Tag Archives: NGO

45 NGOs criticizing FAO’s promotion of intensified forest use

Open NGO letter on FAO’s International Day of Forests 2017: political push to  increase the use of forests as fuel for energy production is based on flawed science…

The FAO and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests have chosen to use the International Day of Forests 2017 to promote the use of wood for energy, calling forests “nature’s power house”. As the key messages of the day point out, forests are a traditional source of energy but are also considered to be the world’s biggest source of renewable energy.

Unfortunately, this message ignores the serious negative impacts of growing bioenergy use on the environment, local communities, people’s health, the climate and, of course, our forests. The ongoing political push to significantly increase the use of forests as fuel for energy production – as an attempt to mitigate climate change – is based on flawed science and can create more problems than solutions.

In particular, the dramatic increase in the use of wood in industrial-scale energy installations is already contributing to greater climate pollution and forest destruction – and Europe is leading the way. The EU’s existing renewable energy targets are expected to create demand for roughly 100 million cubic meters more of wood to be used for energy,1 which in turn will significantly reduce the capacity of forests to sequester and store carbon2.

Large-scale demand for wood fuel energy can never be met by “wood wastes” alone – an industry claim that has been repeatedly debunked. …

Read more: Open Letter_Day of Forests

Large scale clearcutting of old growth forest. Semenic area, Romania.