Harvested wood products (HWP) from sustainably managed forests can store carbon, increase the availability of biomass for the production of biofuels and substitute for more resource intensive products.

Sustainable production of HWPs can contribute to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The length of time carbon is stored in HWPs can be increased through re-use and recycling. Modeled scenarios suggest that increased re-use and recycling of sawnwood and paper could substantially increase carbon stocks. Carbon stocks in HWPs can also be increased through production of longer-lived products. Modeled scenarios, using data from India, suggest that, without changing harvest levels, HWPs in India can store an additional 151 million tonnes of carbon (i.e., an increase of 12 percent) if wood use was shifted from wood pulp based products to solid wood products. Scenarios run using data from Papua New Guinea suggest a potential increase in carbon stocks of up to 23.1 percent from a 30 percent increase in sustainable production of HWPs. Increased data precision can support improved estimates of the carbon stocks in HWPs. Computer simulations based on data from Viet Nam confirm the importance of high-quality data to inform effective decision-making.