University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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Socially speaking wood-based biomasses are good because they create lots of jobs.
This is true especially in countries, where wood is a natural resource and where there
is no intensive production. Employment opportunities can be found all through the
life cycle, from planting trees to forest harvesting and refining wood to different
types of energy resources: pellets, sawdust, etc. They are not very democratic
because wood-based biomasses are produced and used mainly in rural areas. Locally
they give work to many different occupations, because wood is used into many other
things too, than just energy, for example furniture and as a packing material. Forest
industry can also make a difference towards the attitude of wood-based biomasses.
People see the good in them, both as an energy source and a livelihood. The danger
behind production of wood-based biomasses is that when it becomes intensive
production, it can reduce production of food. This problem is usually faced in the
Asian countries, not so much in Europe.
From the cultural perspective, wood-based products have been known for a long
time. Their exploitation started from plain wood; now it has developed into refined
wood fuels. Wood-based biomasses are familiar from being the source of energy and
heat in many countries. Yet one major problem of wood-based biomasses, especially
in Europe, is that the industry is not understood, especially in countries where the
forests are becoming extinct. Culturally wood-based biomasses have good aspects:
they keep up traditional lines of business, like sawdust production, and create new
lines of business, like the pellet industry. But they can also destroy some lines of
business: it is the intensity of this industry that is destructive. If the focus is on
producing wood to the industry, traditional ways of tending forests may be forgotten.
And this is when it can affect cultures negatively: cultural diversity based on
traditional ways of using forests as sources of food, materials and firewood, may be
lost.
Economically, wood-based biomasses are great business for the forest industry. In
addition, they create many kinds of other industry, and in this way, they can give
jobs to many professions, which is good for a country’s economy. Creating woodbased
biomasses is a very good business for a country when it is properly operated,
meaning that it is not intensive production, and many kind of industries and
professions benefit from the business. Wood-based biomasses are easy to sell too,
especially in countries where wood is used as the source of heat. However, in some
countries cost-effectiveness may be very poor, due to difficult working conditions,
which make the job dangerous and very slow (e.g. when the forests lie on steep hills).
Wood-based biomasses are one of the few biofuels that belong to the cradle-tocradle
approach. Wood-based biomasses are made of by-products or industrial
residue. These types of biomasses pollute, but not in a very significant way because
they are normally used only in households, not in industry. Thus the level of
pollution remains small. As wood-based biomasses are burnt, their residue can be
returned to the soil, which gives nutrition to the new, growing forest.