Wood for products
A third of the world's forests are used for wood products. This results in a better quality of life for the consumers of those products, which include construction materials, paper products, rubber, medicines, and chemicals used in various products and even in foods. The forest industry provides 13 million jobs worldwide, and the total value of harvested timber and fuel in 2005 was $64 billion.
Because forests are so useful, they are being logged faster and faster. Demand for timber products is predicted to double by 2010, and it is likely that some woods, like exotic rainforest hardwoods, will become quite rare as people move to protect our remaining forests from development.
To preserve forests and still harvest timber from them, foresters and environmental groups have worked together to come up with sustainable logging practices. The bottom line is that if the annual cut in a forest exceeds the annual growth, the forest is in trouble. Sustainable practices balance the two so the forest continues growing. Wood can now be "certified" by groups like the Forest Stewardship Council, or FSC, as having been harvested using sustainable practices.
Economic Uses of Forests >>
