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Is the European forestry sector sustainable for the long-term?

Summary

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The EFORWOOD project assessed the long term economic, environmental and social sustainability of the European forestry value chain. Forest Research contributed its expertise on sustainable management practices and social and cultural evaluations. The research team supported the ToSIA sub-project to integrate sustainable impact assessments into a forestry decision management platform.

Key outputs

  • Publication of a set of sustainability indicators and guidelines on data collection
  • Launch of ToSIA – a computerized decision-support tool that provides decision-makers with objective insights into how changes in forestry management and the wood supply chain affect employment, the economy, biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions
  • Evaluation of the social and cultural value of European forests
  • Test case studies – using ToSIA to analyse the sustainability impacts of new technologies in Scandinavian sawmills, emissions policies in Baden Wurtemburg and the EU-wide adoption of the Natura 2000 nature conservation directive

Our involvement

As a full partner in the project Forest Research provided key experimental, conceptual and modelling expertise for the development of sustainability impact assessments, the core component of the ToSIA system. The team also provided substantial research resources and analysis into the cultural and social value of forests and woodlands. Forest Research worked with the Forestry Commission to provide the project with access to a well documented UK woodchain as a source of real-world data and as a test case for the project’s modelling and ToSIA outputs.

Publications

Funders and partners

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Funded by the EU Sixth Framework Programme.

The project involved 38 partner organisations from 24 countries.

Status

2005-2008

Contact

David Edwards


Sustainability impact assessment of the forestry-wood chain (EFORWOOD) – Work plan

Phase 1 – Defining forestry wood chains (FWCs) and developing a decision-support tool

This will focus on data collection and decision-support tool development for “Test Chains”, i.e. simplified example value chains from the sector.

The chain starts from planting trees, managing and using the forest (including recreational use), felling trees and transporting timber. It continues with various phases in manufacturing wood and fibre products, further refining and consumption, and ends with recycling of wood based materials.

Each process will be linked to indicators representing the three pillars of sustainability:

  • Examples of the economic indicators are the costs of and the value added to the units produced in the process
  • Social sustainability will be assessed by examining the recreational potential of the forests and by the impacts of employment, including that of female and youth employment
  • Environmental sustainability indicators include the impact of forestry activities on biodiversity, energy consumption, carbon balance and pollution produced in various manufacturing processes.

The essential research problem will be to find the appropriate level of detail in which to describe the forest-wood chain and which sustainability indicators should be used.

Several test chains will be used (e.g. Norway spruce from Scandinavian clear-cut forestry ending up in construction timber in Western Europe or Eucalyptus wood produced in short rotation forest in Portugal, used for fine print and then after recycling ending in newsprint).

The aim is to create a simulation tool, ToSIA (Tool for Sustainability Impact Assessment) that will calculate impacts of new technologies or the implementation of new policy instruments on the sustainability of the forest-based sector.

Phase 2 – Assessment and extension of decision-support tool

After an assessment of the prototype decision-support tool with stakeholders, it will be extended to complete “regional cases”, that are complete and real examples of forestry-wood chains.

The regional cases will be selected in agreement with the European Commission during the first year of the project, based on three main criteria:

  • Bio-geographical characteristics
  • Regional characteristics of the FWC
  • The expertise of the EFORWOOD consortium.

Phase 3 – Testing of decision-support tool on current European FWCs

It will also be used to study scenarios of future FWCs and allow identification of the most sustainable economic, social and environmental options.

The functioning of the decision-support tool for selected cases in the developing world will be tested.

A user-friendly, web-based version will be also be developed for users representing industry and policy-making, and demonstration packages for the web will made available.

Phase 4 – Reporting of results

This will include synthesis and reporting of the project outcomes.

Global aspects of FWCs will be analysed by looking at mutual influences on levels of sustainability of inherent inter-dependencies between European and regions outside Europe.

The final conference entitled “Shape your sustainability tools – and let your tools shape you“, was held in Uppsala, Sweden on 23rd and 24th September 2009.


Sustainability impact assessment of the forestry-wood chain (EFORWOOD) – Programme partners

Project partner name Short name Country
The Forestry Research Institute of Sweden (Co-ordinator) Skogforsk Sweden
Albert Ludwigs University, Freiburg ALUFR Germany
Alterra BV Alterra Netherlands
Asociación de Investigación y Desarrollo en la Industria del Mueble y Afines AIDIMA Spain
Association Forêt Cellulose AFOCEL France
Baden-Württemberg Forest Research Institute FVA Germany
BOKU – University of Natural Resources and Applied Sciences, Vienna BOKU Austria
Building Research Establishment BRE United Kingdom
Center for International Forestry Research CIFOR Indonesia
Centre Tecnologic Forestal de Catalunya CTFC Spain
CEPF – Confédération Européenne des Propriétaires Forestiers CEPF Belgium
CIRAD-Forêt CIRAD France
Confederation of European Paper Industries CEPI Belgium
European Confederation of Woodworking Industries CEI-Bois Belgium
European Forest Institute EFI Finland
Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products BFH Germany
Forest Research FR United Kingdom
Forest Research Institute IBL Poland
InnovaWood Limited InnovaWood Ireland
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique INRA France
Institute of Forest Ecosystem Research IFER Czech Republic
Instituto Superior de Agronomia ISA Portugal
JP Management Consulting (Europe) Oy JPC Finland
Kenniscentrum Papier en Karton KCPK Netherlands
Latvian Forestry Research Institute SILAVA Latvia
Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry IFE-MUAF Czech Republic
OY Keskuslaboratorio – Central-laboratorium AB KCL Finland
Savcor Indufor OY Savcor Indufor Finland
Slovenian Forestry Institute SFI Slovenia
STFI-Packforsk AB STFI-Packforsk Sweden
Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet SLU Sweden
Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) VTT Finland
Technical University in Zvolen TUZVO Slovakia
The Norwegian University of Life Sciences UMB Norway
The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University KVL Denmark
Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre CATIE Costa Rica
Unité de Recherché sur la Productivité des Plantations Industrielles UR2PI Congo Republic
Warsaw Agricultural University, Faculty of Forestry SGGW Poland

 

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Authors
Forestry Staff David Edwards.2e16d0ba.fill 600x600 1
David Edwards

Research Impact Coordinator