Evaluating carbon benefits across an integrated forestry supply chain, including forest management, wood products, and biomass energy: a temperate-region case study in South Korea

Driven by the global pursuit of sustainability, various institutional and governance frameworks—such as Environmental, Social, and Governance initiatives (ESG), and their associated policy instruments, including carbon markets—have been developed to mitigate climate change. These emerging systems can serve as strong incentives for sustainable forest management, particularly in countries where the forestry sector remains underutilized. In this context, this study evaluated the comprehensive carbon benefits of a regional-scale sustainable forest management project integrated with a wood supply chain in South Korea, a country with limited utilization of domestic forest resources. The results were compared with those of a conventional passive forest management scenario. Establishing a regional forest supply chain was estimated to generate 4,236,270 tCO 2 e of cumulative net carbon benefit over the 40-year project period. These benefits include 1,901,418 tCO 2 e from CO 2 sequestration in forests, 835,733 tCO 2 e from substituting fossil fuels with forest biomass energy, 247,349 tCO 2 e from reduced transportation emissions, and 1,251,769 tCO 2 e from carbon storage in harvested wood products (HWPs). This amount was comparable to that of the passive management scenario (4,245,577 CO 2 e). These results indicate that, despite increased harvesting, active forest management can offset associated emissions through enhanced wood utilization and other carbon benefits. Overall, the findings demonstrate that integrating regional forest supply chains can not only enhance societal access to renewable material resources and generate revenue streams but also contribute meaningfully to climate change mitigation.