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Environmental Impact

Harvesting Operations

Much wood fuel comes from native forests around the world. Plantation wood is rarely used for firewood, as it is more valuable as timber or wood pulp. The collection or harvesting of this wood can have serious environmental implications for the collection area. The concerns are often specific to the particular area, but can include all the problems that regular logging create. The heavy removal of wood from forests can cause habitat destruction and soil erosion. However, in many countries, for example in Europe and Canada, the forest residues are being collected and turned into useful wood fuels with minimal impact on the environment. Consideration is given to soil nutrition as well as erosion. The environmental impact of using wood as a fuel depends on how it is burnt, but even if a fire gives off lots of smoke and particulates at least it is using a sustainable fuel, compared with fossil fuels. When wood that is sourced from a sustainable plantation, it can be regarded as being carbon-neutral. That is, a tree absorbs as much carbon (or carbon dioxide) as it releases when burnt.

Greenhouse gases

Wood burning does not release any more carbon dioxide than the eventual biodegradation of the wood would if it was not burned. Wood burning can therefore be considered "carbon neutral" - the CO2 released to the atmosphere by combustion is recycled continuously into new plant growth as part of the carbon cycle, while the energy released during combustion is simply a form of stored solar energy.

However, wood harvesting and transport operations do produce varying degrees of greenhouse gas pollution. The intentional and controlled charring of wood and its incorporation into the soil is an effective method for carbon sequestration as well as an important technique to improve soil conditions for agriculture, particularly in heavily forested regions. It forms the basis of the rich soils known as Terra preta