Accurate estimation of standing tree volume is vital for effective harvest planning, revenue projection, and ensuring ecological sustainability. However, the commonly used allometric equations in Nepal often overlook species-specific characteristics, resulting in significant discrepancies between estimated and actual volumes. This study compares values derived from standard allometric equations with actual measurements taken after felling in Sal (Shorea robusta) forests of Kapilvastu, Nepal. A total of 1588 trees were analysed to assess the extent and causes of volume estimation errors. The results reveal significant differences between estimated and actual tree heights and volumes, with estimated volumes often exceeding the actual timber yields. These discrepancies are particularly observed in Class I trees, suggesting limitations in current classbased volume adjustment factors. The study also identifies key variables contributing to these inaccuracies, including tree size, measurement method, and operator variability. Statistical analyses, including paired t-tests and ANOVA, confirm the systematic nature of these differences. The findings highlight the need to update or localise allometric models to improve accuracy in volume prediction. This research provides empirical evidence for refining volume estimation practices and supports better-informed decision-making in forest harvesting, ultimately contributing to more sustainable forest management strategies in Nepal and similar ecological settings.

The construction industry generates the most waste in the European Union (EU), and each member state is responsible for implementing measures to reduce construction and demolition waste (CDW). As a result, Sweden is working to enhance the sustainability of its construction sector. This study explores the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainably managing materials and waste in an interior office renovation project, drawing insights and perspectives from various stakeholders across the value chain. This study also proposes measures that companies can adopt to improve their sustainable CDW management practices. To achieve this, the study employed thematic analysis on data collected through semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, a review of peer-reviewed journal articles and grey literature, as well as observations from site visits. The analysis identified nine key themes that reveal both the challenges and opportunities in sustainably managing materials and waste from renovation projects. The study explores these findings and examines initiatives that promote sustainable practices in interior office renovations, concluding with recommendations for future research and guidance for property companies.

The European Union (EU) does not have a common forestry policy but EU policies can indirectly affect the forest sector. This study departs from the EU "Fit for 55" package of legislation and uses a forest sector model to simulate and analyze three responses in the Swedish forest sector (2020-2100) to policy initiatives addressing climate change and biodiversity: (i) increasing the area of set-asides with 50%; (ii) prohibiting harvest of old forest (>120/140 years of age); and (iii) extending the minimum allowed age for final harvest with 30%. Results indicate that, while all three responses can reduce net carbon emissions compared to business-as-usual, extension of the minimum allowed age for final harvest reduces emissions the most. In general, the effects on net carbon emissions are highly correlated with the level of harvest. Increasing the area of set-asides and prohibiting old forest harvest help preserve old forest better than both business-as-usual and final felling age regulation. Longer-term results are uncertain as policies and technology development can radically change biomass use, product portfolios and displacement effects.

To develop recommendations for tree selection in Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF), access to valid tools for simulating growth at individual tree-level is necessary. To assist efforts to develop such tools, in this study, long-term observation data from two uneven-sized Norway spruce plots in southern Sweden are used to evaluate old and new individual-tree growth models (two established Swedish models, two new preliminary models and included as a reference, a Finnish model). The plots' historical management records and site conditions are the same, but their last thinning treatment differs. Observed diameter increment at tree-level is investigated in relation to treatment. Individual tree growth residuals of tested models are evaluated in relation to tree diameter, treatment, projection length and sensitivity to the predictor mean stand age. Furthermore, the relations between displayed residuals and basal area local competition are analysed. The analyses indicate that active thinning made annual diameter increment independent of tree diameter above a threshold level, while the absence of thinning supported a concave relationship. All tested models displayed a significant linear bias leading to overestimation of small trees' growth and increasing underestimations of larger trees' growth with tree diameter. All distance-independent models displayed residual trends related to local competition.

The choice of a rotation length is an integral part of even-aged forest management regimes. In this study, we have simulated stand development and carbon pools in four even-aged stands representing the two most common tree species in Fennoscandia, Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), growing on high and low productive sites. We hypothesized that increased rotation lengths (+10, +20 and +30 years) in comparison with today’s practice would increase forests’ average carbon stock during a rotation cycle, but decrease the average yield. The results showed that for spruce a moderate increase in rotation length (+10 years) increased both average standing carbon stock and average yield. For the longer alternatives (+20 and +30 years) for spruce and for all pine alternatives prolonging rotation lengths resulted in increased average standing carbon stocks but decreased average yield resulting in decreased carbon storage in forest products and decreased substitution effects. Decreasing the rotation lengths (-10 years) always resulted in both decreased average standing carbon stocks and decreased yields. We conclude that a moderate increase of rotation lengths may slightly increase forests’ climate benefits for spruce sites but for all other alternatives there was a trade-off between the temporary gain of increasing carbon stocks and the permanent loss in productivity and consequently substitution potential.

Swedish climate policy targets net zero greenhouse gases (GHG) by mid-century, with road transport independent of fossil fuels by 2030, requiring far-reaching changes in the way energy is used. Forest management is expected to support carbon sequestration and provide biomass for various uses, including energy. In this paper, we combine two energy scenarios with four forest scenarios and quantify GHG balances associated with energy-use for heat, electricity, and road transport, and with forest management and production, use, and end-of-life management of various forest products, including products for export. The aggregated GHG balances are evaluated in relation to the 2-degree target and an allocated Swedish CO₂ budget. The production of biofuels in the agriculture sector is considered but not analyzed in detail.

The results suggest that Swedish forestry can make an important contribution by supplying forest fuels and other products while maintaining or enhancing carbon storage in vegetation, soils, and forest products. The GHG neutrality goal is not met in any of the scenarios without factoring in carbon sequestration. Measures to enhance forest productivity can increase output of forest products (including biofuels for export) and also enhance carbon sequestration. The Swedish forest sector can let Sweden reach net negative emissions, and avoid “using up” its allocated CO₂ budget, thereby increasing the associated emissions space for the rest of the world.

Continuous-cover forestry (CCF) has been recognized for the production of multiple ecosystem services, and is seen as an alternative to clear-cut forestry (CF). Despite the increasing interest, it is still not well described how CCF would affect the carbon balance and the resulting climate benefit from the forest in relation to CF. This study compares carbon balances of CF and CCF, applied as two alternative land-use strategies for a heterogeneous Norway spruce (Picea abies) stand. We use a set of models to analyze the long-term effects of different forest management and wood use strategies in Sweden on carbon dioxide emissions and carbon stock changes. The results show that biomass growth and yield is more important than the choice of silvicultural system per se. When comparing CF and CCF assuming similar growth, extraction and product use, only minor differences in long-term climate benefit were found between the two principally different silvicultural systems.

Sweden has just more than 23 million hectares of productive forest, which has been actively managed for more than 100 years. This has led to one of the recognized forest products exporting country. Despite the vital role of forests in providing forest products in sustaining various human needs, there is an increasing demand for the inclusion of ecosystem services in forest planning decision making. Today, methods in conventional assessments on forest growth, yield and harvest are facing changes due to extended interests in the assessments on overall forestry systems effects on ecosystem services including carbon balance of the system. Recently, integrated approaches that have concepts of forest science, wood material science, energy science and cleaner productions have been used in the field of forestry to assess the important role of forestry in reducing carbon emissions. This paper uses a system analysis approach to perform a model based analysis that includes forest management and their effects on different indicators of ecosystem services in Swedish forest landscape.

Forests in boreal and temperate forest-ecosystems have importance for carbonbalance since they sequester large amount of atmospheric carbon by uptake ofcarbon-dioxide during photosynthesis, and transfer and store carbon in the forestecosystem. Forest material can be used for bio-fuel purposes and substitute fossilfuels, and supply wood products, which can replace carbon-and-energy-intensivematerials. Therefore it is vital to consider the role of forests regarding today´s aimto mitigate climate change. This thesis assess (i) how climate change affects futureforest carbon balance, (ii) the importance of different strategies for forestmanagement systems, and biomass production for the carbon balance, (iii) how theuse of forest production affect the total carbon balance in a lifecycle perspective,and (iv) how the Swedish carbon balance is affected from the standpoint of boththe actual use of forest raw material within Sweden and what Swedish forestryexports. The analysis was made mainly in a long-term perspective (60-300 years) toillustrate the importance of temporal and also the spatial perspective, as theanalysis includes stand level, landscape level, and national level.

In this thesis, forestry was considered a system. All activities, from forestregeneration to end use of forest products, were entities of this system. In theevaluation, made from a systems perspective, we used life-cycle analysis toestimate carbon stock in different system flows. Different forest managementsystems and forest production were integrated in the analyses. Different forestmanagement scenarios were designed for the Swedish forest management incombination with the effect of future climate change; (i) intensive forest practiceaiming at increased growth, (ii) increased forest set-aside areas, changes in forestmanagement systems for biomass production, and (iii) how the use of forestproducts affect the total carbon balance (construction material, bioenergy and otherdomestic use).

The results showed that future climate changes and intensive forest managementwith increased production could increase the biomass production and the potentialuse of forest raw material. This has a positive effect on carbon stock change in theforest biomass, litter production and below ground carbon stock and help reducingcarbon-dioxide emissions. Increased forest set-aside areas can increase the shorttermcarbon stock in forest ecosystems, but will reduce the total long-term carbonbalance. The net carbon balance for clear-cut forestry did not differ significantlyfrom continuous-cover forestry, but was rather a question of level of growth. Mostimportant, in the long term, was according to our analysis, how forest raw materialis used. Present Swedish forestry and use of forest raw material, both withinSweden and abroad, reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and mitigate climate change.The positive effect for the total carbon balance and climate benefit mostly takeplace abroad, due to the Swedish high level of export of wood products and thehigher substitution effects achieved outside Swedish borders. One strategy is toincrease production, harvest and use Swedish forest raw material to replace morecarbon intensive material, which can contribute to significant emission reduction.Carbon-dioxide mitigation, as a result of present Swedish forestry, was shown tobe almost of the same level as the total yearly emission of greenhouse gases. Thetotal carbon benefit would increase if the biomass production and felling increasedand if Swedish wood products replaced carbon intensive materials.

This thesis shows also that, by changing forest management, increase thegrowth and the use of forest raw material and export of forest material we cancontribute to even larger climate benefits. In a long-term perspective, thesubstitution effects and replacement of carbon-and energy-intensive materials areof greater significance than carbon storage effects in forests. A more productionoriented forestry needs to make balances and increase the prerequisite forbiological diversity, improve recreation possibilities, and protect sensitive landareas and watersheds.

Climate benefits, from Swedish forestry, are highly dependent on policydecision-making and how that can steer the direction for the Swedish forestry.

 In Sweden, where forests cover more than 60% of the land area, silviculture and the use of forest products by industry and society play crucial roles in the national carbon balance. A scientific challenge is to understand how different forest management and wood use strategies can best contribute to climate change mitigation benefits. This study uses a set of models to analyze the effects of different forest management and wood use strategies in Sweden on carbon dioxide emissions and removals through 2105. If the present Swedish forest use strategy is continued, the long-term climate change mitigation benefit will correspond to more than 60 million tons of avoided or reduced emissions of carbon dioxide annually, compared to a scenario with similar consumption patterns in society but where non-renewable products are used instead of forest-based products. On average about 470 kg of carbon dioxide emissions are avoided for each cubic meter of biomass harvested, after accounting for carbon stock changes, substitution effects and all emissions related to forest management and industrial processes. Due to Sweden’s large export share of forest-based products, the climate change mitigation effect of Swedish forestry is larger abroad than within the country. The study also shows that silvicultural methods to increase forest biomass production can further reduce net carbon dioxide emissions by an additional 40 million tons of per year. Forestry’s contribution to climate change mitigation could be significantly increased if management of the boreal forest were oriented towards increased biomass production and if more wood were used to substitute fossil fuels and energy-intensive materials.