IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/inecol/v1y1997i3p125-145.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Searching for Leverage to Conserve Forests: The Industrial Ecology of Wood Products in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Iddo K. Wernick
  • Paul E. Waggoner
  • Jesse H. Ausubel

Abstract

The forest and the creatures it shelters exemplify nature, and logging exemplifies the impacts of humans. In the 1990s Americans annually removed 70% more timber from the forest than in 1900. Since I900 population rose more than three times and gross domestic product (GDP) per person almost five. Despite more people, affluence, and logging, U.S. forest area remained constant. Since mid‐century, standing timber volume me nearly 30%. Consumers, millers, and foresters, responding to changes in style, ethics, and technology, have contributed to these outcomes. We examine the role of each actor in the industrial ecology of forests for their leverage for sparing forests. Consumers lessened their use of wood products per GDP (Intensity of Use) during the century by 2.5% annually to offset expanding population and GDP per person, a trend that will level or lower timber consumption if population and affluence grow as expected. Millers became highly efficient at utilizing wood and recycled fiber for their material or energy, a success that limits their fcrture leverage. Foresters have leverage to grow trees faster and thus use less forest land to grow and harvest timber. Steady or declining demand for trees coupled to productive forests could spare more US. forest land for sequestering carbon, ecosystem services, and habit for nature.

Suggested Citation

  • Iddo K. Wernick & Paul E. Waggoner & Jesse H. Ausubel, 1997. "Searching for Leverage to Conserve Forests: The Industrial Ecology of Wood Products in the United States," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 1(3), pages 125-145, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:1:y:1997:i:3:p:125-145
    DOI: 10.1162/jiec.1997.1.3.125
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1162/jiec.1997.1.3.125
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1162/jiec.1997.1.3.125?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Haiyang Shang & Yue Hu & Jiaojiao Fan & Nini Song & Fang Su, 2023. "Analysis of Farm Household Livelihood Sustainability Based on Improved IPAT Equation: A Case Study of 24 Counties in 3 Cities in the Qin-Ba Mountain Region of Southern Shaanxi," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-17, April.
    2. Yu, Xiang & Zhang, Yongsheng, 2021. "An economic mechanism of industrial ecology: Theory and evidence," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 14-22.
    3. Veli Yilanci & Recep Ulucak & Yaoqi Zhang & Valeria Andreoni, 2023. "The role of affluence, urbanization, and human capital for sustainable forest management in China: Robust findings from a new method of Fourier cointegration," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 812-824, April.
    4. José M. Cansino & Rocio Román-Collado & Juan C. Molina, 2019. "Quality of Institutions, Technological Progress, and Pollution Havens in Latin America. An Analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-20, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:1:y:1997:i:3:p:125-145. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1088-1980 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.