An assessment of potential forest biomass production for energy in South Italy

The biomass for energy purposes, coming from forestry and timber industry for energy, can provide various environmental and socio-economic benefits. Among all renewable energy sources, forest biomass represents both an important alternative source to fossil fuels and an opportunity for the socio-economic development of various marginal mountain areas in Calabria. This survey aims at estimating the potential revenue from timber harvest in Calabria region, which is showing a great interest in forest biomass production. According to the carried out analysis, forest lands, covering an area of about 82.000 hectares, show a significant productive capacity for each timber product typology, the main quota deriving from round wood assortments. A GIS decision support system has been developed, which implements the method and provides the tools to identify the geographic distribution of the economically exploited biomass potential.