A workshop is coming up to engage stakeholders to identify ways to improve data and data use for documenting sustainable forest management in wood pellet supply chains.
The workshop under the long title “Adequacy of spatial databases for conducting risk assessments of sustainable wood sourcing practices of the U.S. industrial wood pellet industry supplying European energy demand” will take place 1-3 May 2019 in University of Georgia, Athens, GA USA. It is a follow-up workshop from the conference “Biomass feedstocks for energy markets”, co-arranged by the SNS-NKJ network “Governing sustainability of bioenergy, biomaterial and bioproduct supply chains from forest and agricultural landscapes” and CAR-ES III “Centre of Advanced Research on Environmental Services from Nordic Forest Ecosystems”.
The workshop aims to identify ways to improve data and data use for documenting sustainable forest management in wood pellet supply chains through the following:
- Review current wood sourcing practices and state-of-art practices for conducting company level and regional risk assessments of the U.S. industrial wood pellet industry supplying European bioenergy demand, based on the findings of a new study and company experiences.
- Identify new ways in which existing regional databases and data collected by use of new technologies can help conducting supply area, regional and national level risk assessment.
- Identify possible needs for improved or new data.
- Discuss alternative approaches to certifying wood pellet feedstock sourced from sustainably managed forests in the southeast U.S., such as group certification.
- Discuss proposals for improving the overall efficacy of Forest Management Unit level, group and risk-based certification for all stakeholders associated with wood pellet supply chains to Europe and other developing regional markets.
Program, registration and information about the workshop (PDF)