Abstract
This “Guidelines on Efficient Firewood Use for Armenian Municipalities” was developed within the project "Forest Resilience of Armenia: Enhancing Adaptation and Rural Green Growth via Mitigation," promoted by FAO and funded mainly by the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Eurac Research Bolzano created the guidelines on behalf of the Province of Bolzano, which supports the overall project through an in-kind contribution.
The main purpose of these guidelines is to offer guidance from a management perspective to municipal personnel facing the problem of excessive and unsustainable use of wood for heating in rural areas. This is intended to complement the guidelines for creating the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) under the European initiative, Covenant of Mayors. Indeed, these latter guidelines are widely used in Armenia for the development of energy sufficiency measures and renewables but lack content directly addressing the excessive use of wood for heating.
While these guidelines contain references and descriptions of the activities related to the FAO project and specific to the Armenian context, which is taken as case study, they have been generated with the ambition to be of use to practitioners and policymakers, beyond the Armenian border, interested in similar contexts.
The topic of these guidelines differs from the one originally conceived within the project, which referred to the development of "Guidelines for Local Efficiency Energy Action Plan”. The decision to change the topic was made at a late stage of the project, bringing with it logistical and timing complications. Given these challenges, and recognizing the constraints imposed by limited financial resources, we adhered to strict time constraints during the development of this document. As a result, the document is structured to convey key principles in a clear and effective manner, without delving into the existing legislation, technical aspects, and detailed potential measure descriptions. The tailoring of the document with specific reference to the Armenian context (i.e., relevant supporting institutions or organizations, incentives, or funding schemes), which would enhance the usability of the guideline as compendium of reference, has not been developed either. Despite its limitations, we hope that these guidelines will serve as a valuable tool for municipal staff and individuals seeking foundational knowledge on managing excessive and unsustainable firewood use.