No study has been previously completed on the range of sites, potential yield, and financial characteristics of poplar short rotation coppice plantations (SRC) in Hungary. This paper conducts a literature survey to reveal the biomass production potential of such plantations and presents a model that is used to analyze their financial performance. The results indicate that the break-even-point of production is between 6 and 8 oven-dry tons per hectare per year once a minimum cost level and wood chip price within a 10% range of the 2020 value are considered. The higher the wood chip price, the lower the break-even-point. Since the model excluded the administrative costs that depend on the type and size of the management organization, the break-even-points can be significantly higher in reality, which suggests that short rotation energy plantations can be a financially reasonable land-use option in above average or even superior poplar-growing sites. The rotation period of industrial poplar plantations that produce high quality veneer logs ranges from 12 to 25 years. Though such sites can provide higher returns on investment, short rotation plantations have the advantage of providing a more evenly distributed cash flow. To facilitate the wider application of poplar SRC, the related policies need to apply specific subsidies and allow the rotation cycle to be extended up to 20–25 years, which is currently limited to 15 years.

Alley cropping is a specific agroforestry system, which is regarded as sustainable land use management, that could play a crucial role in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Despite its appealing attributes, farmers’ up-take of the system is slow in temperate regions. This study aims to contribute to scaling-up agroforestry through a case study in Hungary and to help to design productive alley cropping systems. We investigated which tree planting pattern of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) results in the most productive alley cropping system when intercropped with triticale (x Triticosecale W.) by statistically analysing the yields of the intercrop and of the trees in nine different layouts and by calculating land equivalent ratios (LER). There was significant difference between the treatments both in triticale and black locust yields. The more trees planted on a hectare, the higher the volume of the stand, and the less yield of triticale was observed, although the latter correlation was weak and in some cases the triticale was more productive between the trees compared with sole crop control. Eight out of nine treatments had favourable LER (0.94–1.35) when the trees were five years old. Black locust and triticale seem to be a good combination for productive alley cropping systems.

As wood products in use store carbon and can contribute to reducing the concentration of atmospheric CO₂, the improved and enhanced use of wood products can be a successful measure in climate change mitigation. This study estimates the amount of carbon stored in the Hungarian harvested wood product (HWP) pool and the CO₂ emissions and removals of the pool. According to our results, the total carbon stock of the Hungarian HWP pool is continuously increasing. We estimated the total carbon stock of the HWP pool to be 17,306 kt C in the year 2020. Our results show that the HWP pool in Hungary is a carbon sink in most parts of the time series, with some years where it turns to a source of emissions. We carried out a simple projection up to 2070, assuming a constant inflow for the projected years that is equal to the average inflow of the last five historic years. This resulted in a decreasing trend in CO₂ removals, with removals already very close to zero in 2070. We concluded that in order to achieve significant future carbon sinks in the HWP pool technological improvements are needed, such as increasing the lifetime of the wood products and expanding the carbon storage capacity of wood products by reusing and recycling wood in a cascade system.

Harvested wood products (HWPs) store a significant amount of carbon, and their lifetime extension and appropriate waste management, recycling, and reuse can contribute remarkably to the achievement of climate goals. In this study, we examined the carbon storage and CO₂ and CH₄ emissions under different scenarios of 200,000 m³ particleboard manufactured in 2020 by a hypothetical manufacturer. The scope of our investigation was to model the effects of a changing product lifetime, recycling rates and waste management practices on the duration of the carbon storage in wood panels and on their emission patterns. The aim of the investigation was to identify the most climate-friendly practices and find the combination of measures related to HWP production and waste management with the highest climate mitigation effect. We used the newly developed HWP-RIAL (recycling, incineration and landfill) model for the projections, which is a combination of two IPCC models parametrized for Hungarian circumstances and supplemented with a self-developed recycling and waste-route-selection submodule. The model runs covered the period 2020–2130. According to the results, the combined scenario with bundled mitigation activities had the largest mitigation potential in the modelled period, resulting in 32% emission reduction by 2050 as compared to the business-as-usual scenario. Amongst individual mitigation activities, increased recycling rates had the largest mitigation effect. The lifetime extension of particleboard can be a complementary measure to support climate mitigation efforts, along with the concept of cascade use and that of circular bioeconomy. Results showed that landfilled wood waste is a significant source of CH₄ emissions on the long term; thus, incineration of wood waste is preferable to landfilling.

As forest-based climate change mitigation has become a crucial element of international climate policy it is of increasing importance to understand the processes leading to the carbon offsetting capacity of the sector. In our study, we assessed the climate benefits of contrasting forest management strategies: decreasing harvest and enlarging the forest carbon stock, or increasing harvest to increase carbon uptake, wood product carbon pools, and substitution effects. We developed the Forest Industry Carbon Model (FICM) which is a new carbon accounting tool covering forest biomass, dead organic matter, soil, and harvested wood product pools, as well as avoided emissions through product and energy substitution. We modeled the carbon balance of the Hungarian forest industry under three different scenarios. In the business as usual (BAU) scenario, we assumed no changes in the current harvest and afforestation levels. In the extensification scenario, we assumed that the harvest and afforestation levels drop to half, while in the intensification scenario, we assumed an increase in afforestation, improved industrial wood assortments, and a gradual increase in logging, reaching the highest level as per sustainability criteria by 2050. Our results show that the intensification scenario is characterized by the largest net removals and the maximized product and energy substitution effects. By 2050, the net forest industry carbon balance reaches −8447 kt CO₂ eq under the BAU scenario, while −7011 kt CO₂ eq is reached under the extensification scenario and −22,135 kt CO₂ eq is reached under the intensification scenario. Although substitution effects are not accounted for under the land-based (LULUCF) sector in the greenhouse gas inventory, the emission reductions in the industry and energy sectors have beneficial effects on the national carbon balance. Modeling results show that the 2030 LULUCF greenhouse gas removal target set by EU legislation for Hungary is reached under the intensification scenario. To achieve this outcome, widespread innovation is needed in the wood sector. The modeling results show that nonutilization of forests can only be a very short-term solution; however, its favorable effects will be reversed by 2050 resulting in additional emissions compared to the BAU scenario.

(1) Background: The aim of our study is to present the results of initial growth and plant physiology studies of newly selected, vegetative propagated black locust clones, with a view to assess their suitability for the establishment of fast growing tree plantations for the production of high quality timber in marginal (semi-arid) sites. (2) Methods: In the spring (May) and autumn (November) of 2021, full inventories were carried out in the black locust industrial tree plantation. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values were observed monthly from May to September 2021. For measuring the assimilation parameters the net assimilation, transpiration, stomatal conductance, intercellular CO₂ concentration, and other physiological parameters were recorded. (3) Results: Robinia pseudoacacia ‘NK2’ clone showed the highest assimilation rate and it produced the most height increment in the growing season, from May 2021 to November 2021. The discriminant analysis classified successfully the black locust clones, 86.7% of original grouped cases were correctly classified. (4) Conclusions: The study of industrial tree plantations is of great practical importance. As black locust can tolerate even marginal site conditions, the lack of timber can be reduced in the future by establishing black locust industrial tree plantations. To be able to produce good quality industrial wood on the plantations, it is essential to study the phytophysiological properties of the trees (biomass production, vegetation activity of plants, chlorophyll content, photosynthetic activity) in addition to the traditional stand full inventories.