A group of World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) member companies is calling for public policies that make the best use of the forestry sector’s carbon profile and carbon cycle. The Sustainable Forest Products Industry (SFPI) working group proposes six key points that those responsible for devising forestry and carbon policies need to know, and it highlights the carbon opportunities and challenges facing the sector in its publication, The Sustainable Forest Products Industry, Carbon and Climate Change: Key messages for policy-makers.

Specifically, the SFPI calls on policy-makers to:

•Support public policies that promote accelerated depreciation rates so that companies can invest in energy- and carbon-intensity improvements

•Promote the efficient use of biomass through the value chain including recycling, extraction of energy and wise use of limited land resources

•Promote biomass energy as an important component of policies to control atmospheric CO2 based on adequate supplies of fresh fibre and increased recovery of used wood and fibre

•Create public policies and carbon crediting schemes that recognize all activities that accomplish real and verifiable reductions in atmospheric greenhouse gases

•Carefully evaluate public policies for unintended consequences, particularly those adverse to the goals of achieving reductions in atmospheric concentrations of carbon and supporting a sustainable forest products industry

•Expand efforts to bring more of the world’s forests under sustainable management as a means of reducing carbon emissions.

The SFPI recognizes that opportunities abound in the forestry sector to maximize the sector’s contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including breakthrough technologies to significantly reduce energy consumption within the industry. “Supplying society and industry with increasing amounts of sustainably produced wood and fibre for use as a raw material for products and for bioenergy, and increasing the capture and use of recycled fibre are two key opportunities,” said Mikael Hannus, Stora Enso’s Vice President of Energy and Co-Chair of the SFPI Energy and Climate Action Team. But with the opportunities also come challenges, such as managing the complex connections between the industry and the global carbon cycle, where hastily enacted climate change policies can have unintended consequences, and the fact that the industry is capital intensive, making it difficult and expensive to change technology in response to short-term policy measures. Additionally, rapidly growing interest in using wood and other types of biomass for fuels and bio-based products creates competition for the industry’s primary raw material and the land where it grows. “With some 540 Mt/y of CO2 being removed from the atmosphere and stored in forest products, the forestry sector plays an important role in addressing the carbon challenge. This role can be maintained and enhanced through appropriate policies,” said Reid Miner, Vice President at the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, an independent, non-profit research institute that provided technical content for the publication. James Griffiths, WBCSD’s SFPI project director, notes that according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, around 20% of global CO2 emissions comes from forest conversion and degradation. “This means that bringing more of the world’s forests under sustainable management is a critically important mitigation strategy, and our working group urges all climate stakeholders – governments, development agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector – to support and implement appropriate policies that reduce deforestation in developing countries and encourage active reforestation,” he said. Meanwhile, Indonesia, host of a major climate change conference to be held in December, has called on rich countries to compensate poor states which preserve their rainforests to soak up greenhouse gases. “Countries that seek to enhance their carbon sinks — through forestation, afforestation, avoided deforestation — should be given incentive and rewarded fairly for doing so,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the UN General Assembly. Speaking a day after a one-day high-level UN meeting on climate change, Yudhoyono said he was optimistic about a meeting scheduled in Bali, Indonesia, for December aimed at jump-starting talks to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to curb climate-warming emissions. Indonesia has mobilized nations with most of the world’s tropical rainforests — Brazil, Cameroon, Congo, Costa Rica, Gabon, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea — ahead of the Bali talks to get rich countries to pay the world’s tropical nations not to chop down rainforests.

The forest sector in Europe should communicate effectively with EU level policy makers and representatives of other sectors and stakeholder groups in order to safeguard its interests, according to a recently published study in Europe. The doctoral dissertation ‘Communication in forest policy decision-making in Europe: a study on communication processes between policy, science and the public’ by Gerben Janse, indicated that personal communication with peers is the most important source of information for forest policy-makers, according to a report on European news service, AlphaGalileo. At present, the European Union is without a common forest policy.

It was also found out that the excess of information and complicated websites and inaccessible databases did not serve or attract the policy-makers. The study indicated both policy-makers and scientists agreed that scientific information should be presented in shorter and easier to comprehend formats and that scientists should be involved more in policy advisory meetings. It also recommended more personal contacts between scientists and policy-makers, according to the online news report. All in all, successful communication with policy-makers requires relationships and networks based on mutual trust, AlphaGalileo reported. Internal communication in the forest sector at the European (i.e. mainly EU) level is generally well developed, but the desired strengthening of communication with other sectors and the public at large is perceived as difficult, the report said. The study called for more active exchange of ‘best practices’ in forest communication at both national and European level and increased coordination of communication efforts is desired because of the varying expectations within the sector.

The provincial government is capable of stabilising the forest industry in New Brunswick, Canada, but is dragging its heels, New Brunswick Forest Products Association head Mark Arsenault has been quoted as saying. The comments related to the time taken for the Government to issue its biomass and long-term wood supply policies, the Telegraph-Journal said.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction and the government understands these things, but I do believe we have to move on these issues a lot faster,” Arsenault said. The two biggest issues facing the industry are energy and long-term wood supply. The report said future of New Brunswick mills would remain “in limbo” if energy costs were not reduced or the certainty of knowing there will be enough trees to process into paper and lumber was returned. “We have to find every way possible to reduce our costs and top of the list is energy,” Arsenault said. “That’s the biggest culprit right now.” A provincial biomass strategy would give firms the certainty they need to consider investments in cogeneration – the process of burning forest waste products, such as branches and leaves, to create steam that can be used in the manufacturing process or in the generation of electricity, the report said. “There (won’t) be any investment in cogeneration until we get a biomass policy,” said Arsenault. Without firm direction from government on biomass and wood supply, more mills could be in jeopardy, he said. “We need to know what the wood supply is going to be,” he said. “As companies are making their decisions as to what mills they’re going to shut down, wood supply and energy are at the top of their list.”

For years, Indonesia has made money by chopping down its forests. Now it wants to earn billions by preserving what is left, according to a report from Planet Arc in the lead up to this week’s UN climate change talks in Bali. The huge archipelago, with about 10% of the world’s tropical rainforests, is pinning its hopes on UN forum, which started this week.  About 190 countries will gather on the Indonesian resort island to try to hammer out a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, a global pact aimed at fighting global warming.

The government is backing a scheme that aims to make emission cuts from forests eligible for carbon trading, the report said. Experts estimate Indonesia could earn more than $13 billion by preserving its forests if the carbon trading plan gets support in Bali. “Carbon will be the new valuta (currency),” Wetlands International Senior Program Manager Marcel Silvius told Reuters. “In the coming years we may see investments in millions, in the next decade it may be hundreds of millions.” Indonesia’s forests are a massive natural store of carbon, but environmentalists say rampant cutting and burning of trees to feed the pulp, timber and palm oil sectors has made the country the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions.

For years, Indonesia has made money by chopping down its forests. Now it wants to earn billions by preserving what is left, according to a report from Planet Arc in the lead up to this week’s UN climate change talks in Bali. The huge archipelago, with about 10% of the world’s tropical rainforests, is pinning its hopes on UN forum, which started this week.  About 190 countries will gather on the Indonesian resort island to try to hammer out a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, a global pact aimed at fighting global warming.

The government is backing a scheme that aims to make emission cuts from forests eligible for carbon trading, the report said. Experts estimate Indonesia could earn more than $13 billion by preserving its forests if the carbon trading plan gets support in Bali. “Carbon will be the new valuta (currency),” Wetlands International Senior Program Manager Marcel Silvius told Reuters. “In the coming years we may see investments in millions, in the next decade it may be hundreds of millions.” Indonesia’s forests are a massive natural store of carbon, but environmentalists say rampant cutting and burning of trees to feed the pulp, timber and palm oil sectors has made the country the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions.

Vocational training should fortify the ability of workers to handle a wide range of different jobs, while university education should be honed to ensure that training and teaching coincide more closely with the forest industry’s future needs, according to the Finnish Forest Industries Federation. “The forest industry’s vocational and university teaching should come more closely in line with expertise requirements. In particular these constitute preparedness, together with group work and foreman skills, as well as the ability to extend personal expertise and transfer from one job to another,” Forest Industries Federation Managing Director, Anne Brunila, said last month.

“An understanding of the customer’s business remains a fundamental requirement of successful corporate activities.” The worker of the future in the forest sector will be capable of handling the processes, engaging in fruitful cooperation, and working easily within a group. They will have the basic requirements in chemistry and physics, in addition to good work management and foreman’s skills. They will be familiar with the products and customer requirements and understand the economic bases. Additionally, it is proposed graduates will possess adequate language skills to enable them to survive in an internationalising operating environment. Employees with such a broad array of capabilities will assist in the smooth running of the mill and work safely and efficiently in all kinds of work situations and tasks. Finland’s forest cluster’s research strategy lays down the outlines for university and college instruction and the development of teaching programmes. The research strategy calls for the different science disciplines and areas of expertise to be innovatively combined while at the same time making use of new scientific fields. The forest industry also hopes for design and modern wood architecture to be included in training. “University education needs to be supplemented by customer orientation, business acumen in the sector, entrepreneurship, and an overall grasp of business principles”, Anne Brunila added. Brunila said the importance of expertise and training as success factors will continue to grow. Persistent, systematic work in training is necessary to ensure competitiveness in the forest industry.

The National Association of Forest Industries in Australia has welcomed incoming Prime Mininster Kevin Rudd’s move to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Rudd reiterated his intentions at the Bali Conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which started this week. NAFI CEO Catherine Murphy said forestry was the only carbon positive industry and plays a significant role in reducing greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.

“The use of wood waste as a renewable energy resource also has the potential to provide a significant amount of green energy to the national electricity grid for Australian consumers,” she said. “However, the rules adopted for the forestry industry under the Kyoto Protocol do not recognise the full benefit of the forestry sector in providing a solution to climate change. “I look forward to working with the Prime Minister and ministers of the Rudd Government in developing the post Kyoto framework to ensure the full value of the benefits of forestry in addressing climate change are recognised.”

The first chips were fed into the digester in the Fray Bentos Botnia pulp mill in Uruguay earlier this month. The start up process is proceeding fluidly, according to the scheduled plan. The start up process began when the recovery boiler was turned on with fuel oil in order to generate the necessary high pressured steam to produce energy and warm up the different process areas, in particular the digester.

When the digester reached the necessary temperature, the cooking process began. A team of more than 200 Uruguayan and Finish technicians per shift are working in this process.

A US forestry company with most of its mills and 1,700 employees in British Columbia has filed for bankruptcy protection – it is the first major corporate failure in what many say is the industry’s worst downturn in memory, according to a report in a local paper. Portland-based Pope & Talbot filed for protection after failing to meet obligations to its creditors on several occasions. The move is likely first of many inevitable closures according to industry analysts who believe BC has too much capacity in a period of weak markets.

Kevin Mason of Equity Research Associates said while Pope & Talbot was under bankruptcy protection, it would only deepen the financial crisis for its competitors in this province: “Other producers are definitely hoping these [operations] will shut down,” he said. Companies under creditor protection usually keep running for whatever cash flow they can generate when, under other circumstances, they would shut down. Pope & Talbot has said it intends to keep operating. An announcement on the company’s website said it would continue to pay staff and that Pope & Talbot would continue to manage the business based on market conditions: “This protection is a necessary and responsible step for the company at this time,” President Harold Stanton said in a news release. Three of Pope & Talbot’s four BC sawmills are currently shut down temporarily. Its two pulp mills are operating although one is only running two of its three production lines. Market conditions, the high Canadian dollar and difficulty getting wood fibre are the conditions that have made it tough for the company to meet its obligations to creditors, a company spokesperson said.

Europe’s biggest papermaker Stora Enso Oyj plans to cut magazine, newsprint and pulp capacity as well as jobs after reporting a surprise third quarter loss as wood costs soared and the US dollar fell, according to an online report from Bloomberg. The loss was €439.9 million down from a profit of €58.9 million a year earlier. Sales figures changed only slightly at €3.23 billion. Analysts in a Bloomberg survey had predicted a profit of €134 million on sales of €3.83 billion.

Stora cited rising costs for wood and the dollar’s drop for the operating loss as it joined competitor UPM-Kymmene Oyj in reporting lower earnings. Chief Executive Officer Jouko Karvinen was yet to announce any major closures or disposals in Europe. Stora and other European papermakers have failed to close capacity fast enough to counter global oversupply, or to raise prices fast enough to outpace cost inflation.