emissions, materials, and wood energy than is lost from the harvested forest.

“This study shows still another reason to appreciate forests — and another reason to not let them be permanently cleared for agriculture,” said Chadwick Oliver, the Pinchot Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies, director of the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry at F&ES and lead author of the new study. “Forest harvest creates a temporary opening that is needed by forest species such as butterflies and some birds and deer before it regrows to large trees. But conversion to agriculture is a permanent loss of all forest biodiversity.”

The manufacture of steel, concrete, and brick accounts for about 16 percent of global fossil fuel consumption. When the transport and assembly of steel, concrete, and brick products is considered, its share of fossil fuel burning is closer to 20% to 30%, Oliver said.

Reductions in fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions from construction will become increasingly critical as demand for new buildings, bridges and other infrastructure is expected to surge worldwide in the coming decades with economic development in Asia, Africa, and South America, according to a previous F&ES study. And innovative construction techniques are now making wood even more effective in bridges and mid-rise apartment buildings.

According to Oliver, carefully managed harvesting also reduces the likelihood of catastrophic wildfires. And maintaining a mix of forest habitats and densities in non-reserved forests — in addition to keeping some global forests in reserves — would help preserve biodiversity in ecosystems worldwide, Oliver said. About 12.5% of the world’s forests are currently located in reserves.

“Forests historically have had a diversity of habitats that different species need,” Oliver said. “This diversity can be maintained by harvesting some of the forest growth. And the harvested wood will save fossil fuel and CO₂ and provide jobs — giving local people more reason to keep the forests.”

• JOURNAL REFERENCE: Chadwick Dearing Oliver, Nedal T. Nassar, Bruce R. Lippke, James B. McCarter. Carbon, Fossil Fuel, and Biodiversity Mitigation With Wood and Forests. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, 2014; 33 (3): 248 DOI: 10.1080/10549811.2013.839386

Source: www.sciencedaily.com

The post Using More Wood for Construction Can Slash Global Reliance on Fossil Fuels first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).