Environmental and energy balances of wood products and substitutes.

The FAO Forestry Department promotes, among others, the responsible use of wood as an environmentally friendly raw material. In the last decades, wood and wood-based products have been faced with stronger competition from substitute materials, such as plastics, concrete, steel, glass or aluminium, as these materials appear to offer wider options to the customers. Some of the factors that can influence customers' decisions on what kind of end products to acquire include marketing efforts, product prices, quality, durability and image. Conflicting and often opposing views exist about the environmental consequences of using wood products. On the one hand, environmental concerns related to deforestation, forest degradation and losses in biodiversity lead to a negative image of wood products, in particular those made of wood from the tropics. On the other, a wide range of producers and consumers are aware of their positive environmental aspects. For example, wood is a renewable and recyclable raw material, which cannot only be used in different end products but can also become a source of renewable energy. In fact, a wider utilization of wood products made from well-managed resources can contribute significantly to achieving sustainable development.