Wood

Two major national priorities-mitigating climate change through the reduction of fossil fuel emissions, and greater energy security through increased use of domestic renewable energy, have expanded the demands for wood-based bio-energy. This approach to producing energy may decrease forest degradation from loggers taking only the largest trees of the forest to cutting, previously, less desirable timber. However, this approach may have negative consequences as well.

Go4Bio-Energy in collaboration with a myriad of other interested groups, is convening a dialogue to help guide the development of wood-based bio-energy as a major energy source. The dialogue aims to develop and implement an effective strategy for identifying and characterizing the potential risks to conservation values arising from wood-based bio-energy development, and establish safeguards that will minimize these risks.

So the question is not will there be an expansion in wood-based bio-energy, but how the expansion will occur so as to maximize its value for progress toward an ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable energy future.