Wood Products & Why We Need Them
Wood is all around us, every day, in all our homes. We rely on diverse and well-managed productive forestry to ensure we have a sustainable, reliable source for timber, paper, biomass and other everyday wood products.
What kind of products do we use wood for?
Many homes are built using timber frames and wood is also used in flooring, kitchen and bathroom cabinets, furniture and much more, including fencing for farms and gardens, agricultural barns, sheds and decking.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, governments asked the forestry and wood manufacturing industry to stay open because of the important role it plays in our lives. For example, wooden pallets are used to move food and medical supplies - and wood is used in packaging of all types, including our lunchtime sandwich.
There is a push to use far more wood in all kinds of buildings as it is a far ‘greener’ material as we address the climate crisis. Wood uses far less energy to manufacture than brick, concrete or steel. Read more about Wood and The Climate Emergency.
Watch this film by James Jones & Sons, explaining all the different elements that go into creating high-quality wood products.
Which trees are used to make what?
Trees fall into two main categories: conifers and broadleaves.
Faster-growing conifers (cone-bearing trees like spruces, firs and pines) are usually planted for timber. Different trees are better suited to different products. For example, species like Sitka spruce and Douglas fir are popular for construction timber, while Scots pine is used widely for flooring and fencing.
As well as providing timber, fast-growing conifers help in the fight against climate change by soaking up carbon dioxide quickly – they are the trees that will help us achieve net zero by mid-century. Conifer forests also provide homes for wildlife like red squirrels, pine martens and birds of prey, and much more. You can read a report - Biodiversity, Forestry and Wood - which examines how wildlife can thrive in conifer forests. Many of the UK’s forests most popular with visitors - like Kielder in Northumberland and Thetford in Norfolk - are mainly conifer.
Broadleaves such as oak, ash and birch take much longer to grow and are often planted for environmental or biodiversity reasons only, rather than for growing timber. However, if they are managed and protected from grey squirrels and deer, they can provide high-quality wood for flooring, furniture and beams for houses.
Both conifer and broadleaf trees are vital for the UK’s future.
Why don’t we just import the wood we need rather than growing it here?
The UK already imports 81% of the wood products it uses - at an estimated cost of £11.5 billion per year according to the latest figures. Only China and the US import more wood than we do. According to current forecasts, the UK will produce less wood from the 2040s than it does now - at a time when global demand is soaring.
Confor has calculated that if current trends continue we will consume 78% more wood by 2050 than we do now.
Unless we plant more forests and grow more wood here, the percentage of imports will rise fast and the UK will struggle to get the wood it needs. A World Bank study in 2016 predicted that global demand for wood could quadruple between 2020 and 2050.