WW-Net COMPETING USES OF FOREST LAND? The future of integrative and segregative policy and forest management approaches in Europe

COOL 215555 - WW-Net COMPETING USES OF FOREST LAND? The future of integrative and segregative policy and forest management approaches in Europe The COOL project has focused on national stakeholders’ perceptions of opportunities and challenges related to increasing use of forest-based bioenergy in Finland, Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Spain. Energy wood from forests is an important source of renewable energy in Europe in terms of fulfilling the EU 2020 targets on climate and energy (EC 2009). The contribution of wood resources to energy supply and the types of energy wood use vary across the five investigated countries. Finland has the highest energy wood production and use thanks to its intense use of forest industry by-products and its ambitious target for the use of forest chips in combined heat and power production. In Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Spain, energy wood is predominantly used for heating in private households. Use of bioenergy has increased across the countries, while bioenergy is still mainly produced as a by-product of round wood. NATIONAL BIOENERGY POLICIES The EU target of 20% renewable energies by 2020 (EU Renewable Energy Directive) have influenced national energy wood policies in the five countries investigated, whereas policy linkages with other sectors vary across countries. National policies tend to enact elements from different EU policies and implement them into national policy, thereby tailoring solutions to address various domestic circumstances. For example, bioenergy are tailored to solutions for fire prevention in Spain. Across the countries, national energy wood strategies underline the great potential of synergies between energy wood production and use and job creation and economic prosperity in the forest sector. National strategies also envisage potential trade-offs with biodiversity conservation (e.g. deadwood extraction). OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLNEGES RELATED TO INCREASED USE OF BIOENERGY Through interviews and working meetings, stakeholders in the five countries gave inputs on what they consider to be challenges and opportunities related to forest-based bioenergy. Stakeholders highlighted the vast amount of wood resources available for energy wood use and existing technologies for efficient use of bioenergy as opportunities for more use of bioenergy. Important challenges mentioned included mobilising wood resources for energy and competion for wood resources. Stakeholders from all countries refer to lack of, or insufficient, policy measures as a factor hindering energy wood production and use. Stakeholders in all countries also emphasis possible trade-offs between energy wood production and ecological values emerging from forest ecosystem services, in particular biodiversity conservation. Uncertainties regarding climate change effects are highlighted, with large variations in stakeholder perceptions about the implications of energy wood production and use on climate change. On the one hand, energy wood has been ascribed a great significance to mitigate climate change and reduce dependency on fossil fuels. International agreements on climate change mitigation are thus perceived as the strongest political drivers of energy wood production and use. On the other hand, many stakeholders state that different forest management practices, technologies and assort¬ments used make it more complex to evaluate the carbon balance of energy wood. Stakeholders across the five countries point to the lack of public awareness about environmental effects of energy wood use and the importance of saving energy. In Germany, Norway and Slovenia, stakeholders predict that saving and more efficient use of wood will become more important. Important results from the COOL project, 2012-2014 are presented in the report More fodder for the oven? Dealing with forest related conflicts arising from the production and use of energy wood in Europe. Results from the COOL project av R Rhodius1, DM Peters1, K Wirth2, F Ferranti3, T Frei1, E Gorriz4, J Krc5, M Kurttila6, V Leban5, BH Lindstad7, S Pezdevsek Malovrh5, E Prokofieva4, A Schuck3, B Solberg7 and L Zadnik Stirn5 1University of Freiburg, 2Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg, 3European Forest Institute, 4Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia, 5Univerity of Ljubljana, 6Finnish Forest Research Institute, 7Norwegian University of Life Sciences Additionally, results are reported in scientific papers, other publications and presentations in different fora.

The demand for biofuels has rapidly increased during the last few years and it is estimated that this trend will continue. Underlying reasons are the rising costs of fossil fuels,peaking of oil production in many of the major producing countries as well a s the political instability in importaant producing countries. In addition to economic reasons for the substitution of fossil fuels, other reasons to foster a fuel switch relate to environmental pollution which is associated with high external costs, impa irment of ecosystem services and very high risks caused by possible climate change resulting from massive greenhouse gas emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels. This has created a rapidly increasing demand for bioenergy based on forest reso urces.The core objective of this project is to analyze, compare and evaluate different forest management approaches related to the issue of bioenergy production in sustainably managed forests of six selected, very heterogeneous European countries (Finland , Germany, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey), with special focus on the demands and constraints towards bioenergy production and related policy objectives at the national and at the European level. The research in each of the respective countries wil l be linked to the common research objectives, and will allow for a broad comparison with the situation of the other partner countries of the project. This approach allows the identification and comparison of important regional questions in the context of the WoodWisdom call objectives.