1 Jun 2011

Call for carbon stored in wood products to be recognised

9:14 am on 1 June 2011

The international forestry and woods products industry is calling for the carbon stored in wood products to be recognised in carbon accounting rules.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of next year, logs are deemed to be converted to carbon dioxide when they're harvested.

But international foresters believes that carbon remains locked up in wood and paper products, often for many decades.

New Zealand's Forest Owners Association chief executive David Rhodes says both the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations and the FAO Advisory Committee on Paper and Wood Products want rules changed to recognise the carbon stored in wood products.

He says there needs to be better forestry rules in whatever replaces the Kyoto Protocol.