As the EU promotes renewable energy with
clear targets for 2020 and the wood markets show increasing demand of
raw material, the present political discussions are focusing on
availability and mobilization of wood in Europe. On the other hand,
policies are being developed to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010
and beyond. Protecting biological and landscape diversity has resulted
in various protection regimes across Europe, which affect the economic
exploitation of forests. But to what extent do currently protected
forests limit the potential wood supply?
A recent study carried out at the European Forest Institute — "Impacts
of biological and landscape diversity protection on the wood supply in
Europe" — provides an estimate of the felling restrictions imposed by
biodiversity and landscape protection in European forests that are
currently protected and the wood volume affected. It was found that out
of a total forest area of 166.3 million ha in Europe, about 5.1-11.9
million ha is protected for biodiversity and an additional 17.3 million
ha is protected for landscape diversity. As a result, 11 to 30 million
m3 of wood could not be felled anymore due to biodiversity protection
and nearly 38 million m3 of wood due to landscape diversity protection.
The total of 68 million m3 is approximately the same as the volume of
roundwood production (overbark) in Germany and Italy combined in 2005.
These areas and volumes are likely to increase due to current and new
schemes to protect forests, said authors Pieter Verkerk, Giuliana
Zanchi and Marcus Lindner.
In addition to those constraints, there are areas covered by other
mandatory protection and protective schemes, management guidelines or
forest legislation which limit the availability of wood even further.
Several studies aimed to quantify the impacts of conservation on forest
owners and industry. Economic impact seems to be limited because the
reduced harvest volumes are compensated by increased timber prices. The
biggest impact is seen in the forest industries that rely on roundwood
as a raw material.
"Forest biomass has become increasingly important for bio-energy
production. Though there is a potential to substantially increase wood
removals across European countries, limitations on wood supply set by
biodiversity and landscape protection may conflict with these
developments in the long run."
The report serves as a source of information in discussing whether to
protect European forests for biodiversity or to harvest more wood for
producing bio-energy.
The study was funded by the Confederation of European Paper Industries
and by the European Commission as part of the EXIOPOL project.
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