Opportunities for a Forest Energy Industryin a Developing Country:An

Opportunities for a Forest Energy Industry in a Developing Country: An Example from Moldova

By VITALIE GULA AND ROBERT DEAL

eveloping sus- tainable ener- D gy from forest biomass presents both opportunities and challenges for the future genera- tions of Moldova. Vitalie Gulca Located in the south- eastern part of Europe between Ukraine and A landscape in the north part of Republic Moldova. Romania, Moldova is a relatively poor bioenergy pro- country with limited gram for natural resources Robert Deal Moldova based compared with other developing on forest biomass European countries such as Albania may provide a or Bosnia. This lack of fossil fuels similar strategy (natural gas, oil and coal) has result- that could greatly ed in a strong economical and politi- improve the econ- cal dependence on large neighboring omy. This countries including Russia and approach would Ukraine. Historically, agriculture has encourage farm- been the dominant land use; howev- ers to invest er, poor land practices in the country money, land and has degraded some of the formerly time in commer- richest soils in the world to a greatly cial forestry prac- Seed-tree method in Codrii, the most afforested central part of Moldova. diminished economy with few alter- tices aimed at natives. The development of a forest developing a bioenergy economy. of land area, respectively.The annual biomass and energy industry based The development of a bioenergy pro- average temperature is 30-36 degrees on forest resources could diversify gram for Moldova could result in F, and precipitation ranges from 22 and greatly improve the economy. economic independence, security and inches in the northern part of the Forest products and natural social health for future generations. country to 15 inches in the south. resources have had significant and However, there are numerous cultur- Forests cover about 804,000 acres positive effects on the economies of al, historical and political challenges with predominantly broad-leaved other countries in Europe. In that need to be overcome before this trees including oaks, acacia, ash, Sweden, for instance, it was the can be achieved. hornbeam and poplar. The total development of the mining, forest The current total land area of growing stock is 1,241 billion ft3 or and hydroelectric industries from Moldova is only about 13,000 square 286 ft3 of wood per capita, with an indigenous raw material that enabled miles and is dominated by agricultur- average of 4,379 ft3 per hectare. The them to become a modern industrial allands (58 percent), pastures (19 average annual growth of the forests nation. Denmark may soon become percent) and small villages (11 per- is estimated at 117 ft3/year/ha. In the world leader in straw combustion cent). Forest and water areas are lim- comparison, Oregon's annual growth and Norway is developing a robust ited, with forests and water compris- (including all forestland) is 182 wood pellets industry. Developing a ing about 11 percent and one percent ft3/year/ha. The total annual growth

26 . NORTHWEST WOODLANDS. SUMMER2010 of Moldova is around 39 million ft3 for the promotion of small-scale lenges for future generations of per year. In Oregon, gross total forestry in Moldova as a condition to Moldova and to learn to sustainably annual growth is 2.2 billion ft3 per produce energy from forest biomass manage forests. year. Moldova's forest sector supplies include reconciling conflict between about 16 million ft3 of wood mass pastures for rural people, priorities per year to the national economy. for private and state forests, invest- From total average annual harvested ments in forestry and other economic wood (14 million ft3) only 1.4 million factors. Bioenergy for Moldova ft3 (10 percent) is industrial timber. becomes a question of economic Most wood is used for firewood, independence, security and social which satisfies 60-70 percent of the health. As a consequence, to produce heating needs in rural areas. Almost energy using forest biomass from cre- all forestland is publicly owned and ated private forests will require local the state has exclusive responsibility rural people to solve current chal- for environmental protection func- tions. Moldova is a net energy importer, with only three percent of demand for primary energy covered by domestic sources. The total con- sumption of primary energetic resources (e.g. 6.5 million tones in 2004), could be provided by 670 mil- lion ft3 of forest biomass. To meet energy demands, harvesting an aver- age of 9,000-12,000 ft3 from 140,000- 190,000 acres of forests would be required. By also improving the pro- duction from biomass plantations and using other renewable resources of energy such as sun, wind and water, the forest area could be reduced to 75,000-100,000 acres. Using a forest rotation age of 15-20 years, approximately one to two mil- lion acres would need to be convert- ed into biomass energy plantations. This may be difficult to achieve, but creating forestland for biomass and energy production from private lands (most farmland in Moldova is pri- vate) would generate diverse eco- nomic opportunities for private landowners and include forestry along with agriculture and livestock that is more sustainable. There are three principal barriers to promote forest biomass as fuel or energy: lack of knowledge and expertise; legislative policy; and tra- ditions. Producing renewable energy in developing countries will require overcoming institutional, technical, economic, financial and information- al barriers. The actual impediments