Wood Pellet Association of Canada (WPAC) has launched a multi-lingual website and a targeted Japanese market awareness campaign. Recognizing the importance of export markets—particularly in Asia, where Japan is Canada’s largest customer—WPAC’s website is now available in Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean. This initiative ensures that key international stakeholders can easily access information about the sustainability, quality and reliability of Canadian wood pellets. Japan is the fastest-growing wood pellet import market in the world, driven by its aggressive push to phase out coal and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The country’s long-term feed-in tariff (FIT) for biomass energy supports this transition, creating significant opportunities for Canada’s pellet sector. Canadian wood pellets are a key part of Japan’s clean energy future, offering a low-carbon, renewable alternative to fossil fuels. To further engage with Japanese customers, policymakers and energy influencers, WPAC has launched a communications campaign in Japan.
President Trump appeared to invent a new economic statecraft tactic by threatening what he dubbed “secondary tariffs” on countries that buy oil from Venezuela to choke off its oil trade with other nations. The threat… said countries could face 25% tariffs on trade with the US if they purchase oil and gas from Venezuela, which is already under heavy US sanctions. …The novel approach adds to a growing list of tools that Trump has been eager to deploy as leverage in achieving its foreign and domestic policy goals. …With the threat, Trump appeared to be inventing a combination of tariffs and what are known as secondary sanctions, the financial punishments that can be imposed on other countries or people for doing business with sanctioned entities. …“China is the main actor this is directed at because it’s essentially the black market for Venezuelan oil,” Monaldi said.
Following the US government’s imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, Cepi has called on the European Commission to continue negotiations, citing the potential for future tariffs including pulp and paper and aiming to avoid supply chain disruptions. Cepi is currently taking part in a consultation launched by the European Commission. …The confederation asks the Commission to exclude from such EU retaliation list products that risk being in short supply in the EU. …According to Cepi, the EU imports around 900,000 tonnes of pulp per year from the US and close to 600,000 tonnes of paper and board, while the EU exports about 1600,000 tonnes of paper and board to the US and around 350,000 tonnes of pulp. It states that since a multilateral agreement of all major pulp and paper producers in January 2004, there have been no import tariffs on both sides of the Atlantic.
WASHINGTON — A gobsmacked planet is wondering what’s next from President Donald Trump on the tariff spree he’s set in zigzag motion. In recent weeks, Trump has announced punishing tariffs against allies and adversaries alike, selectively paused and imposed them, doubled and then halved some, and warned late in the week that he’ll tax European wine and spirits a stratospheric 200% if the European Union doesn’t drop a 50% tariff on U.S. whiskey. His ultimate stated goal is clear: to revive American manufacturing and win compromises along the way. But people and nations whose fortunes rise and fall on trade are trying to divine a method to his machinations. So far, he’s spurred fears about slower growth and higher inflation that are dragging down the stock market and consumer confidence. “His tariff policy is erratic,” Robert Halver, at Germany’s Baader Bank, said. “So, there is no planning certainty at all.”
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The proposed classification of two timber species commonly found in Malaysia as unsustainable by the United States and the European Union (EU) under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) will result in the cancellation of Malaysian timber exports to the US and the EU. The Timber Exporters’ Association of Malaysia (TEAM) treasurer Wong Kar Wai said that in addition to impending tariffs, the US and the EU are proposing to classify certain timber species common to Southeast Asia, including Malaysia – namely Shorea, locally known as Meranti, and Apitong, known as Keruing – under CITES despite being sustainably harvested and processed. “Keruing is a special type of timber primarily used for floorboards, with the US being its main market. A major buyer is the US military, which uses Keruing for the flooring of trucks and tanks due to its durability and strength.
BEIJING — UBS analysts became the latest to raise expectations that China’s struggling real estate market is close to stabilizing. “After four or five years of a downward cycle, we have begun to see some relatively positive signals,” John Lam at UBS Investment Bank. …“Of course these signals aren’t nationwide, and may be local,” Lam said. One indicator is improving sales in China’s largest cities. Existing home sales in five major Chinese cities have climbed by more than 30% from a year ago on a weekly basis as of Wednesday. The category is typically called “secondary home sales” in China, in contrast to the primary market, which has typically consisted of newly built apartment homes. UBS now predicts China’s home prices can stabilize in early 2026, earlier than the mid-2026 timeframe previously forecast. They expect secondary transactions could reach half of the total by 2026.
Large, undisturbed forests are better for harboring biodiversity than fragmented landscapes, according to University of Michigan research. Ecologists agree that habitat loss and the fragmentation of forests reduces biodiversity in the remaining fragments. But ecologists don’t agree whether it’s better to focus on preserving many smaller, fragmented tracts of land or larger, continuous landscapes. The 
In wild Tasmania there are trees whose direct ancestors lived with dinosaurs. Many of those alive today are thousands of years old, and some have been growing for ten millennia or more. They are mostly hard to reach, hidden in forest valleys or on remote mountains, survivors of human greed and fire.
In 2006, Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s government passed the Public Forest Management Law, implementing a forest concession scheme designed to regulate and legalize logging activities in Brazil’s forest — in particular, the Amazon. Forest management consists of removing a small number of trees whose species are valued in the market. After that, the area can only be explored again in 30 to 40 years, following its regeneration cycle. Behind on its concessions targets, the current government wants to almost quadruple the current area of federal concessions by 2026. Even though it is different from deforestation, timber management has never been seen as a way to conserve the forest by traditional peoples.
The European Union is on track to miss its 2030 carbon sequestration targets for forests. A new report says forest-based carbon removal needs clearer policies and more funding. Ongoing deforestation, land degradation, and unsustainable land-use practices highlight the need for a policy shift. Data from the latest European Environment Agency (EEA) monitoring report, details 28 key indicators assessing targets across sectors, including climate change, biodiversity, pollution reduction, and sustainable resource use. Biodiversity and ecosystem conservation goals are closely tied to forest health. The EU is not on track to meet its targets for increasing forest connectivity or reversing the decline in common bird populations, which reflects broader ecosystem degradation. Despite existing legislation, pressures from agriculture, urban expansion, and resource extraction continue to impact forest ecosystems.
Sweden might fail to meet its and the EU’s carbon neutrality targets after recent environmental policy shifts, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warned in a report published Wednesday. Long considered a champion in environmental protection and the fight against climate change, the Scandinavian country has set a goal of net zero emissions by 2045, five years ahead of the European Union’s target. But Sweden might not be able meet either of those goals, according to a review conducted by the OECD, a 38-member group of mostly developed nations. “Over the last decade, the country has cut its greenhouse gas emissions faster than the EU average,” the report said. “However, recent policy shifts, particularly in the transport sector, have put into question Sweden’s ability to meet EU and domestic climate targets.” …In January, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) criticised Sweden for not adequately protecting primary and old-growth forests from logging.
Denmark has long been praised for its transition to renewable energy, with renewable energy use rising from 6% in 1990 to 42.8% in 2022. However, behind this achievement lies an overdependence on woody biomass, which now accounts for up to 68% of its total renewable energy use. This growth has been sustained through direct and indirect subsidies, often exceeding those allocated to wind and solar energy. Denmark’s dependence on woody biomass is largely fuelled by imports from Estonia and Latvia. The country ranks among the largest, if not the largest, importer of woody biomass from the Baltic region, with 52% of its wood chips and pellets coming from these two nations. …Intensive logging is also devastating Estonian and Latvian bird populations. 
LONDON, March 12 – British energy regulator Ofgem said on Wednesday that it had not found evidence of a breach of sustainability obligations by power company Drax, in the watchdog’s review of reports prepared by auditor KPMG. Renewable power generators in Britain can receive renewable obligation (RO) certificates which can then be sold to energy suppliers who use them to sell renewable electricity products to customers. For biomass power plants to qualify for the certificates they must show at least 70% of their biomass fuel comes from sustainable sources. Green groups have long criticised the sustainability credentials of biomass power plants, which burn wood pellets to generate electricity. In 2023, regulator Ofgem opened an investigation into whether Drax was in breach of annual reporting requirements under the RO scheme. Ofgem said it reviewed over 3,000 documents and did not find evidence to support claims that sustainability obligations had been breached.