Tom Erik Thorkildsen, Eirik Ogner Jåstad, Per Kristian Rørstad, Erik Trømborg. (2026). Forest sector impacts from increased reutilization of post-consumer wood in the Nordic-Baltic region. Silva Fennica vol. 60 no. 3 article id 25005. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.25005

Keywords: circular economy; forest sector modeling; harvest leakage; reclaimed wood; recycling targets; wood waste

Highlights: Wood reutilization strongly promotes particleboard production and harvest-residue use; Because of leakage effects, multilateral wood-reutilization policy is far more efficient than unilateral policy in reducing domestic roundwood harvesting; As wood reutilization increases, harvest-residue use rises by about twice the reduction in roundwood harvest, measured in solid cubic meters.

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Global roundwood harvests are projected to increase by 49 percent by 2050, and can negatively affect carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and essential ecosystem services. Employing a circular cascading strategy for wood resources may increase the carbon stock accumulated in wood products and reduce harvest. This study investigates a) how reutilizing 30, 50, and 70 percent of generated post-consumer wood by weight will affect the Nordic-Baltic forest sector, and b) the difference between adopting unilateral Norwegian and multilateral Nordic-Baltic wood reutilization policies. We apply the Nordic Forest Sector Model, a spatial partial equilibrium model, which includes 37 assorted forest products, and make a novel extension by including reutilized wood products. The model calculates hypothetical harvest and production volumes as well as prices when each country is forced to meet the selected reutilization targets based on constrained welfare maximization. The results show that reutilization of wood promotes increased particleboard production, mainly in the Baltics, and increased utilization of harvest residues, foremost in Sweden and Finland, to maintain bioheat production. In the Nordic-Baltic area, between 0.42 and 0.73 cubic meters of roundwood would be saved for every cubic meter of wood reutilized, while the corresponding rates for Norway are 0.26 to 0.36. Due to leakage effects, unilateral Norwegian policies result in domestic roundwood reduction to reutilization rates as low as 0.03 to 0.05. This implies that it is vital to coordinate policies with adjacent countries to reduce leakage if the objective of wood reutilization is to reduce domestic extraction of roundwood.

Thorkildsen, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7221-698X E-mail: tom.erik.thorkildsen@nmbu.no
Jåstad, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1089-0284 E-mail: eirik.jastad@nmbu.no
Rørstad, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway E-mail: per.kristian.rorstad@nmbu.no
Trømborg, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway E-mail: erik.tromborg@nmbu.no

article id 23001, category Research article

Eirik Ogner Jåstad, Niels Oliver Nagel, Junhui Hu, Per Kristian Rørstad. (2023). The location and capacity-dependent price impacts of biofuel production and its effect on the forest industry. Silva Fennica vol. 57 no. 1 article id 23001. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.23001

Keywords: partial equilibrium model; biofuel location policy; biomass supply; forest-based biofuel; nordic forest sector

Highlights: Large biofuel units prefer regions close to transportation facilities; Forest owners are the main winners if large-scale biofuel production is established; The first production units reduce export, hence should be located at an exporting hub; Biofuel production will reduce the Norwegian export of roundwood to Sweden; Biofuel production increases the local demand and pulpwood prices.

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Forest-based biofuel stands out as a promising solution to avoid fossil emissions in parts of the transport sector. Biofuel production will need large amounts of forest biomass, collected from a large area. Roundwood is costly to transport compared with other goods. Therefore, the location of forest-based biofuel production is a crucial part of an investment decision. This study analyses the optimal location of biofuel plants in Norway and the implications for the traditional forest sector in the Nordic countries. We test different numbers of production units, different sizes of the units, and various raw materials. The study applies a partial equilibrium model that covers the Norwegian and Nordic forest sectors, with 356 regions in Norway. The results indicate that small biofuel plants have the potential to turn exporting regions into importing regions. Larger biofuel plants are suitable for areas with large harvest activity today or regions with access to harbour or timber terminals along railways. We find that forest owners close to a biofuel plant will profit the most from biofuel production. Policymakers and investors should take into account that different locations and production capacities have different impacts on the forest sectors.

Jåstad, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1089-0284 E-mail: eirik.jastad@nmbu.no
Nagel, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3171-0262 E-mail: niels.oliver.nagel@nmbu.no
Hu, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0001-5993 E-mail: junhui.hu@nmbu.no
Rørstad, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway E-mail: per.kristian.rorstad@nmbu.no

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