11. WOOD BIOMASS POTENTIALS AND ASSOCIATED SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES
11.1. Europe
11.1.1. Northern Europe
11.1.1.1. Forest areas and types
The region is characterised by temperate broadleaf and mixed forests to the south and boreal forests in the north (UNEP, FAO et al. 2009). In a forest perspective the region is very inhomogeneous. The southern, predominantly temperate part is characterised by countries with little forest cover (11-12 %) and small forest areas (0.7-2.8 million ha). In the northern part countries have large forest covers (33-73 %) and large forest areas (10-28 million ha) (FAO 2010).
The total forest area in the region is 64 million ha of which 2.8 million ha are characterised as primary forest, 47 million ha as naturally regenerated forest, and 14 million ha as planted forest (FAO 2010).
All countries have seen a positive development in the forest area. Particularly in Ireland, the forest area has increased rapidly, with annual growth rates between 1 and 3% from 1990 to 2010. For the region as a whole the forest area has increased with 2.7 million ha since 1990 (FAO 2010).
105 11.1.1.2. Carbon
The total the amount of carbon stored in North European forests has increased from 10.2 billion tonnes in 1990 to 10.9 billion tonnes in 2010 (). The total amount is probably underestimated as no data on carbon in soil and litter are available for Norway. Due to their large forest area, Finland and Sweden contributes most to the region’s carbon reservoirs. In Finland, in particular, a lot of carbon is stored in soil and litter (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011).
Figure 51. Carbon stock in biomass (left pane) and in dead wood and litter (right pane) in the forest in the North European region. Notice the logarithmic scale on the Y-axis in the right pane. Reference: (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011).
11.1.1.3. Ownership
Private ownership is predominant in the North-western European region except for Ireland (Table 5).
Furthermore 2/3 or more of the privately held forests are owned by individuals and most of the rest by companies. In Norway and Sweden tribal communities own a minor fraction of the privately held forests.
Table 5. Ownership structure of North European forests (FAO 2010).
Country Public Private Other
%
Finland 32 68 0
Norway 14 86 0
Sweden 24 76 0
Ireland 58 42 0
UK 35 65 0
106 11.1.1.4. Forest governance
North European forests are framed by well-developed legal and policy measures. Forest policies, national forest programmes and specific forest laws are enacted in all countries.
Table 6. Levels of protection of North European forests (FAO 2010).
Permanent forest estate Forest in protected area Forest with management plan
1000 ha % 1000 ha % 1000 ha %
Finland 1,925 9 14,497 65
Norway 421 4 167 2 4727 47
Sweden 1,435 5 28,203 100
Ireland 739 100 58 8 570 77
UK 2,881 100 145 5 1,870 65
The North European countries also have ratified a number of supra national declarations and agreements that may be relevant to various aspects of forest and wood sustainability. These include CBD3, UNFCCC4, Kyoto Protocol, UNCCD5, ITTA6, CITES7, Ramsar8, WHC9, NLBI10 (FAO 2010). To meet the CBD Strategic Plan for 2011-2020 that aim at reducing the loss of biodiversity, the EU adopted six regional strategic targets for 2020, and visions for 2050, see the section on biological diversity for details.
A large part of the forest area is certified according the FSC or a national system endorsed by PEFC (Table 7).
3 Convention on Biological Diversity
4 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
5 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
6 International Tropical Timber Agreement
7 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
8 The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
9 World Heritage Convention
10 Non-legally Binding Instruments on Forests, United Nations Forum on Forests
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Table 7. Total forest area and certified forest area in Northern Europe. Some areas may be double certified.
Total forest area Forest area certified by FSC
Forest area certified by PEFC
1000 ha % 1000 ha % 1000 ha %
Finland 22,157 73 430 2 21,068 95
Norway 10,065 33 254 3 9,126 91
Sweden 28,203 69 11,590 41 10,544 37
Ireland 739 11 447 60 0 -
UK 2 881 12 1,580 5 1,298 45
11.1.1.5. Wood and wood fuel production
In total net annual increment in 2010 in forests available for wood supply is estimated to 230 million m3 (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011). Ireland is not included as data on forest increment is not available.
Annual felling (2010) is estimated to 162 million m3 corresponding to an average exploitation rate of 70 %.
Figure 52. Annual increment and felling in North European forests in 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010 (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011).
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Exploitation rates differ between countries and vary over time. In Norway and UK has upheld a stable rate at app. 50 % for the last ten years, while the Finnish rate currently is 15 points and the Swedish another 20 points higher. Both countries, however, exhibit a decreasing trend (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011).
Figure 53. Exploitation rate (felling divided with increment) in the North European region. Data on increment in Ireland is not available (FOREST EUROPE, UNECE et al. 2011).
In all countries except Norway industrial wood production has increased since 1990. Also wood fuel production has increased except in Ireland (FAO 2010). The current (2011) total production of industrial round wood in the region is 131 million m3 more or less evenly shared between coniferous and broadleaved species. Corresponding figure for wood fuel is 15 million m3 in total with 56 % from broadleaved species (FAO 2012).
The pellet production capacity in Sweden by 2011 is estimated to 2.3 million tons, with a production of 1.35 million tons ((AEBIOM 2011, AEBIOM 2012) (Figure 54). The Swedish pellet production is completely based on wood industry residues (Cocchi, Nikolaisen et al. 2011). The Finish capacity is estimated to 650,000 tonnes, with a production of 310,000 tonnes based mostly on wood industry residues. Sweden and Denmark are the main markets for Finnish pellets. Norway has a capacity of less than 600,000 tonnes but utilizes very little of that capacity, with a production of 45,000 tonnes in 2010 (Cocchi, Nikolaisen et al.
2011). The current production in Norway is based predominantly on wood industry waste, but new capacity
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is build that will rely on imported wood chips from North America. Wood pellets are traded extensively between Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
For the UK data are limited, but the capacity in 2011 is estimated to 480,000 tons, with a production of 300,000 tons. Most plants operate on wood industry residues, but also wood waste, wood from short rotation forestry and forest thinnings go into the production. Denmark is by far the largest buyer of UK pellets. The Irish production capacity is very low, below 100,000 tons (AEBIOM 2011, AEBIOM 2012), with a utilization rate of 34 % (Cocchi, Nikolaisen et al. 2011).
Figure 54. Pellet production capacity and production in Northern Europe. Based on statistical data from (AEBIOM 2011, AEBIOM 2012)
Summing up the total current production capacity in the North European region is around 3.5 million tons annually, with an increase in capacity primarily seen in Sweden and Norway.
Sweden, Finland and UK are among the 20 largest contributors to the Danish wood pellet import. Imports for Norway and Ireland cover 0.1 % or less of wood pellet imported from 2009-11. In total about 580 million kg have been imported from these five countries from 2009-11 (Danmarks Statistik 2012).
The North European region is also well represented in the Danish wood chips import. Sweden, UK, Norway and Finland are among the 20 biggest contributors. For the sake of scale Sweden has from 2003-11
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exported 517 million kg wood chips to Denmark, which is between 35 and 55 times as much than the other countries mentioned (Danmarks Statistik 2012).
11.1.1.6. Wood resource potential
A number of assessments of wood based bioenergy resources have been made over the years, e.g. (Hetsch 2009), (Alakangas, Heikkinen et al. 2007), (Asikainen, Liiri et al. 2008), (Ericsson and Nilsson 2006), (European Environment Agency 2006), (Mantau, Saal et al. 2010), (Smeets and Faaij 2007). A recent review (Bentsen and Felby 2012) demonstrate the variability between studies caused by differences in assumptions, definitions and temporal and geographical scope. A number of recent estimates of forest resources available for energy are presented in Table 8. Direct comparison between studies must be done with caution. They include various fractions of wood resources and calculate different biomass potentials.
Technical potentials as given by (Ericsson and Nilsson 2006) and (Böttcher, Dees et al. 2010) estimates the amount of biomass technically available with existing technology and constraints imposed by e.g. land availability, access, and crops. Some level of environmental constraints may also be applied. Techno-economic potentials (Alakangas, Heikkinen et al. 2007) are the fraction of technical potentials exploitable with a profit. Environmentally-compatible potentials (European Environment Agency 2006) are often also seen as sustainable potentials are a fraction of the technical potential constrained by environmental considerations. The potential given by (Hetsch 2009) estimate the amount of wood resource from primary biomass, primary and secondary residues, stumps and consumer waste available additional to the year 2005 consumption. This estimate indicates an unused resource potentially available.
As described above the biomass potentials presented in the Table 8 are not directly comparable. They do, however, rank the countries identically. The North European region, particularly Sweden and Finland, hold sway over large woody biomass resources. Ireland has very little biomass resources and probably also Norway.