The Baltic States

Table 8. Overview of recent estimates of woody biomass resources in the North European Region.

Reference Resource Potential Period Unit Finland Norway Sweden Ireland UK

(European (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011). Forest covers 7.7 million ha corresponding to 44 % of the total area.

13 % (1 million ha) is classified as primary forest, 70 % (5.4 million ha) is naturally regenerated forest, and 17 % (1.3 million ha) is planted forest. In all three countries the forest area has increased from 1990 to 2010 (FAO 2010).

11.1.2.2. Carbon

The total carbon stock in the forests in the Baltic States has increased from 971 to 1155 million tonnes between 1990 and 2010. Carbon in soil and litter constitute the largest fraction of the total carbon reservoir. There are no data on the reservoir in Estonia, why the total probably is underestimated.

112

Figure 55. Carbon stock in biomass (left pane) and in dead wood and litter (right pane) in the forest in the North European region. The evolution in carbon stock in dead wood in Latvia from 2000 to 2005 suggests a change in evaluation methodology between the year 2000 evaluation and 2005. Notice the logarithmic scale on the Y-axis in the right pane. Reference: (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011).

11.1.2.3. Forest ownership

Baltic forests are in both public and private ownership, with public ownership ranging from 40 to 66 % and private from 34 to 46 % (Table 9).

Table 9. Ownership structure of Baltic forests (FAO 2010).

Public Private Other

%

Estonia 40 43 17

Latvia 54 46 0

Lithuania 66 34 0

11.1.2.4. Legal and political framework

Baltic forests enjoy various levels of protection. 10-20 % of national forest areas are situated in protected area. Between 31 and 100 % of national forest areas are designated as permanent forest estate, which ensure that forests are not converted to other types of land use. A comparably large fraction of Baltic forests is covered by some level of forest management plans ensuring that forests are included in a certain level of long-term strategies (FAO 2010).

113 Table 10. Levels of protection of Baltic forests (FAO 2010).

Permanent forest estate Forest in protected area Forest with management plan

1000 ha % 1000 ha % 1000 ha %

Estonia 694 31 213 10 1,530 69

Latvia 1,737 52 610 18 3,354 100

Lithuania 2,160 100 433 20 2,160 100

All Baltic countries have a well-developed legal and policy framework on forests (FAO 2010). Forest policies, national forest programmes and specific forest laws are enacted in all countries. Furthermore the Baltic countries have ratified a number of supra national declarations and agreements including CBD, UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, CITES, Ramsar, WHC, NLBI. Latvia and Lithuania also have ratified the UNCCD.

11.1.2.5. Certification schemes

Certification schemes of sustainable forest management cover a large proportion of Baltic forests. PEFC is endorsed in Estonia and Latvia but not in Lithuania (PEFC 2012). Correspondingly FSC covers Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (FSC 2012). At least 3.8 million ha or 49 % of the Baltic forest area is covered by one of the two major certification schemes in Europe. To what extent certified forests are certified according to only one or both schemes is not known and the total area certified is probably higher than 3.8 million ha.

Table 11. Total forest area and certified forest area in the Baltic States. Some areas may be double certified.

Total forest area Forest area certified by FSC

The net annual increment in 2010 in Estonian and Lithuanian forests available for wood supply is estimated to 22 million m3 (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011). Data on forest increment is not available for Latvia.

Annual felling (2010) is estimated to 14 million m³ giving an average exploitation rate of 64 %. There are, however, national differences as Estonia had a reported exploitation in 2010 rate of 51 % and Lithuania 80

% (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011) Figure 56.

114

Figure 56. Annual volume increment and fellings in Baltic State forests in 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010 respectively (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011).

Estonia has seen a significant reduction in production of industrial wood and wood fuel since 1990. The opposite development is seen in Latvia and Lithuania where industrial round wood production has increased 2-4 times from 1990 to 2005 (FAO 2010).

In total the Baltic States have an installed pellet production capacity of approx. 2 million tons per annum (AEBIOM 2011, AEBIOM 2012) (Figure 57). The pellet production capacity is currently utilized to 57-70 % of its capacity. Denmark is the main market for Baltic wood pellets (Cocchi, Nikolaisen et al. 2011). The origin of the resources for pellet production is not recorded, but Estonia has a large wood industry sector that could supply the pellet industry (Cocchi, Nikolaisen et al. 2011).

115 Figure 57. Wood pellet production capacity and production

The Baltic States are among the 20 largest suppliers to the Danish wood chips import, with a trend towards increased export from the Baltics to Denmark (Danmarks Statistik 2012). Estonia and Latvia are among the net exporting countries in Europe. According to (Lamers, Junginger et al. 2012) Lithuania is a net exporting country, still considerable export to Denmark is possible re-export of imported biomass.

116

Figure 58. Patterns of wood chip trade to and from Europe. From (Lamers, Junginger et al. 2012).

11.1.2.7. Wood resource potential

(Alakangas, Heikkinen et al. 2007) estimate the amount of sawdust available against the pellet production capacity in the Baltic region. The situation in 2007 suggests that only Lithuania has secondary residue resource surplus to build up further capacity. These numbers does not, in themselves indicate resource shortages as the production capacity currently isn’t fully utilized (Cocchi, Nikolaisen et al. 2011), however, particularly in Estonia and Latvia the pellet production capacity has increased since 2007 (Figure 57).

The amount of woody biomass resources in the Baltic States sums up to somewhere between 50 and 160 PJ depending on which resource fractions are included (Table 8). The review of resource assessment suggests that Latvia has the most un-used biomass resources.

117

Table 12. Overview of recent estimates of woody biomass resources in the Baltic States.

Resource Potential Period Unit Estonia Latvia Lithuania Total

(European

Western Europe comprises Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The region is to a large extent dominated by temperate broadleaf and mixed forests. Temperate coniferous forests are found in mountainous areas (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011).

The total forest area in the region is 33 million ha corresponding to an average forest cover of 30 %. Forest cover in individual countries varies between 11 % (the Netherlands) and 47 % in Austria (FAO 2010).

Very little primary forest is left in Western Europe. Approx. 70,000 ha is characterised as such. 21 million ha is naturally regenerated and 8 million ha is planted. Data does not include Austria (FAO 2010).

Western Europe follows the general trend of Europe with increasing forest area. Since 1990 the forest area is extended with 2 million ha. The increase takes place particularly in France (FAO 2010).

11.1.3.2. Carbon

For the Western European region and reservoirs in total the amount of carbon stored has increased from 3.9 billion tonnes in 1990 to 4.8 billion tonnes in 2010. Data for France on carbon in dead wood and for Austria and Germany on carbon in soil and litter are not available (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011).

Particularly Franc and Germany exhibit a considerable increase in carbon stored in living forest biomass.