How a tree works: A never-ending harvest
We use trees to produce an ever-growing number of products. Just think about how you come into contact with trees on a daily basis.
Books, paper, a pencil, your desk, doors, windows, floors – the list is endless. All made from wood.
We each use up around 1 tonne of wood per year – a cubic metre each. Try to visualise that - a solid block of wood 1 metre high, 1 metre deep and 1 metre wide.
With nearly 60 million people in the UK, that’s an awful lot of trees – enough to form a pile 1 metre high and fill a three-lane motorway and its hard shoulders for nearly 2,000 km. More than enough to fill a motorway from London to Cardiff and then on to Edinburgh twice over!
And it’s only through replacing trees we cut down that we can keep this never-ending harvest.
In the UK, all of our public forests come with a promise – we will continue to replace the trees we cut down. That’s sustainability – providing a never-ending natural resource.
However, we import more than 80 per cent of the wood we need, so it’s important to import and use wood and wood products that come with a similar promise.
You can make sure you do this by using recycled products or products showing the FSC or PEFC logos that promote responsible forestry.
Both these bodies make sure growers and processors live up to their sustainable promises.
Next step...
Now click on 'Other benefits' on the left of this page to find out about the animals which make their homes on the forest floor.
