Activities
FAO's activities that promote Sustainable Wood Energy Systems (SWES) aim at: strengthening national capacities; creating and disseminating information on wood energy; and developing institutional synergies.Strengthening national capacities
Infrastructures with properly trained personnel are urgently needed in both forestry and energy agencies for the analysis of wood energy situations and the formulation, implementation and monitoring of sound wood energy policies, strategies, programmes and projects. In line with these requirements, FAO has implemented a number of activities designed to build national wood energy planning capacities and to promote synergies among stakeholders and institutions. Over the years, activities in this field have been developed in many countries, such as Latin America, Asia and Africa, through the FAO Technical Co-operation Programme as well as bilateral and multilateral funding. More recently, the partnership programme between FAO and the European Commission on Sustainable Forest Management was established, and this included a specific wood energy component on Wood Energy Planning and Policy Development (WEPP).
Developing institutional synergies
Wood energy systems have multi-disciplinary characters, with many stakeholders intimately interwoven between the socio-economic layers in rural and urban areas. They all require the attention of different technical and political agencies from the forestry, energy and agricultural sectors.
Aware of the inter-sectoral character of wood energy, FAO promotes institutional cooperation and partnership at the national level amongst the ministries of forestry, agriculture, energy and rural development, and non-governmental stakeholders, in order to raise policy makers' recognition of the important role played by the sector.
At the international level, FAO has established strong links and partnerships with regional and international agencies, and NGOs active in the fields of wood energy for the exchange of ideas and information as well as the identification and implementation of joint action.
The universal development of sustainable forest and wood energy systems is still a distant goal. Given that wood-based fuels constitute an essential forest output in many countries, the development of sustainable wood energy systems is crucial for the implementation of overall sustainable forest management. For this reason, FAO is actively seeking partners to develop extra-budgetary activities.
Creating and disseminating wood energy information
The consumption and production patterns of wood fuel are very site and situation specific. Broad generalisation about woodfuel use and availability at local and national levels due to the insufficient and inadequate information and data have led to biased assumptions and consequently weak policies, wrong strategies and ineffective projects.
The generation of information and knowledge is vital in understanding the role and contribution of woodfuels, and their derived energy, for sustainable forest management (SFM), food security, poverty alleviation, economic development of local areas, and their contribution to climate change mitigation through carbon substitution and sequestration.
They are also vital for the development, implementation and monitoring of sound wood energy planning and policies by forestry services, energy administrators and other interested organisations.
FAO has established a Wood Energy Information System (WEIS) consisting of mechanisms for the dissemination of information regarding publications; planning tools (WISDOM); links with other related sites; and data about national, regional and global woodfuel consumption as well as production and trade (UWET).
Wood energy Web site
The site, which you are reading now, provides information and links to all activities, projects and publications produced by the programme as well as links to other relevant agencies and institutions.
Wood energy planning tools
It consists of a set of tools for the analysis of wood energy situations and the representation of area-based woodfuel flows. It also allows the analysis of future wood energy scenarios for policy-makers. The set consists of WISDOM (Woodfuel Integrated Supply/Demand Overview Mapping) and "A Guide for Woodfuel Surveys" for collecting and analyzing multi-sectoral data to be used with WISDOM and other wood energy planning tools.Unified Wood Energy Terminology (UWET)
UWET provides an approach for the harmonization of terms, definitions, units and conversion factors commonly used in forest and energy statistics, commercial trading operations and bioenergy resources balances. In the preparation and dissemination of UWET, FAO is working in close collaboration with other relevant international, regional and national organizations and agencies.
Wood Energy Databases (WEDB)
The studies of the series "Wood Energy Today for Tomorrow" constituted an important mechanism for data collection on wood-based fuels and related energy aspects at the national level, including the production, consumption and trade of different wood-based fuels. The series covered Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Near East and Eastern Europe, as well as countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Additional country information was produced by national wood energy experts in the framework of the FAO-EC Partnership Programme on sustainable forest management in Africa. These studies also helped to identify shortcomings and gaps in the main wood energy databases and to diagnose the main constraints in national wood energy planning.