Eastern Europe, the Caucasian and the Central Asian regions can refer to a long tradition in the use of wood for heating particularly in rural areas. With the shift to market economy the countries energy needs have increased and frequently the growing needs could not been secured through markets.

There have been shortages in fossil fuel energy supply also in urban areas, which put additional pressure on forests and led to unsustainable forest cuttings. Nowadays, the use of fossil fuels (gas/oil) becomes more and more attractive also in rural areas, neglecting the environmental disadvantages of fossil fuel use. One reason for such a shift is to satisfy increasing needs in energy, another is the out-of-date technology used for individual energy generation from wood and other biomaterials. Considering the objectives for sustainable development in the target region it seems urgent to address the environmental advantages of renewable energies, such as wood or other bioenergy sources. High efficient energy technologies open new potentials for sustainable use of natural resources and integrated rural development.

This workshop addressed the environmental economic and social potentials for an effective, sustainable production and use of bioenergy in the CIS, focussing on wood. It aimed to explore market and policy options for promoting wood as a renewable energy source. Capacity building seems to be a tool for promoting advanced technologies related to the production and use of bioenergy from wood.

The workshop aimed to identify suitable national policies, to contribute to a shift towards bioenergy, balancing such an approach at the same time with environmental advantages of products, which compete on the energy and construction material markets. Also international projects could make an input to the broader use of bioenergy. The starting point will be the gathering and dissemination of robust data and information on bioenergy in order to evaluate the current status in the different countries sufficiently for policy decision making. Therefore country experts prepared national reports to provide an overview. The workshop targeted for links to small-scale enterprise and rural development.

Meeting documents

Background

Agenda

Presentations

Wood energy: definition, objectives and challenges Prof. Dr Branko Glavonjic, University of Belgrade Faculty of Forestry, Belgrade, Serbia

Wood energy data, markets and policy options Florian Steierer, Wood Energy Data Specialist, Hamburg University

Renaturalization of depleted peatlands managed by the forestry sector to combat land degradation and ensure conservation of globally valuable biodiversity in Belarus Olga Chabrouskaya, Project Manager, UNDP

National Initiative and Strategy Development for Strengthening Utilization of Wood Energy in Turkey Ismail Belen, Deputy General Director, General Directorate of Forestry, Turkish Republic

SEC Priorities & Activities for Forestry Sector in Central Asia Mustafa Ciftci, Junior Forestry Officer, FAO SEC

FAO Activities on Wood Energy in Eastern Europe Hubert Nimród Inhaizer, Forestry Consultant, FAO SEU

UNIDO activities in Newly Independent States Region with focus on Energy Projects Solomiya Omelyan, Field Operations Officer, UNIDO Europe and NIS Programme

Energy & Climate Change – the role of UNIDO Mark Draeck, Industrial Development officer, Rural and Renewable Energy Unit, Energy and Climate Change Branch, UNIDO

Options for Production Waste Minimization along the Wood Value Chain Juergen Hierold, Industrial Development officer, Agro-Industry Support Unit, Agribusiness Development Branch, UNIDO

Country presentations

Armenia (Energy) Армения

Armenia (Forestry – bilingual: En, Ru) Армения

Azerbaijan (Russian) Азербайджан

Belarus (Russian) Беларусь

Kazakhstan (Russian) Казахстан

Moldova (Russian) Молдова

Russia (Russian) Россия

Turkey Турция

Ukraine (Russian) Украина

Uzbekistan Узбекистан

Press

Aricle (in Russian)