LETTER TO THE DANES ON THEIR PART IN THE OVERUSE OF ESTONIAN FORESTS
Minister
for
Climate,
Energy
Minister for Environment, Lea Wermelin
and
Utilities,
Dan
Jørgensen
Members of the Climate, Energy and Utilities Committee (Folketinget, the Danish Parliament)
Members of the Environment and Food Committee (Folketinget, the Danish Parliament)
The nation of Denmark
Denmark
prides
itself
over
being
among
the
climate
leaders.
However, the Danish government has not "united behind the science" on the question of
woody biomass. The European Commission's own scientific advisory body
limits sustainable
biomass use for energy
to local wood and using wood waste and residues. Denmark is the
largest buyer of wood pellets produced in Estonia. These are not local, and Graanul Invest,
the largest pellet producer in the EU, openly admits that it uses whole trees and
waste/residues in a 1:1 ratio, while the ratio itself has not been verified.
The Estonian Fund for Nature, one of the most well regarded and active Estonian
environmental NGOs has
expressed its opinion
about the supposed sustainability of the pellet
trade:
"The biomass harvest and exports from a country that is losing its carbon sink and is on the
course of decline in forest carbon stock is not sustainable in climate perspective, even if criteria
is met on forest unit level. Nor is it sustainable from the perspective of protecting biodiversity
of forests: Estonian forest bird numbers are in decline and most forest habitat types are in
unfavorable state despite the huge area covered by different existing certification schemes.
These observations apply to certification based on Chain of Custody risk assessment and that
based on a series of detailed management practices descriptions on a forest unit level alike.
Both turn a blind eye on wider problems this new industry brings to forest management in
general."
The Brussels-based sustainable forest policy organization Fern
recently described
the current
Estonian forest policy thus:
"Estonia is logging its forests at a rate that would reduce its forest sink by more than a half."
-
- referring to if the current harvesting levels were maintained over the next decade -- both the
industry's representatives and state's development plans support an even greater volume.
Estonia is, in fact, one of Europe's most intensive forest economies. As the EU Commission
has pointed out that the entire EU-s forest sector is not sustainable neither
climate-
nor
biodiversity-wise,
it follows that in Estonia these problems would be seen most intensively.
And indeed, there has been
over three years
of intense public opposition to the extant forest
policy.
It is widely agreed that the sustainable harvesting level for Estonian forests is around 8 million
cubic meters per year. The Estonian Environmental Agency estimated in 2013 that the
maximum sustainable logging volume (doubles for a climate neutral logging volume in that
equation) for Estonia is 8,4 Mm3. The Estonian forest policy frame document from 1997 states
it as 7,8 Mm3. An impact assessment ordered by the Estonian Ministry of the Environment