Alessandro Paletto

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of the European Union (EU) policy agenda are to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and to decrease the dependence of EU member countries from fossil fuel sources. In order to achieve these policy objectives, in the last decades the number of biomass power plants has increased throughout the EU. This study analyzed the environmental impacts of the bioenergy systems at global and local level to support communication and information strategies to increase social acceptance and to reduce conflicts between stakeholders. The environmental impacts were estimated to a sample of biomass power plants in North Italy selected based on the size, feedstock and type (cogeneration or heating). The study aims to identify and evaluate the environmental impacts associated with the thermal energy production in biomass power plants using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For each biomass district plant an LCA analysis was performed to: compare the environmental impacts associated with the production of the same functional unit, quantifying and valuating the environmental performance deriving from the production process life cycle, and highlighting the production phases with greater impact. RESULTS: . The results show that the size of the biomass energy plant (less than 1 MW or more than 1 MW) and the feedstock used (forest or sawmill woodchip) are two main variables that influence many categories of environmental impact.

In participatory forest planning, relevant stakeholders are included in the decision-making process. Stakeholder analysis is a crucial step in the participatory process in order to involve all groups of interests, increasing the legitimacy and transparency of the process. On the other hand, to gather an active stakeholder group that can communicate effectively, the number of key stakeholders should be restricted. This study aims to devise a nonsubjective method to identify and classify stakeholders in three categories (key, primary, and secondary stakeholders), taking into account the relationships among them (social network analysis). Stakeholders are classified according to the regular equivalence and betweenness centrality. The stakeholders' classification system is tested in two forest landscape management plans in Italy. Results show that the method is able to balance stakeholders' contributions and can be used to enhance the democratization of the decision-making process when power is unevenly distributed among the stakeholders.