ELO / FFI Conference Recap

Earth below the atmosphere and above the ground can be considered as a closed tank, where chemical reactions and changes of the state of matter of elementary carbon take place continuously. When the in feed of fossile carbon (from the ground) into this „tank“ is bigger than the total storage capacity of the „tank“, the excess carbon starts to accumulate in form of gas into the atmosphere. Therefore, the first thing to do in order to reduce the accumulation of CO2 into the atmosphere is a) reduce the intake of fossile carbon into the system (as liquid oil or solid coal) b) optimize the storage capacity of elementary carbon in solid/liquid form above ground and its feed back into the ground. 

Forests are playing a significant role in transporting and transforming elementary carbon from gas (CO2) into solid carbon containing substances. And storing these substances in various places (soil, tree itself). The speed and volume of this transformation is linearly depending on the growth rate of the tree. Only growing, living cells participate in the photosynthesis reaction resulting in capturing carbon from gas into solid substances. Tree, as any other creatures  containing living cells, has an determined life time. It is not living forever. As all living cells, the tree loses its capacity to grow and renew when it gets old. This results in slowing down and finally totally stopping the growth. Due to this process, a tree which has reached a critical age is not transforming and storing carbon any more. It progressively becomes so weak that it falls down and starts to compost. During the decomposition of the organic substances of the tree, CO2 is released in form of gas and the tree becomes a source of Carbon emission.

Optimal capturing and storing of Carbon in Forest is reached by 1) keeping the forest healthy and vital; prevent the whole forest to grow over-aged, to „retire“ at once (exact definition of „retirement“ age is varying due to climate and soil conditions; in CE and Northern Europe approximately 45-75 yrs). 2) Replant retired trees with youngsters.

These two guidelines happen to be exactly the same as for well managed commercial forest. The two, store carbon and commercially utilize the forest DO NOT GO AGAINST EACH OTHER. They call for exactly same actions in forest management:

• Long term planning of forest operations (30 yrs horizon)
• Knowing your forest; digital dynamic inventory of the total standing stock, its age distribution, and their development over 30 yrs
• Digital management and tracable execution of all operations
• Optimization the growth of the forest as part of the ecosystem 

Of course we have to understand that in Europe alone we have very different forests. Not all forests can be utilized commercially the same way. Forests as well play different roles in the ecosystem in different areas. Nordic forests are prime example of how commercial forestry has not disturbed the ecosystem equilibrium. Forestry is not threatening ecosystem equilibrium everywhere. The essential is to understand where and how commercial forestry is threatening ecosystem equilibrium. And take decisions accordingly; sometimes forests can help to bring the ecosystem back to equilibrium, sometimes forests are essential source of raw material in order to reduce the in take of fossile carbon. 
This is the essential part of our capabilities; to understand what is the role of the forests and why.

~ Elina Kalela; CEO and Partner Aari Forest

It is clear, that some of the economical features of industrial era - e.g. continuously growing utilization of non-renewable raw materials - cannot continue eternally. We can state that industrial era has come to its end in Europe, but not in other parts of the world, such as in China, whose raw material resources we europeans still like to use in increasingly volumes, for example as batteries for our „green“ transition. How to cope with the various consequences of decreasing production of goods and energy containing fossile carbon in long term is a huge question, which we can not tackle with either using biomass economically or not. Other issues, for example increasing the degree of circulation of products and goods, play a significant role in reducing the overall consumption of virgin raw materials. New value chains will arise, providing value growth without simultaneously increasing volumetric usage of non renewable raw materials. A good example of this development is the economical usage of forests: when we look at the trees we should see cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, providing renewable carbon as a raw material to thousands of medicals, chemicals and other goods. Not just timber, pulp and paper/board.

Part of the solution, which we can ourself implement, is the optimization of the growth and usage of the biomass available from European forests. 

~ Elina Kalela; CEO and Partner Aari Forest