COOL project

COOL - COmpeting uses Of forest Land

A project within the two ERA-Nets WoodWisdom-Net 2 and Bioenergy

For the results and policy recommendations, take a look at the brochure "More fodder for the oven?" - Dealing with forest related conflicts arising from the production and use of energy wood in Europe: national stakeholder perspectives

Background

The demand for energy wood has rapidly increased during the last few years and up to now it is estimated that this trend will continue. This trend entails several consequences.

Objective & Research Questions

The COOL project aimed at comparing the forest management and political strategies related to wood energy in the European countries Finland, Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Spain. The main objective of COOL was to find out how different forest management approaches and political strategies within the involved five European countries could be developed in order to meet a potentially increasing demand of energy wood by taking into account the other relevant forest ecosystem services and objectives in an appropriate manner.

Partners and Funding

The COOL-project has braught together the following seven research institutions from the five European countries Finland, Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Spain. The seven partners were sponsored by the national WoodWisdom-NET-programmes of the participating countries. 

• Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy (IFP), University Freiburg, Germany
• Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• European Forest Institute - Central European Regional Office (EFICENT), Germany
• Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA), Finland
• Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources, Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana (ULJ), Slovenia
• Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia (CTFC), Spain
• Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), Norway

The project consortium was coordinated by the Institute of Forest and Environmental Policy (IFP), University of Freiburg, Germany.

The COOL project received funding from the WoodWisdom-Net Research Programme which is a transnational R&D programme jointly funded by national funding organisations within the framework of the ERA-NET WoodWisdom-Net 2. Thus, the project carried out in 2012–2014, received financial support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Finland; the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (programme manager: Project Management Jülich); the Research Council of Norway; the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport in Slovenia; and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness in Spain.