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Wood Mileage Scheme Promotes Local Timber Use

Posted: 30/03/2005

Kyoto Prefecture, in Japan, has established implementation guidelines for a special certification system of locally produced timber. The government launched the project to expand the use of wood-mileage-certified timber in fiscal 2004, aiming at effective utilization of local forest resources.

Wood mileage is an indicator calculated by multiplying wood volume by the distance transported. The indicator is being used to promote the use of local wood and the reduction of energy used in transportation. Japan's average wood mileage, for example, is four times as much as in the United States, which is the world's largest importer of timber.

A designated accreditation organization will issue certificates of Kyoto-sourced wood and accounting statements of wood-mileage-CO2 emissions for timber that has been grown, processed and distributed by enterprises approved by the governor of Kyoto Prefecture.

By independently launching this system to clearly indicate the CO2 emissions from transportation, Kyoto aims to do its part to prevent global warming by promoting the wide use of locally grown wood in the prefecture and by reducing CO2 emissions. By April 2006 the certification system will be exclusively applied to round logs and plywood made from forest thinnings, in order to encourage a stable level of consumption of lumber from forest thinning in public works projects.

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