Environmentalists fear that in their bid to ensure enough biofuel, European governments may loosen forest protection. While Lithuania has no plans to increase logging quotas, forest owners say plenty of wood could be had just by clearing fallen trees.
Forests full of wood suitable for biofuel
Dead and fallen trees are plentiful in every forest. Some are left to support the natural ecosystem, others can be used as building materials or for fuel.
And it does not have to be a dense forest far from inhabited areas. Biofuel-suitable wood is abundant even inside Vilnius, in places like Karoliniškės Landscape Reservation.
Algis Gaižutis, board chairman of the Forest Owners Association, says that if places like these were cleared and fallen trees removed, it could supplement the mix of energy sources this heating season.
“There are so many dry and fallen trees that we could ensure sufficient supplies of biofuel even without increasing logging quotas, just by cleaning up forests,” says Gaižutis.
However, he adds, owners need permits to carry out any work in their forests, which takes several weeks to several months. A few years ago, the State Forest Service estimated that the country’s forests contain more than 21 million cubic metres of standing dead trees, three times the amount of timber that is produced and marketed annually in all forests.
Ričardas Skorupskas, associate professor at the Institute of Geosciences of Vilnius University, says that clearing some dead trees is a natural part of forest management.
“Removing some of the trees is a normal process […]. It is done in the twentieth, thirtieth, fortieth year of a forest and that wood, if it is not suitable for other things, can be a good source of biofuel,” says Skorupskas.
Threat to forests
Politico has recently reported that environmental organisations are worried for Europe’s forests. As countries face a massive energy crisis, some are increasing logging quotas in order to economise on gas.
Hungary is particularly has been criticised for allowing more logging even in protected areas. Latvia has allowed the felling of younger trees and Poles also have the blessing of the government to burn more wood.
Estonia and Lithuania have so far been reluctant to increase felling, but the Lithuanian government has taken steps to increase the supply of biofuels on the market.
Experts say that another measure that needs only one step from the Environment Ministry is to clarify the procedure for so-called plantation forests. These are trees planted specifically for felling, but they are legally classified as regular forests and are not allowed to be felled as easily as they could be.
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