Introduction
BIOMASAKER
On this page, you will find the basic information about the activities of the WOLF Forest Protection Movement (WOLF) during the BIOMASAKER campaign, information about the campaign procedure, how we’ll conclude the campaign, and a large amount of information and documents concerning the subsidy issues. The goal of the campaign is the cancellation of state subsidies for the burning of wood biomass in electric energy production facilities in Slovakia.
On the 1 April 2014, at the largest fir tree in the Čergov mountain range, the WOLF Forest Protection Movement began the BIOMASAKER campaign. The goal of the campaign is the cancellation of state subsidies for all the wood being burnt in the biomass facilities, with the exception of wood originating as energy crops, or waste from the wood-processing industry. The motive behind the campaign is the fact, that in Slovakia, some 760 square km of forests have vanished since 2000 (roughly the size of the entire Trnava administrative district). Currently, nearly 4 million kubic metres of wood are being logged for energy production purposes, whereas a sustainable logging of all the wood in forested and non-forested surface areas is 5,8 – 6 million cubic metres.
The out-of-concept stance of Slovak state authorities to the issue of biomass burning for energy production purposes is further implied by the situation in east Slovakia, where the total annual amount of usable wood biomass from all sources (firestry, wood-processing industry, unspecified areas, other woody vegetation outside of forests, communal greenery) in the Prešov and Košice regions is altogether 530 000 metric tons. The annual consumption of dendromass in 2013 in the Prešov and Košice regions was roughly 1 000 000 metric tons. The annual deficit of dendromass suitable for energy production uses amounted to 470 000 metric tons already two years ago and the number of new incineration plants continues to increase. The sources with which this deficit is compensanted, are:
- the utilisation of wood classified into higher quality classes, for energy production purposes,
- the shortening of the felling cycle,
- exceeding of the prescribed yield in forest cover
- illegal logging of dendromass in forests and outside of forests,
- exceeding of annual capacity limit for growths in non-forested areas – unspecified areas, windbreaks, shoreside growths,
- felling of trees alongside forest roads,
- import from abroad – Ukraine, Poland, Hungary.
