From forest to furnace: optimising the wood-for-energy sector around the Mediterranean Rim

How can we increase the recourse to forest biomass usable for energy production around the Mediterranean Rim in a way that is sustainable economically, environmentally and socially? This was the many-facetted issue tackled by the eighteen partners involved in the Proforbiomed project. Superimposed on the European and global context of converting to new sources of energy and their sustainable development are more local issues: sustainable local use, pressures on the resource, the introduction of the products onto pre-existing markets... In order to respond in the most exhaustive manner possible, various slutions were tested and improved: reducing production costs through improvements to existing operational logging techniques, trials of new equipment, enhanced contacts with forest landowners, stugies for new installations of heating furnaces... This article presents a summary of the partners’ main activities.