Legal Harvesting, Sustainable Sourcing and Cascaded Use of Wood for Bioenergy: Their Coverage through Existing Certification Frameworks for Sustainable Forest Management
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Copernicus institute (Utrecht University), Heidelberglaan 2, Utrecht NL-3584 CS, The Netherlands
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Jinke van Dam Consultancy, van Beesdelaan 25, Bunnik NL-3981 EC, The Netherlands
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Control Union Certifications, Meeuwenlaan 4-6, Zwolle NL-8011 BZ, The Netherlands
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UK Forestry Commission, Forest Research, Alice Holt Lodge, Wrecclesham, Farnham Surrey GU10 4LH, UK
5
Energy and sustainability research institute (Groningen University), Nijenborg 4, Groningen NL-9747 AC, The Netherlands
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Forests 2014, 5(9), 2163-2211; https://doi.org/10.3390/f5092163
Received: 19 December 2013 / Revised: 4 September 2014 / Accepted: 9 September 2014 / Published: 16 September 2014
The first objective of this paper was to provide an inventory of developments of certification schemes for sustainable biomass production, following recent EU legislation (both formalized and under development). One main pillar is the EU Timber Regulation for legal harvesting; a second one is the EU’s 2010 recommendations for sustainable woody biomass sourcing for energy; the third one is the EU Waste Directive. The second objective was to benchmark the coverage of this (draft) legislation, when wood product certificates for sustainable forest management (SFM) are used as proof of the related legislative requirements. We studied North America, as it is a major biomass supplier to the EU-28. Together with existing forest legislation in the US and Canada, SFM certificates are actively used to cover the EU’s (draft) legislation. However, North American forests are only partially certified with fibers coming from certified forests; these are referred to as forest management (FM) fibers. Other certified fibers should come from complementary risk assessments downstream in the supply chain (risk based fibers). Our benchmark concludes that: (a) FM fiber certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) international standards show the highest level of coverage with EU’s (draft) legislation; (b) There is insufficient coverage for risk based fibers by FSC Controlled Wood (FSC-CW), PEFC Due Diligence (PEFC-DD), or SFI-fiber sourcing (SFI-FS). Other weaknesses identified for elaboration are: (c) Alignment in definitions are needed, such as for primary forest, high carbon stock, and wood waste (cascading); (d) Imperfect mass balance (fiber check downstream) needs to be solved, as non-certified fiber flows are inadequately monitored; (e) Add-on of a GHG calculation tool is needed, as GHG life cycle reporting is not covered by any of the SFM frameworks.
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Keywords:
sustainable forest management (SFM); certification; chain-of-custody (COC); solid biomass; bio-energy; North America; Europe; Renewable Energy Directive (RED); EU Timber Regulation (EUTR); Waste Directive
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MDPI and ACS Style
Sikkema, R.; Junginger, M.; Van Dam, J.; Stegeman, G.; Durrant, D.; Faaij, A. Legal Harvesting, Sustainable Sourcing and Cascaded Use of Wood for Bioenergy: Their Coverage through Existing Certification Frameworks for Sustainable Forest Management. Forests 2014, 5, 2163-2211.
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