Work

Leakage Effects from Restrictions in Timber Supply: An Application to Sweden

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The interest in forests from a climate and biodiversity perspective is increasing. Several scientific scenarios and political narratives suggest that reduced timber harvest may facilitate these perspectives. Consequently, policies advocating forest carbon sequestration and forest preservation are discussed. This study explores the potential leakage of policies that directly or indirectly reduce the timber harvests in Sweden. The results indicate that 24–77 percent of the reduced harvest will be offset by an opposing change in other countries, depending on timber assortment and time-horizon. Thus, the magnitude of the leakage is case-specific but in all cases sizeable. Subsequently, the expected climate benefits of policies may be severely reduced if the leakage is left unaddressed in the policy design.

Source: Forests

DOI: 10.3390/f16030407

Author: Robert Lundmark

Institution: Luleå University of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Forest Management and Policy

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Climate action, Life on land, Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,137