4 August 2009: The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have released the Forest Products Annual Market Review for 2008-2009, which indicates that the economic crisis has impacted severely the forest products sector across the UNECE region, except for the wood energy sector.

The report shows that demand for renewable energy sources, including wood biomass, continues to grow steadily due to public incentive policies fostering climate change mitigation efforts and energy security. Global wood fuel pellet markets grew by approximately 20% in 2008 and are expected to double by 2012. [UNECE press release]