Planting & Renewal

We can plant, grow, cut and replant trees forever, continually benefiting the environment. Trees can be planted and replanted indefinitely unlike coal, oil and other fossil fuels, which have formed over hundreds of millions of years and are non-renewable raw materials.

By planting and replanting trees we are helping the environment. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it as wood. When those trees are turned into building materials and other wood products, the carbon dioxide absorbed by the trees continues to be retained in the wood.

We need to use and demand more wood, to ensure that more will be planted in trees, resulting in more carbon dioxide being absorbed from the atmosphere as those new trees grow.

Global warming is now considered to be one of the most important issues facing our world. The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, published in 2006 identified that without taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, the consequences of global warming will catastrophically affect where we live and how we live our lives.

Planting trees and consuming wood is an excellent way to contribute to the fight against climate change. By establishing a plantation forest on non-forested land the forest area is expanded. This means that more carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere as the trees grow. Planting more forests will have significant environmental benefits.

Encouraging planted forests is not an alternative to reducing emissions. Emission reduction is still required but planted forests form an important part of climate change control as the world converts to lower emission technologies.

Fossil fuel use results in permanent additions of atmospheric carbon. Using wood however, results in no long-term increase in carbon dioxide. This is because the carbon absorbed by trees was removed from the atmosphere while the trees grew. New Zealand’s plantation forests grow to maturity and are ready for harvest within a few decades and in most cases between 25 to 30 years.