Illegal logging, timber trade, deforestation and energy poverty are pressing challenges for Bulgaria. Despite government efforts to combat these problems, they remain widespread phenomena, leading to lower potential for carbon sequestration with severe environmental and climate impacts. The use of firewood by around a quarter of the Bulgarian population testifies to the inability of many households to adequately heat their homes, or cover their utility bills. Despite efforts to combat these problems, energy poverty and illegal logging remain prevalent, leading to deforestation and lower potential for carbon emissions sequestration with severe environmental and climate impacts.
These are some of the main conclusions of the roundtable Tackling Illegal Logging: Accelerating Decarbonisation and Reducing Energy Poverty held on 20 June 2024, presenting CSD's latest analysis on the role of biomass in the Bulgarian energy system and possible decarbonisation pathways that tackle the nexus between energy pverty and illegal logging.
CSD experts were joined by Rosen Raichev, Deputy Executive Director of the Executive Forest Agency; Lora Stoeva, Expert at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; Georgi Kostov, Lecturer at the Bulgarian University of Forestry, and Dobromir Dobrinov, Senior conservation Law Expert at WWF Bulgaria.
Participants agreed that despite the many measures taken in the sector in recent years, the Bulgarian government needs to take more ambitious steps, including incentives for households to stop using wood for heating. Bulgarian households are still heavily dependent on biomass, which, while seemingly contributing to decarbonisation targets, is not a sustainable solution. Subsidies for energy poverty should be targeted not only at meeting basic needs, but also at encouraging long-term changes in consumption patterns.
