UK forestry and timber industry

I. Characteristics of forestry and timber industry

The UK is made up of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. According to 2005 data, the forest area in the UK is less than 12% of the land use area (24.451 million hm2). England is different from the other three regions, with agricultural land accounting for 72% and forest area accounting for only 8.6%. The forests of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are located on remote slopes, with forest areas accounting for 13.8%, 17.1% and 6.3% respectively.

The forests in the United Kingdom were once almost disappeared due to the development of agricultural land, the production of charcoal for iron and the construction of warships for timber construction. The current forests were formed after the war. According to the Forest Commission (FC), the existing forest area in the UK is 2.845 million hm2, accounting for 11.8% of the country's land area. The average forest coverage rate in Europe is 44.3%. It can be seen that the UK is a country with a small forest area in developed countries. In 2004, the UK's timber self-sufficiency rate was 19%, and timber imports were second only to Japan. In recent years, the self-sufficiency rate of timber in the UK has gradually increased. In 2006, the timber import volume was 7.081 million m3, which was about 75% of the national consumption, which was 6.4% lower than that in 2004.

The forests in the UK are based on different regions, state-owned forests and poplar forests and different tree species (Table 1). They have the following characteristics: First, the forest area is the largest in Scotland, with more than half of the British state-owned forest area, and up to 94% are conifers. Afforestation, folk forests are also the majority of coniferous plantations; second, England and Wales are also the majority of coniferous plantations in state-owned forests; third, the dominant areas of folk forests are England and Wales, and mainly broad-leaved trees, of course, conifers Plantation. The problems of private forests in the UK are most prominent in Wales and England.

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Information: Forestry Commission Forestry Facts & Figures 2008

Note: Broad-leaved trees include firewood with budding forest

In terms of forest tree species, in addition to European red pine, there are many exotic species such as North American spruce, American black pine and Japanese red pine, and broad-leaved trees are mostly native trees such as eucalyptus and birch.

From the change in wood production since 2003 (Table 2), almost all of the wood produced is coniferous, but its production has a decreasing trend of state-owned forest timber before 2006, while the forest has slightly increased. The production of broad-leaved trees from the folk forests has a tendency to decrease, accounting for only 5% of the total timber production in 2007. It is predicted that by 2026, regardless of conifers or broad-leaved trees, the production of civilian forests will continue to increase, and is expected to increase to 1.7 times.

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Information: Forestry Commission Forestry Facts & Figures 2008

2. Changes in forestry and timber industry structure

The afforestation structure of the United Kingdom changed in the 1970s. In 1970, afforestation was 50,000 hm2, and in 1980 it was reduced to 28,000 hm2. By 1982, state-owned forests had more afforestation than civilian forests, but since then, people have forested forests and turned over state-owned forests. After 1975, both the state-owned forests and the new forests in the forests of the people have been greatly reduced, and the reforestation has gradually increased. In the 1980s, the main body of afforestation shifted from state-owned forests to civilian forests, and from state-owned forests to new forested land to reforested land, and new forested land and reforested land in the forests were basically balanced. By the 1990s, this phenomenon remained unchanged. After entering the 21st century, the people's forests became the main body of afforestation, and they were afforested in newly-built forests, while state-owned forests were mainly reforestation. The annual afforestation area in the country is 20,000 to 30,000 hm2.

From 1998 to 2007, the consumption and production of sawn timber in the UK are shown in Table 3. The amount of coniferous sawn timber increased while the amount of hardwood sawn timber decreased, and the production of domestic coniferous trees increased most significantly, from 4.15 million tons to 5.59 million tons, while imported materials did not change much. The broad-leaved tree sawn timber is on the contrary, the production of domestically produced timber has dropped significantly, from 2.54 million tons to 660,000 tons, and imported materials have increased. In 2007, the total consumption of coniferous wood in the United Kingdom was 5.9 million tons, an increase of 7% over 2006; the total number of broadleaf trees was 87,000 tons, an increase of 3%.

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Information: Forestry Statistics 2008 (Sawmill Survey)

In 2007, there were 211 sawmills in the UK, including 107 in England, 70 in Scotland, 21 in Wales and 13 in Northern Ireland. In 1998, there were 341 sawmills in the country, and 240 in 2003, showing a decreasing trend year by year. In 2007, there were 139 coniferous sawmills in the country, 17 broadleaf sawn timber plants, and 55 coniferous and hardwood mixed processing sawmills. From the perspective of production scale, 40% of small plants with annual sawn timber volume below 1000m3, 35% with 1000-10,000 m3, and 25% with more than 10,000 m3. Large plants with more than 10,000 m3 of sawn timber are mainly distributed in Scotland and England. But consumption does not depend on whether there is a factory in the local area. The wood entering the sawmill is almost always the main cut, while the thinned wood is supplied to the wood-based panel and paper mill.

In 2006, the output value of pulp and paper in the United Kingdom exceeded 2 times that of wood-based panels and 1.3 times that of sawn timber. However, compared with the production volume, the average production output was lower.

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