(Item 11 of the agenda)126. Document APCAS/00/14 Building Capacity for Wood Energy Data Base Systems was presented. The commission acknowledged the efforts of the Regional Wood Energy Development Programme in Asia (GCP/RAS/154/NET) to establish a regional database for wood energy.
127. The commission was informed that the Regional Wood Energy Development Programme in Asia (RWEDP), funded by the Government of the Netherlands, was initiated in 1994 in order to contribute to the sustainable production of woodfuels, their efficient processing and marketing, and their rational use for the benefit of households, industries and enterprises. The project was being implemented in 16 countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam. Worldwide, wood and other biomass energy sources were the fourth largest energy source. The Project recognized that energy data collection and organization activities were important prerequisites to energy planning. For this reason, the project considered the development of national as well as regional wood energy databases as important components of its work. It recognized that inadequacies in wood energy data and information created many misconceptions and led to formulation of erroneous wood energy policies.
128. The commission noted the project initiatives in building capacity in wood energy data collection which included: (a) development of a framework for a wood energy database with a complementary wood energy balance table; (b) review and organization at country level of available secondary macro-level socio-economic, energy and forestry data on production, flow and consumption of wood energy and the factors that influence them (which provided insights on the complexity of wood energy systems); (c) formulation of techniques for estimation and projection of wood energy consumption; (d) organization and compilation of more detailed data on wood energy supply recognizing the contribution of non-forest sources of woodfuels; (e) wood energy assessment and projection study including a country-by-country outlook on wood energy to year 2010; (f) regional-level institutional linkages with other institutions such as UN Statistics Division, World Bank - Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme, International Energy Agency, World Research Institute, Asian Institute of Technology, Asia Pacific Development Centre, ASEAN Center of Energy, Asia Pacific Energy Research Center, and Asian Development Bank to ascertain complementarity/differences in the types of data, methodologies used and gaps in data collection activities; (g) training and pilot case studies to improve techniques and methods used for data collection; and (h) development of an Internet-based wood energy database (http://www.rwedp.com) including production of wood energy databases in CD-ROM.
129. The commission was informed that these project initiatives led to the identification of national and regional level issues in wood energy data collection and organization. National level issues were further delineated between wood energy consumption and supply data.
130. The commission noted that country-level data on wood energy consumption generally reflected only household sector consumption. Since non-household sectors were also consuming wood and biomass energy-based fuels, their non-inclusion in existing wood energy consumption data in many countries would indicate underestimation of the level of wood energy consumption. Reliability of the statistics also suffered from the absence of a regular data collection programme. In many countries, current data were mere extrapolation from a base figure using the unverified assumption that the per capita wood energy consumption remains constant throughout the years. In other countries, national level data were expansion of project-level data. The failure to undertake actual physical measurements based on a national standard and heavy reliance on the interview method for collecting the information contributed to weaknesses in the data.
131. Among the major concerns affecting wood energy supply data, the following were brought to the attention of the commission. There was lack of proper understanding on what constitute wood energy resources and supply. Factors that restricted supply such as access rights, difficulty of terrain and social practices were also not being accounted for. Data quality also suffered from the lack of a commonly accepted methodology for the collection of wood energy supply data. Many countries still equate total forest resources as indication of their wood energy supply. In addition, the concept of wood energy flow, which looked into the processing, marketing, transport and pricing of commercialized woodfuels was still not being widely understood. Further, a system to organize supply data, including those that relate to information on energy conversion and end-use technologies, had yet to be uniformly defined. This often lead to different perceptions and interpretation of data as some techniques used were inherently country-specific.
132. The commission was informed that at the regional level, the main interest was to give policy advice and technical assistance to countries and provide a broad picture of the global or regional wood energy situation which would include: trends in consumption, sustainability of supply, trends in technology developments, some general economic and social impacts and environmental concerns (e.g. reduction of global warming gases emissions). In view of the observed inadequacies in country-level data on wood energy resources and use, regional efforts were being adversely affected. As a regular country level data collection programme was not foreseeable soon, improved estimation techniques should be developed.
133. Regional level data collection and organization activities were also deemed to be insufficient. No regional or international organization currently collects, organizes and publishes data on wood energy resources, flow and technology. To improve international comparability of wood energy data, a universal wood energy database format should be formulated to provide uniformity in definition of terms, collection techniques, including specification of parameters and indicators and conversion factors. Such was being initiated by FAO through its Forestry Department, with its proposal for a “Unified Wood Energy Terminology or UWET” System.
134. The commission was informed that the end objective of all activities relating to improving data and information on wood and other biomass energy was to promote the adoption of policies, programmes, and strategies for utilization of wood and other biomass for sustainable development.
