IMAVERE (Estonia) (AFP) – Estonia's thriving wood pellet industry is pitting environmentalists who warn it increases logging and harms biodiversity against supporters who say it makes good use of wood that would otherwise go to waste.

The subject is particularly sensitive in the tiny Baltic state once ruled by Moscow, whose forests cover more than half the surface area and are very much part of the national identity.

But, at a plant belonging to Europe's biggest wood pellet producer, Estonia's Graanul Invest, the company's head of quality and certification systems defended the industry.

"Wood only comes to us when sawmill or plywood factories reject it," Mihkel Jugaste told AFP over the sounds of machinery turning logs into sawdust and compacting them into pellets.

Wood pellets are a type of biofuel that can be used in special pellet stoves or central heating furnaces for homes.

They are also used on a larger scale.

The former coal-fired power station of Drax in Britain now runs partially on wood pellets, including some from Estonia.
Logging intensity 'too high'

Environmentalists say biomass demand in western Europe is causing an intensification of logging in places like Estonia, including in protected areas and using techniques such as clearcutting in which entire areas of forest are destroyed.

They warn that bird species like black grouse and woodlark are under threat from the logging, pointing out that woodland bird numbers have fallen by around a quarter over the past two decades.

Their warnings have been heard in Brussels and the European Commission earlier this year initiated infringement proceedings against Estonia for failing to ensure environmental impact assessments before issuing logging permits in these areas.

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