Multifunctional forestry, global change and the impact on mobilizing wood resources

The paper is aimed to present an overview of forest resources, considering the actual extent, at the European and global scale, of forest characteristics (forest area, growing stock, biomass and carbon store) and functions (productive and socio-economic) as well as the perspectives of long-term trends for supply and demand of forest products. The analysis is carried out on the basis of existing studies and statistics such as the Forests Resources Assessment (FAO, 2005), the European Forest Sector Outlook Study (UNECE, 2005) and the Workshop "National Wood Resource Balances" (2008). At European level the role of energy policies on forest sector (EU targets to produce 12% and 20% of energy from Renewable Energy Sources in 2010 and 2020, respectively) is also analysed in term of the impact on future wood supply and demand. According to the data actually available the EU future scenario highlights a deficit of wood supply in comparison with wood demand (rising from 46 Mm3 in 2005 to 134 Mm3 and 436 Mm3 in 2010 and 2020 respectively), thus suggesting the need to promote strategies able to mobilize additional forest resources in respect of sustainable management practices. However, the need to conduct detailed and realistic studies at national level in order to assess the potential wood supply considering different sources (like woody biomass from outside forest and post-consumer recovered wood) and the goal of developing a comprehensive research approach to cope with the deficit of wood supply, are stressed.