The question of availability of wood in Europe on a sustainable basis is highly relevant to define global change mitigation strategies and targets for biomass energy as adopted at national and European level, and to support the proposal of an increased use of wood as a post-Kyoto decision. Future scenarios at EU-level highlight a deficit of wood supply compared to wood consumption of 47 Mm3 in 2005, 134 Mm3 in 2010, possibly reaching 436 Mm3 in 2020. Major issues to be clarified are the potential supply of tree biomass, trees outside the forest, and the economic, social and ecological conditions, which will determine the wood supply. This COST Action aims at improving information and methodologies on the potential sustainable wood supply based on the National Forest Inventories to reduce the given uncertainties. Such harmonised information is urgent to improve the calculation basis for decision makers in the forest, environment, and in the wood and energy sectors.
Wood resources - wood supply - improvement of information - harmonisation of data - national forest inventory - sustainability
