Forest owner motivations and attitudes towards supplying biomass for energy in Europe
Affiliation:
1. Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden;2. European Forest Institute, Yliopistokatu 6, 80100 Joensuu, Finland;3. University of Lisbon, Centro de Estudos Florestais, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal;4. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research, Research Unit Forest Resources and Management, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland;1. Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Michigan State University, Justin S. Morrill Hall of Agriculture, 446 W. Circle Dr., East Lansing MI 48824-1039, USA;2. Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, 164 Food Safety and Toxicology Building, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA;1. Faculty of Forestry, University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan-Triesdorf, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 3, 85354 Freising Weihenstephan, Germany;2. Institute of Forest Management, Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354 Freising Weihenstephan, Germany;1. Department of Geography, College of Science, Swansea University. Singleton Park Campus, Swansea University, SA2 8PP Swansea, UK;2. Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), Cerdanyola del Valles 08193, Spain;3. InForest Jru (CTFC-CREAF), Solsona 25280, Spain;4. Joint Research Unit CTFC – AGROTECNIO, Ctra. de St. Llorenç de Morunys km 2, E-25280 Solsona, Spain;5. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain;6. CSIC, Cerdanyola del Vallés 08193, Spain;7. Department of Crop and Forest Sciences, University of Lleida, Av. Rovira Roure, 191, E-25198 Lleida, Spain;1. School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland;2. Department for Forest Management and Forestry Economics, Croatian Forest Research Institute, Zagreb, Croatia;3. Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia;4. North Karelia Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, Joensuu, Finland
Abstract:
The European Commission expects the use of biomass for energy in the EU to increase significantly between 2010 and 2020 to meet a legally binding target to cover at least 20% of EU's total energy use from renewable sources in 2020. According to estimates made by the member states of the EU, the direct supply of biomass from forests is expected to increase by 45% on a volume basis between 2006 and 2020 in response to increasing demand (Beurskens LWM, Hekkenberg M, Vethman P. Renewable energy projections as published in the national renewable energy action plans of the European Member states. ECN and EEA; 2011. http://https://www.ecn.nl/docs/library/report/2010/e10069.pdf accessed 25.04.2014]; Dees M, Yousef A, Ermert J. Analysis of the quantitative tables of the national renewable energy action plans prepared by the 27 European Union Member States in 2010. BEE working paper D7.2. Biomass Energy Europe project. FELIS – Department of Remote Sensing and landscape information Systems, University of Freiburg, Germany; 2011). Our aims were to test the hypotheses that European private forest owners' attitudes towards supplying woody biomass for energy (1) can be explained by their responses to changes in prices and markets and (2) are positive so that the forest biomass share of the EU 2020 renewable energy target can be met. Based on survey data collected in 2010 from 800 private forest owners in Sweden, Germany and Portugal our results show that the respondents' attitudes towards supplying woody biomass for energy cannot be explained as direct responses to changes in prices and markets. Our results, furthermore, imply that European private forest owners cannot be expected to supply the requested amounts of woody biomass for energy to meet the forest biomass share of the EU 2020 renewable energy target, at least if stemwood is to play the important role as studies by Verkerk PJ, Anttila P, Eggers J, Lindner M, Asikainen A. The realisable potential supply of woody biomass from forests in the European Union. For Ecol Manag 2011;261: 2007–2015, UNECE and FAO. The European forest sector outlook study II 2010–2030. United Nations, New York and Geneva; 2011 abbreviated to EFSOS II] and Elbersen B, Staritsky I, Hengeveld G, Schelhaas MJ, Naeff H, Böttcher H. Atlas of EU biomass potentials; 2012. Available from: http://www.biomassfutures.eu accessed 14.10.2013] suggest.
