Woodland Management for Woodfuel Production

Increasing concern about climate change and the impact of CO2 in the atmosphere is driving resurgence in the use of woodfuel.

If managed appropriately, woodfuel is a renewable energy source which can have wider environmental benefits beyond its carbon footprint impact. As such, it is attractive to green consumers and its wider use would support EU, UK and Scottish energy, carbon and climate change policies.

Woodfuel markets are expanding with drivers such as:
• Increasing fossil fuel costs
• The Scottish Government target to derive 11% of Scotland’s’ heat budget from renewable sources
• The Scottish Government target to increase woodland cover to 25% by the second half of this century

All driving opportunities for business start up, diversification and expansion.

This provides an opportunity to ensure that sustainable woodfuel production and best environmental practice are integrated into future land-use planning, to develop strategies to avoid wood product displacement, and to ensure that woodland and other habitats are appropriately balanced at the landscape scale.

The growing number of woodfuel installations is driving growth in woodfuel demand. This provides opportunities to increase forest structural and species diversity, to bring previously uneconomic or undermanaged forests into sustainable management, and to create new woodlands, while maximising financial and environmental benefits.

The opportunities for woodland owners are significant and not restricted to professionally managed, large forests. Market expansion is providing the room for all levels of production, from the small to large scale; even small woodlands have the potential to supply woodfuel economically on a local scale.
With a large proportion of new entrants to the market, there is both a need for best practice and an opportunity to ensure that we disseminate skills which will allow wood fuel market expansion to deliver sustainable benefits to businesses, wildlife and the environment.

Bringing more woodland into management can increase woodfuel available to local markets. An increasing demand for woodfuel provides woodland owners with an incentive to manage their land productively, improving conditions for wildlife and amenity.

Woodland biodiversity is a valued component of sustainable forests, contributing to the ecological functioning and health of woodland ecosystems and woodfuel supplies are derived almost as a by-product of the responsible, sustainable practice of woodland management. Measured, planned extraction means that the woodland can provide a continuing supply of renewable wood fuel energy as well as improving biodiversity.