Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Promoting Wood-Based Bioenergy Using Wood Residues and Waste

A regional forum on promoting woodbased bioenergy using wood residues and wastes was held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 14-17 October 2008, co-sponsored by ITTO, FAO and the Government of Indonesia, and hosted by The Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia. This event was opened by the Indonesian Minister of Forestry and attended by around 70 participants, including government representatives from Cambodia, Fiji, Myanmar, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, and Thailand. Participants discussed the problems and strategy for solution related to the development of woodbased bioenergy in the region, especially on the use of wood residues and wastes.

The structure of the programme for the Regional Forums contained four levels for deliberation, starting with key addresses on "global perspectives" on WBB; followed by country reports on the „current status and policies in member countries to develop WBB“; the activities were then supported by lectures on technical and policy issues to prepare deliberations of the following Working-Group (WG) being mandated to consider elements for roadmap to develop sustainable use of wood-residues and wastes for energy generation. The operative WG-activities were subdivided to deal separately with three thematic issues through sub-group discussion on a) asessment of resources and limits of SFM; b) strategies, policies and measures to develop WBB; and c) technologies, markets, efficiency aspects for WBB. A Field Trip allowed for valuable practical appraisal of problems and possible solutions at the level of an individual company or a region.