“The material use of renewable raw materials makes an important contribution to the protection of climate and environment. Wood crucially contributes to reducing climate change by storing carbon in wood products such as furniture, components and structural timber.

About 250kg of carbon is stored in each cubic metre. In the EU27 the

woodworking industry provides almost three million jobs in more than 300,000 companies, generating an annual turnover of about €270 billion.

In Germany alone, more than 500,000 people work in the woodworking industry.

The material use of 100m3 of wood secures one workplace per year (source: vTI).

There are many applications for wood in the building sector: renovation, interior decor as well as in the transportation and packaging business. The different markets offer a high growth potential.

Political support with extensive subventions [subsidies] for use of wood in more and more small-scale furnaces or new biomass facilities leads to an enormous shortage of wood and to the loss of jobs within the wood processing industries.

Furthermore there is a danger that wood is substituted by other materials which have a much more negative energy balance and life cycle assessment.

Numerous studies and calculations of national and international organizations predict a 20-40 million m³ shortfall on wood for Germany, for instance – and 430 million m³ for Europe – in 2020.

The 3rd symposium ‘Waldstrategie 2020’ of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in April 2010 in Berlin has shown that measures like enhanced wood mobilization, reduction of the rotation period, short term cultivation plantations, choosing a different tree species or forest genetics measures, neither alone nor in combination, are able to compensate this forthcoming deficit. Increased imports are not a solution for ecological and socioeconomic reasons.

The EPF’s (European Panel Federation), FEIC’s (European Federation of the Plywood Industry) and VHI’s (Verband der Deutschen Holzwerkstoffindustrie) general meetings 2010 in Dresden ask the European Commission and the Federal Government to create fair competitive conditions between material and energy uses of wood and in particular:

* to stop immediately subventions for energy uses of wood, either virgin or waste wood, suitable for substance recycling, eg as raw material for wood based panel production (eg in Germany: no eco tax, reduced VAT, market incentive programme);

* to adapt draft laws to the requirements of a cascade utilisation of wood (eg in Germany: the law of life-cycle management and the Renewable Energies Act (EEG));

* to take into account the raw material base that the woodworking industry requires when national energy strategies concerning the future energy mix are developed (eg in Germany: the energy strategy of the Federal Government);

* to intensify research and development work on enhanced cascade utilisation of wood (first material and then energy use);

* to increasingly lay out short rotational plantations on government-owned forest areas and to campaign for land to be provided at all regional levels;

* to shape the legal framework so that in future wood for energy use can be additionally obtained from short rotational plantations on suitable arable land or grassland;

* to ensure that during the planning of further biomass or incineration plants a qualified report concerning the available raw material potential involving local woodworking firms has to be provided (eg in Germany: plants supported by the EEG should in future to be constructed only for the use of the wood categories A III and A IV according to the German ‘Altholzverordnung’ and to be equipped with cogeneration for power and heat);

* to put the German Federal Government’s action plan concerning the material use of renewable raw materials from August 2009 within the framework of ‘Waldstrategie 2020’ into practice and to review the proposals designed by the Nova Institut GmbH, Hürth concerning a realignment of the policy framework between energy and material use.

The European Commission and all EU Member States are requested to use wood resources responsibly, to review European and national objectives concerning renewable energies for wood biomass and to adapt them to actual resource supply.”

Resolution ends.

Dresden, June 24th 2010.

Laszlo Döry

President EPF

Hubertus Flötotto

Chairman VHI

Joni Lukkaroinen

President FEIC.

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