Forest

1. USAID LEAF
Regional Climate Change Curriculum Development
Module: Basic Climate Change (BCC)
Section 3. Responses and adaptation to
climate change
3.7. Bioenergy and the Forest

2. BasicClimateChange(BCC)ModuleTeam
Name Affiliation Name Affiliation
Michael Furniss; Co-Lead US Forest Service David Ganz, Chief of Party USAID LEAF Bangkok
Bunleng Se; Co-Lead Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia Chi Pham, Project Coordinator USAID LEAF Bangkok
Chan Hoy Yen Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Naroon Waramit Kasetsart University, Thailand
Kalyan Ly Royal University of Agriculture, Cambodia Phi Thi Hai Ninh Vietnam Forestry University, Vietnam
Somvang Phimmavong National University of Laos Lam Ngoc Tuan Dalat University, Vietnam
Latsamy Boupha National University of Laos Le Hai Yen Dalat University, Vietnam
Sokha Kheam Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia Nguyen Le Ai Vinh Vinh University, Vietnam
Ahmad Makmom Bin Abdullah Universiti Putra Malaysia Nguyen Thi Viet Ha Vinh University, Vietnam
Jirawan Kitchaicharoen Chiang Mai University, Thailand Nicole Kravec USAID LEAF Bangkok
Thaworn Onpraphai Chiang Mai University, Thailand Hour Limchhun USAID LEAF Cambodia
Patthra Pengthamkeerati Kasetsart University, Thailand Le Nhu Bich Dalat University, Vietnam
Kieu Thi Duong Vietnam Forestry University, Vietnam Somsy Gnophanxay National University of Laos
Truong Quoc Can Vietnam Forests and Deltas Program Karen Castilow University of Virginia
Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand Geoffrey Blate US Forest Service
Mokbul Morshed Ahmad Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand Elizabeth Lebow US Forest Service
Ly Thi Minh Hai USAID LEAF Vietnam Kent Elliott US Forest Service
Danielle Morvan Tulane University, New Orleans Ann Rosecrance California State University., Northridge
Andrea Tuttle Freelance consultant Somsy Gnophanxay National University of Laos
Sermkiat Jomjunyoug Chiang Mai University, Thailand Jamil Tajam Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Sampan Singharajwarapan Chiang Mai University, Thailand Ajimi Bin Jawan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Chea Eliyan Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia Ratcha Chaichana Kasetsart University, Thailand
Developers
Reviewers
Basic Climate Change Module Team

3. I. HOW AND WHY THE CLIMATE IS CHANGING
1.1. Introduction to Climate Science and Climate Change
1.2. The Causes of Climate Change
1.3. Climate Intensification: Floods and Droughts
1.4. Climate Modeling
II. THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
2.1. Introduction to Climate Change Impacts
2.2. Sea Level Rise
2.3. Climate Change and Water Resources: Effects
2.4. Climate Change and Food Security
2.5. Climate Change and Human Health
2.6. Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems
III. REPONSES AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
3.1. Climate Change and Forest Management
3.2. Climate Change and Water Resources: Response and Adaptation
3.3. Principles and Practice of Climate Vulnerability Assessment
3.4. Dealing with Uncertainties in Climate Change
3.5. Introduction to Ecosystem Services
3.6. Introduction to REDD+
3.7. Bioenergy and the Forest
3.8. Communications and Engagement
IV. CURRICULUM MODUL RESOURCES AND TOOLS
4.1. Curated Video Collection
4.2. Literature – Annotated Bibliography
4.3. Climate Change Glossary
4.4. Reading and Video Assignments and Problem Sets

4. At the end of this session, learners will be able to explain:
 The roles of forests in bioenergy technology
 The benefits and adverse impacts of bioenergy
 Sustainable forest management in bioenergy production

5.  Renewable Energy and Biomass from the forest
 Introduction to modern bioenergy and the advantages
 Challenges and Risks
 Sustainable Forest Management for Bioenergy
 Biomass Feedstock and supply
 Possible adverse Impacts
 Policy Considerations

6. http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/C
O2EmissionsFromFuelCombustionHighlights2013.pdf
Which is the dominant
fuel in the Total
Primary Energy Supply
(TPES)?
Which is the dominant
fuel in CO2 emission?
Coal – the
“Dirtiest”
RE – the “cleanest”

7. http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/Renew_SEAsia.pdf

8. Source: OECD/IEA 2007

9.  Biomass: Any organic matter (decomposing) derived from
plants or animals available on a renewable basis.
 Biomass includes wood and agricultural crops,
herbaceous and woody energy crops, municipal organic
wastes as well as manure.
 Woody biomass is primarily comprised of carbohydrates
and lignin produced through the photosynthetic process.
 Woody biomass is the accumulated mass, above and
below ground, of the wood, bark, and leaves of living and
dead woody shrubs and trees.

10.  Firewood (fuelwood) and charcoal,
wood chips, mill residues, wood
pellets, and logs
 Biomass derived from silvicultural
activities (such as thinning and
pruning) and harvesting and
logging: tops, roots and branches
of trees
 Or industrial by-products derived
from primary and secondary forest
industries (lumber, pulp, paper,
etc.)
Volume Differences of
the Same Weight
Material by Different
Product Types
Source: Hubbard et al 2007

11.  Use of woody biomass: bioenergy, paper, construction, furniture, etc.
 Bioenergy is energy derived from the conversion of biomass where biomass
may be used directly as fuel, or processed into liquids and gases.
 Bioenergy: One of the fastest growing market for wood
 Global level: biomass energy (both traditional and modern) makes up 77% of
world renewable energy
 87% are from trees and woody plants
 Traditional biomass use in cooking and heating: fuelwood, agricultural
residues and animal dung
 The commercial biomass supply for heat and electricity: Wood pellets,
woodchips and other types of woody biomass

12.  Woody biomass from industries by-products or residues
from harvesting had low market value
 Commonly used as fuels among the poor or rural
communities
 Today: additional value as feedstock for modern
bioenergy

13.  http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-20303668
 Woody Biomass - Filling the Fossil Fuel Gap video
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5oxiSTcycE
 Biomass Fuels Energy Supply
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN68ef6trEs
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmfAvchm1Xs
 Co-firing
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ587pg66Ss

14. Alternative to fossil fuels, helps reduce greenhouse gases
 Mitigation through the process of carbon sequestration,
or removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into
long-lived carbon pools
 However, net carbon emissions from generation of a unit
of electricity from bioenergy are 10 to 20 times lower
than emissions from fossil fuel-based electricity
generation

15.  In the absence of losses, bioenergy is carbon-neutral, since the carbon
released on combustion is taken up in the next cycle of the plant or tree
growth.
 Carbon sequestration is based on the type of biomass and soils, the level
of biological activity, and other physical and climatic factors.
 However, losses can occur in the supply chain and losses from soil and
root systems can occur as a result of land-use change.
 The greenhouse gas impacts of bioenergy are necessarily based on the
entire lifecycle, from planting through harvesting, transport and end-use.
 The large-scale cultivation of bioenergy crops using agroforestry can have
significant implications for the greenhouse gas balance where land is
cleared
 Fossil energy is needed in producing bioenergy: during felling of trees in
the forest or hauling of timber; logistic

16. Source: OECD/IEA 2012

17.  Restore degraded lands:
 Improvements in biodiversity, soils and water
 Afforestation may prevent soil erosion
 Reduction of wildfire: removal of logging residues
 Reductions of water runoff and sediment loss:
 biomass plantations stabilise soil by their roots and leaf
litter
 Reduction of wind erosion when plated as shelterbelts

18.  Job creation:
 Labor-intensive than other energy resources to grow and harvest the
bioenergy resources
 Generate income:
 Biomass residues and wastes that may have substantial disposal costs can
instead be converted to energy for sale or for internal use
 In east Texas:
 Bioenergy industry would create 1,338 jobs. The value-added would be
about $215 million, while output would be $352 million
 In Georgia:
 Using 440 tons of biomass daily would generate 95 jobs and state tax
revenue of $991,000 per year. Direct and indirect impacts from the goods
and services produced at the plant would be about $33 million

19. Source: OECD/IEA 2007

20.  Biomass store energy
 can be drawn on at any time
 daily or seasonally intermittent causing solar, wind, wave and
small hydro sources need high costs of energy storage
 Biomass can be transformed into all forms of energy carriers –
electricity, gas, liquid fuel and heat. Solar, wind, geothermal,
wave and hydro are limited to electricity and, in some cases,
heat
 Bioenergy is expected to be the main renewable energy
supply
 One of the fastest growing market for wood

21.  Binding target: supply 15% of final energy demand from RE by
2020
 This target corresponds to: 5 times of RE supply in 2010 or an
increase of 20% per year
RE Supply
x 100% = RE target
Final Energy Demand
In order to achieve
the RE target
More energy
generated from RE
Reduce consumption by energy
efficiency measures – if failed
to achieve, MORE RE will be
needed

22.  Main RE in UK: Bioenergy & Wind
 In 2012: Bioenergy is about 74% of total RE supply
 Optimistic scenario: to achieve 2020 target, primary energy
from biomass needs about 37GW
 In average, for plant-based biomass: 1kg of biomass generate
15MJ of energy
 A tonnes of oil contains nearly 3 times more energy than a
tonne of wood!!
 Require: 80 mil tonnes of biomass per year
 More than 1 tonnes/person per year in the UK

23. Source: Hubbard et al 2007
Conversion to electricity has lower
efficiency than heat
 Smaller MJ/kg

24. 2004 - 2006 By 2020
Source: D.J. Ward & O.R. Inderwildi (2013)
Only 4%
But 6
times
greater
UK
UK demand alone could lead to
almost doubling of world trade in
wood chips and pellets
What would happen if other
developed countries that also
expected to have high demand
biomass for energy?
Dramatic increase
in global trade
UK as an Example

25.  The demand for bioenergy in developed countries and land-
constrained countries such as China and India has raised the
prospect of growing large-scale agro-energy crops in
developing countries for export
 This could lead to deforestation and increased competition for
land in developing countries and exacerbate existing land-use
conflicts
 In the second half of the twentieth century: high rates of
deforestation due to to agro-industrial expansion

26. Source: European Union 2012
Source: European Union 2012

27. Power Plant
Deforestation/
forest
degradation
Source: IPCC , Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report

28. Source: OECD/IEA, 2007

29. “Bad” projects are usually designed to maximise the short-term
profit of the investors with little consideration for the wider
issues involved
“Good” projects are designed to remain sustainable in the long
term based on full life cycle analysis
 The balancing of supply and demand across the various types
of forests and other wood-based biomass resources is crucial
 Need better use of residues and waste
 Involve local community who live in or near forests to
recognise the need to preserve for future use

30.  If an area of non-forest land is converted to forest, additional CO2 will be removed
from the atmosphere and stored in the tree biomass
 The carbon stock on that land increases.
 Newly created forest is a carbon sink only while the carbon stock continues to
increase.
 Eventually an upper limit is reached where losses through respiration, death and
disturbances from fire, storms, pests, diseases or harvesting approximately equal
the carbon gain from photosynthesis.
 Harvested wood from these forests is converted into wood products, which also
act as a sink until the decay and destruction of old products matches the addition
of new products.
 Since harvest cannot be increased beyond a sustainable limit, the forest and the
products derived from it have a finite capacity to store CO2 from the atmosphere
 Harvested products act as a perpetual carbon store only when managed
sustainably, and otherwise release the carbon previously fixed.

31. Source: OECD/IEA 2007

32. Source: OECD/ IEA 2007

34.  Half of world’s population relies on wood-biomass traditional energy
 In rural Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, 4 out of 5 people live without electricity
 Share of household biomass use in total wood consumption- Africa: 89%; Latin
America: 66%
 However, most domestic woodfuels used in developing countries do not come from
forest but scrub, bush fallow and the pruning of farmland or agroforestry trees
 ASEAN members: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam
 Non-forest wood sources are the main local energy supply
 Eg. Indonesia: 93% of household woodfuels are from non-forest; Philippines: 85%
 Forests contribute 10-50% of total national woodfuel supplies; the rest are from
non-forest sources

35. Source: FAO 2010a

36.  Fuelwood: accounts for two-thirds (67%)
 Fuelwood and charcoal together: account for 74%,
 Main producers and consumers: developing countries
Source: FAO 2010a

37.  If rural households is not the principal cause of forest
degradation
 Woodfuels from the forests: may largely used by industries OR
export to developed countries for biomass energy supply
 High demand increase wood prices resulting in higher
incentives for wood production and logging
 Leads to losses of carbon stocks in vegetation and soil, loss of
biodiversity, reduce water retention and soil fertility, affect
the micro-climate regulation

38.  The definitions of “forest” and “plantation” are not clear
 Consequently, declaration of deforestation is unclear
 FAO (2010) defines “forest” as “land spanning more than 0.5
hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and canopy cover of more
than 10%, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ”
 Investors misuse and refer the term “forest” for: Industrial
monoculture tree plantations that are in fact expanding at expenses
of the destruction of other ecosystems
 Weak governance structures for forest conservation and sustainable
management
 No binding sustainability requirements (standards) for the use of
bioenergy sources

39.  Woody biomass plantations require large area of land – investors try to obtain in developing
countries
 Affect rural populations on:
 Displacement
 Change of livelihood
 Disempowerment for local group
 Rural populations may not have a formal legal claim to the land they use and consider their
own
 The contracts signed between investors and local governments could be long duration
 Eg. In Ghana, more than 49 years contract.
 Agriculture knowledge and livelihood strategies in communities will be lost.
 Change the landscape of the area permanently
 Customary rights over land formally exists but often insufficient or been ignored
 Job creation not necessary offers to same individuals who were displaced; or uses child labor,
and human/labor rights are not taking into consideration

40.  Converting forest ecosystems into biomass plantations diminishes the ecosystem
services that the communities relying on
 According to FAO (2011), forest plays important role in food security of one billion
of the poorest people
 By providing food or generate incomes
 Products: wild yams, bush meat, edible insects, fruits, leaves, mushrooms, nuts,
honey and medical products
 Direct competition for fertile lands
 In India, jatropha trees can be planted on marginal lands but were planted on
fertile lands for higher yields
 Increasing competition for land for bioenergy and food crops may increase food
prices
 However, agroforestry system - combining energy wood plantations and food
production can be an alternative. (Please see Couto et.al. 2011 for further reading)

41.  Woody biomass plantations have high demand for water
 May draw tremendous amount of water from soil leading to
substantial declines in local ground-water levels and dry-
season surface flows
 Use of pesticides and herbicides that could contaminate the
local water water sources
 Water rights of local communities have limited protection,
leading water insecurity during drought period

42.  Market for bioenergy product is uncertain
 Product specifications (e.g. size, contaminants, moisture
content, material type, chip quality after storage, etc.) are
factors affecting the efficiency of the energy conversion
 Sustainability of feedstock supply
 Inventory constraints
 Loading and unloading constraints
 Storage constraints in woods versus at the end-use site
 Environmental constraints
 Profitability

43. Roles:
1. Officers of the local government: Management/
administration, forestry, energy sectors, etc.
2. Bioenergy power plant investor
3. Land owners/ local communities
4. Environmentalist: Universities, NGOs
In a meeting of proposing conversion of forest to Energy
Crop plantation

44.  Ensure enhanced deployment of advanced biomass cookstoves and other
bioenergy technologies to provide universal access to clean energy in
developing countries.
 Provide medium and long term targets and support policies that stimulate
investment in sustainable bio-energy production and ensure that new,
promising conversion technologies reach a commercial stage.
 Ensure that bioenergy policies are aligned with related policies for
agriculture, forestry and rural development.
 Set minimum GHG reduction targets and integrate environmental and
social criteria for bioenergy heat and power into national support
schemes.

45.  Work towards the development of an international market for bioenergy
feedstocks by seeking commoditisation of biomass and biomass
intermediates through international technical standards and elimination
of trade barriers.
 Extend sustainability criteria for biofuels and bioenergy to all biomass
products (including food and fibre) to ensure sustainable land use.
 Capacity building and implementation of good practices
 Promote good practices in bioenergy production, particularly with regard
to feedstock cultivation.

46.  Couto, Laércio; Nicholas, Ian and Wright, Lynn, 2011: “Short Rotation Eucalypt
Plantations for Energy in Brazil”, IEA BIOENERGY Task 43,
http://142.150.176.36/task43/images/publications/Promising%20resource%20rep
orts/IEA%20T43%20Eucalypts%20Brazil%20C1.pdf
 D.J. Ward & O.R. Inderwildi, Global and local impacts of UK renewable energy
policy. Energy & Environment Science 6(2013): 18-24
 European Union 2012: Impact of EU Bioenergy Policy on Developing Countries.
Belgium: European Union.
 FAO 2010: “Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010, Annex 2: Terms and
definitions used in FRA 2010” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations
 FAO 2010a. What woodfuels can do to mitigate climate change. How does
international price volatility affect domestic economies and food security? Rome:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

47.  FAO 2011: The state of food insecurity in the world. How does international price
volatility affect domestic economies and food security? Rome: Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
 Hubbard, W.; L. Biles; C. Mayfield; S. Ashton (Eds.). 2007. Sustainable Forestry for
Bioenergy and Bio-based Products: Trainers Curriculum Notebook. Athens, GA:
Southern Forest Research Partnership, Inc.
 http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1757e/i1757e.pdf
 OECD/IEA, 2007, Bioenergy Project Development Biomass Supply, France:
International Energy Agency
 OECD/IEA, 2012, Technology Roadmap: Bioenergy for Heat and Power, France:
International Energy Agency
 Matthews, R. & Robertson, K. 2001. Answers to ten frequently asked questions
about bioenergy, carbon sinks and their role in global climate change, prepared by
the International Energy Agency (IEA) Bioenergy Task 38, “Greenhouse Gas
Balances of Biomass and Bioenergy Systems”.

48.  What was useful?
 What is missing?
 How did you, or would you, modify the materials to make
them better fit your instructional context?
 Please share your experience and modifications here:
climatecurriculum@googlegroups.com