Woody biomass from forests

The woody biomass for their localization in disadvantaged rural areas are a resource that requires a close link between their use and development policies of the marginal areas.In Italy it is estimated that the potential availability of woody material, whether in the form of raw material (the Italian forest area is about 10 million hectares representing 35% of the country) that the activity of forestry residues and wood processing , is very high and adequate to respond to decentralized energy needs with non-negative environmental impacts.Since the advent of methane, the use of wood as the main form of energy for heating has declined drastically and with it the development of an industry that was estimated to be marginal because the firewood was considered an obsolete product, to inelastic demand with respect to income, then destined to be marginalized from the market by the spread of other forms of energy. The use of wood energy from forests has been neglected by the forest policy also did not consider that the presence and development of a demand for firewood could be a powerful stimulus to the development of interventions to improve culture of many degraded forests , by, for example, start-up costs of coppice to altofusti, in addition to supporting forest economy, especially in the Apennine areas and foothills, was and remains fundamentally linked to forms of government to coppice, and thus the production of small assortments.