Wood processing

Abstract

Forest and timber products are an excellent example of an economic cycle in which a renewable natural resource (in this case wood) is used to make high-tech and innovative products and is ultimately employed as a CO 2-neutral energy source at the end of its life cycle. Processing the raw material of wood into high-tech products poses a variety of challenges. Its extraction from the forest has to be sustainable, i. e. the number of trees felled must not exceed the annual growth rate of the forest. Forests need to serve as recreational, natural landscapes for people and as climate regulators producing oxygen and consuming CO2, while at the same time being an economic basis and resource for a very large and competitive industry. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.