Harvested wood products accounting in the post Kyoto commitment period

An increase in the amount of harvested wood products (HWP) from sustainable forestry would help to reduce levels of atmospheric carbon. In the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2008-2012), this carbon stock effect of HWP is ignored, and forest harvesting is treated as an instantaneous emission of carbon dioxide. However, in the next commitment period of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2013, the carbon stock changes resulting from HWP will be taken into account in the national greenhouse gas inventories. The Japan Wood Research Society called for a roundtable conference of eight research societies, industrial associations, and nongovernmental organizations that are involved with wood utilization. At the conference, accounting approaches for HWP were discussed and a consensus was reached that the stock change approach should be adopted in the next commitment period.