Spontaneous ash tree reforestation in the Central Pyrenees: a future local energy source?

With the agricultural economy of the Central Pyrenees in steady decline, natural forest stands are colonising abandoned agricultural meadows. The present study seeks to define the economic conditions for a new fuel-wood local economy based on these extensions of the forest cover. Farmer/forest owners are capable of exploiting this resource, involving logging, hauling and cutting the wood to size, to meet their own heating needs. In this way, owners could thus recuperate a maximum unit value estimated at 11.2 to 22.3 € per stere (1 cubic metre), or an average value of 16.8 € per stere after deduction of all costs. An economy based on wood energy, using wood from spontaneously generated forest growth on private land, is therefore possible. A development policy for such an activity could be envisaged with appropriate initiatives to stimulate the owners of land where spontaneous ash reforestation has occurred to harvest this potential resource.