Portfolio

Client

Staatsbosbeheer (the Dutch Forestry Commission) manages 270,000 hectares of nature and landscape in the Netherlands on behalf of the Dutch government. The organisation has a statutory duty to manage the entrusted land and bring it to social benefit. Staatsbosbeheer is dedicated to ensuring that current and future generations can experience the many important values of nature.

Project description

This project focuses on impact of wood harvesting. Staatsbosbeheer harvests wood in parts of the areas it manages. Wood is an indispensable raw material for the circular bio-based economy of the future. Wood products such as CLT can in some cases replace climate-damaging materials such as steel and concrete. However, the production of wood is under increasing pressure due to desiccation, degradation of nature, and social opposition to logging.

This research is a first step to determine the extent to which social criticism of wood harvesting is well-founded and what the added social value of wood harvesting is. The aim of this project was twofold; on the one hand, there was a demand to gain more insight into the impact of wood harvesting, and on the other hand, there was a desire to learn how an impact measurement can be used for Staatsbosbeheer.

Benefits to the client

The results show that there is a large potential positive impact of using wood in construction. Planting more forest helps mitigate climate change and can increase production of construction timber. Staatsbosbeheer can actively communicate the positive climate impact of using wood in construction. This can reduce criticism from society.

In addition, Staatsbosbeheer has gained insight into the challenges of measuring the impact on biodiversity from timber harvesting. Follow-up steps are being formulated on this. Finally, important steps have been taken in Staatsbosbeheer’s understanding of how impact measurement can help the organisation in steering for impact.