The project's work throughout it's lifespan has moved along the following axes:
1) Collection and analysis of micro-data from the Hellenic Statistical National Autority. In particular, the data come from the Household Budget Survey, covering a number of years, from 2004 to 2020. The data contain information on household consumption of energy, including the most frequently used forest solid fuels: fuelwood, pellets, olive kernel and briquets. They also include socioeconomic, demographic and housing data. The data coverage is the whole country by NUTS2 regions. Coupled with this, the project has collected winter-temperature data for the years 2004-2020 from the national meteorological service.
2) Collection and analysis of micro-data from a country-wide survey that was carried out in 2012 specifically on the energy consumption of Greek households.
3) The design and carrying out of a questionnaire survey covering the metropolitan area Thessaloniki, which is the second largest city in Greece, along with the rest the Thessaloniki prefecture, that includes many rural and semi-rural areas. The size of the survey sample was 970 households.The survey collected data in a much more detailed manner -especially with regard to the use of forest biofuels- than both the Household Budget Survey and the 2012 Energy survey.
In partcular it collected data on the energy consumption habits of the households, on their living conditions and socio-economics characteristics, as well as on their attitudes and believes about many environmental and social issues, amongst them the issue of illegal logging.
4) An exhaustive census of all the businesses trading forest biofuels in the prefecture of Thessaloniki and the design and carrying out of survey on a sample of these businesses. The survey collected information on the types and quantities of fuels sold, the way these businesses operate and the problems they face, as well as on the trader's views on the issue of illegal logging.
5) Carrying out interviews and collection of information from the three Forest Service departments of the prefecture of Thessaloniki about the nature and extent of the illegal logging phenomenon over the past decade.
Due to the fact that the project was carried out during the Covid pandemic, it has encountered a lot of difficulties and associated delays. As a result, it has not been possible to generate the full range of expected results. The attached figures convey an informative bird's eye view of the market for forest biofuels in the whole country.
