A Study On The Relationship Between Wood Industry And Sustainable Forestry Development In China

As China moves into the 21st century, ecological environment is becoming one of the most important factors for a healthy development of national economy and society. Under this circumstance, the focus of the wood industry is in a state of transition from wood production to healthy ecological environment development. This study deals with inter-relationship between wood industry and sustainable forestry development in China. In the study, the principle and goals of sustainable forestry development were discussed. The concept, range, characteristics, and new growing points of the modern wood industry were analyzed. It is concluded that the development of the wood industry and use of advanced technology in the wood industry can help: improve the efficiency of wood utilization and save forest resources. Improvement of the efficiency for wood utilization from 60% to 80% is equivalent to 33% increase of the total wood production in China. Based on the 0.3 billion m3 wood consumption rate, this means a wood saving of 99 million m3. better utilize small diameter trees and forest residues for value-added products. For example, waste wood and other low quality material can be used to produce 22.31 million m3 composites. This is equivalent to a wood saving of 66.93 million m3.use non-wood material (agricultural fibers) for composite products manufacturing to reduce the demand for wood fibers. The non-wood fibers can be used to produce 40 million m3 composites. This is equivalent to a wood saving of 0.12 billion m3.develop new technology of using young plantation materials to replace logs from virgin forest. This will help create high-quality, high-value, and low-cost wood products from plantation forest and promotes the transition from logging virgin forest to plantation forest. help promote the use and demand of wood products, and thus promote tree planting activities at the national level. There are 46.67 million hectare plantation forest, and 13.33 million hectare fast growing forest in China. These forests can help make China self-sufficient in wood supply and greatly reduce pressure from the virgin forest.help improve environments and reduce green-house effect. For every ton wood production, the forest absorbs 1.47 tons CO2 and produces 1.07 tons O2. The energy consumption for processing one unit of wood is 1/791 of that needed for aluminum, 1/191 for steel, 1/30 for plastics, and 1/5 for concrete. The cost to treat pollution from wood processing is 1/24 of that for concrete, 1/125 for aluminum, and 1/ 4.5 for steel.Help provide wood and wood products needed for national economy development. The average GDP contribution from every thousand m3 wood is about 1.1 million yuan. It is thus concluded that further development of the wood industry helps promote sustainable development of forestry. The work provides useful information to help promote the role of the wood industry in sustainable forestry development in China.