Some aspects of LCA in the analysis of forestry operations

This study demonstrates how the LCA technique can be used to address issues concerning environmental stress caused by forestry. The stress caused by the use of fossil fuels is analysed for different forestry operations. Comparisons are made between: • • clear cutting and shelterwood cutting in forest-management systems based on even-aged management; and• • mechanized and motormanual operations for felling and bucking. The analysis is based on data from northern and southern Sweden. Results show that motor-manual methods cause considerably lower emissions of CO2 and NOx computed per cubic metre (solid o.b.) of harvested wood. The use of shelterwood systems gives rise to emissions about 10% (felling) and 20% (forwarding) higher than those from clear cutting. The results reflect the situation in Swedish forestry in the early 1990s. Since the use of the studied systems is influenced by the prevailing economic, climatic and biological conditions, the demonstrated effect is not caused by the difference in logging technique alone.