Union of European Foresters
A position paper on renewable bioenergy from the forests
GOVERNING COUNCIL MEETING 30.8.2007
“Wood – a regenerating raw material for the future”
We need to improve the energy supply by diversifying energy production and raw material sources.
The energy demand – and CO2 emissions –in the world is said to be increasing by 60% over the next 30 years. The raw material and power supply in the entire world economy are strongly connected to the use of fossil sources of energy. By the exhaustion of resources, no more supply security will be givenon a long-term basis.
The traditionally sustainable forestry and the regenerating raw material wood should be valued highly in the future. Wood gains increased attention as a carbon neutral energy to replace nonrenewable energy sources.
It becomes increasingly clear that catastrophic climatic consequences are to be expected and that wood will play a major role in combating climate change.
Biomass is the main renewable energy resource globally and will remain so in the foreseeable future. The high and volatile prices for oil and gas will continue and consequently wood will be more and more used as an energy raw material. For Europe, bioenergy will have an important role in the sustainable energy system. By 2020 the share of biomass for energy use is expected to rise up to 20% of which at least half will come from the forests.
According to the international agreements there are challenging goals for reducing emissions both on EU and national levels. There is a substantial contribution for the climatic protection and a lasting resources safety device in any use of wood. Both the energetic and the material use of wood have an indispensable contribution and should both be intensified and promoted.
Wood and all other resources of the forests should be used in the best possible and most efficient and sustainable way for a high value from the processes.
The added value factor of the wood product industry compared to bioenergy sector is 10. The social value factor, of which employment is a big part, of the wood products industry compared to bioenergy sector is 30.
There should also be functioning systems for project funding and financing in the European Union giving the bioenergy sector good possibilities to develop further.
Ten percent of the forest areas are protected or outside commercial use. The area of forests is growing with 400,000 hectares per year and the European Union should continue to be proactive in the promotion of afforestation and reforestation programmes and also ensure the financial support from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) through the National Rural Development plans 2007-2013.
Forest resources in the European Union should be more intensively and efficiently used.
The annual increment of the 160 million hectares of forests in the European Union are estimated to grow about 570 million cubic meters each year. The fellings are as an average 315 million cubic meters, which is only55% of the annual increment. There are large national, regional and local variations in use of the forest resources in Europe.
There is a clear potential to harvest more wood on a sustainable basis in most parts of Europe. We should improve the knowledge on how much wood is available and in what conditions, and on what kind of challenges and obstacles there are in the mobilization of these resources.
An annual use of 85 % of the incrementshould be a general goal for the European forests. That would mean increased fellings of over 170 million cubic meters and would considerably support the implementation of theEU Biomass Action Plan.
We need an increasing amount of wood both for industry and energy. There is a good possibility to use more wood also for bioenergy if the development of the sector is balanced. There is a need for wood-based energy and forest products markets to develop synergically.
The promotion of the use of wood for energy, combined with rising energy prices, and the expanding use of wood in sawmills, for paper and for panels continues and is leading to an increase in wood demand.
Bioenergy should be seen as a part of a sustainable forestry. The developement of the use of bioenergy from the forests should be balanced and especially in the context of national biomass action plans communicating with other national plans in the forest sector. Forest certification, chain of custody and certificates of origin are tools to guarantee the sustainability in the forests and should also be used in the sector of wood for bioenergy from the forests.
Despite the efforts toward an increased wood production, the different aspects of multi-functional and sustainable forest management should be guaranteed in the forestry. All wood should also in the future be sustainably mobilised from the forests and used with best possible efficiency.
Professional foresters are key actors in the bioenergy sector
For a professional and growing wood production with a high level of the sustainable forest management the professional foresters are key actors.
Having a good knowledge of the sector and on a practical level professional foresters are key actors in mobilizingof the needed additional wood quantities from the forests.
The professional foresters have a central role in education and training to promote the cooperation around bioenergy sector and generally the multifunctional use of forests.
The professional foresters guarantee the quality of all the work done in the forests. Investments into a well working forestry cause positive effects not only in rural areas but support also the overall economic, social and climatic development.
The professional foresters play a central role when forest bioenergy will need a high level of innovation, technological development and research.
For an optimization of all aspects of modern, multi-functional forestry, qualified forest personnel in sufficient number is crucial.
The professional foresters, and the organisations representing them, should be taken into all processes on all levels to work further for a strong and developing bioenergy sector in Europe.