Firewood-producing forests for Valdivia

Executive summary :	General Objective: Identify firewood-producing forests that supply the city of Valdivia and estimate the medium- and long-term availability of this biofuel.
Link with climate change :	According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO ), forests and climate change are intimately interrelated. Global climate change is increasingly affecting forests, due to increases in mean annual temperatures, which modify the forests’ spatial distributions. Moreover, forests are subjected to extreme meteorological phenomena and increasingly frequent fires, due to the modification of rainfall regimes. Also, deforestation, intensive clear cutting and forest fires produce CO2, one of the gases responsible for the greenhouse effect. On the other hand, forests, and the wood that they produce, capture and store CO2, which significantly mitigates the greenhouse effect. Because of this, the FAO points out that it is necessary to take urgent comprehensive measures to confront this complex association of interrelated challenges. This is where the utilization of renewable fuels like wood becomes important, since a positive balance between the increase of forest biomass (CO2 absorption) and the combustion of firewood (CO2 emission) is one of the means of counteracting the greenhouse effect and the resulting global warming. Moreover, when forest management to obtain biofuels is carried out according to silvicultural standards, it is perfectly compatible with conservation and the maintenance of the forests’ ecological functions.
Planned local actions :	1. Develop Workshops with small and medium firewood producers. 2. Promote the creation of communal organizations for the management of the firewood producing forests. 3. Inform and educate firewood consumers and local populations through bulletins, talks and publicity campaigns. 4. Promote the creation of a forest monitoring program with the participation of governmental institutions and civil society.
Country where project takes place :	Chile
Name of Region of the project area :	XIV Chile’s southern district
Partners involved in project :	The initiative will be developed by a team of specialists in Geographic Information Systems and in Remote Sensing from NGO, Association of Foresters for the Native Forest (Agrupación de Ingenieros Forestales por el Bosque Nativo [AIFBN]. They will also will rely upon the collaboration of scientists from the Forestry Institute of Chile (Instituto Forestal de Chile) and the National Patagonian Center (Centro Nacional Patagónico [CENPAT]) of Argentina.
Context and objectives of the project :	a) Map the dendroenergetic resource in the zones that supply the urban area, b) Estimate the actual and potential availability of native biomass, in forested landholdings utilized to produce firewood, c) Propose land use plans focused upon the sustainable supply of firewood to the city, d) Communicate the obtained results by means of national and international scientific publications, as well as by conducting workshops and seminars.
Starting date of the project :	05/15/2008