SWOT analysis and strategy development for forest fuel supply chains in South East Europe

• Drivers and barriers to forest fuel supply in South East Europe were assessed.
• A regional Meta-SWOT analysis was compiled.
• Strategies were developed and evaluated in a participative decision process.
• Strategies for increasing forest biomass utilisation are of high relevance.
• Strategies show great potential to improve competitiveness of bioenergy production.

The objective of this study is to assess drivers and barriers to primary forest fuel (PFF) supply in the wide-stretched South East Europe (SEE) countries and to develop strategies to improve PFF supply involving dozens of stakeholders from different SEE countries. SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analyses were used to evaluate country supply chains. Based on those a regional SWOT analysis was compiled and strategies were developed and evaluated in a participative decision process. Results show that strategies for increasing biomass utilisation are of high relevance in all participating countries. Additionally, strategies for knowledge dissemination are also important. The evaluated regional strategies for the forest fuel sector examined have great potential to improve cooperation, increase efficiency and strengthen competitiveness of PFF based bioenergy production.