Catchment Area Analyses

The main purpose of our Catchment Area Analysis (CAA) reports is to provide evidence that we are meeting our biomass sustainability commitments.

Set out in our Responsible Sourcing policy, our commitments help to ensure that we are delivering a positive impact for the climate, environment and for the communities in each area we source our pellets from (i.e. catchment area).

The CAA process allows us to explore the key metrics, keeping a track of the carbon storage and sequestration dynamics in regions where we source – how forests are growing, and what they are being used for.

The factors examined include:

• Deforestation and degradation
• Changes in forest management practice
• Wood prices and other markets that use wood
• Amount of carbon stored on landscape (growing stock)
• Sequestration rate of carbon (productivity of forests)
• Harvesting levels vs productive capacity of area

Further information about the metrics can be found here.

We have chosen independent, professional third parties, with expert knowledge of the geographies of each catchment area, to collate information and give their views on the dynamics in each region.

The data used is all publicly available, and every effort has been made to ensure transparency and accuracy.

US South

For this area there are five separate studies looking at individual pellet mills, or clusters of mills (depending on the proximity and overlap of procurement patterns) that supplied 3.6 million tonnes of sustainable wood pellets to Drax in 2019. The five study areas in this region represented 49% of Drax’s total consumption in that year. The data shows that overall the acreage of forest is stable (with gains in some areas, and one minor loss unrelated to biomass demand), increasing carbon stored in the forest, maintained or increased productivity (i.e. annual sequestration of carbon), and no adverse distortion of markets. Pellet markets have helped sustain these beneficial outcomes. More detail can be found in Figures 1 and 2 below and in the summary article.

The Baltics

Two CAA reports also examine the forest landscape in Latvia and Estonia, countries that supply pellets to Drax, and in 2019 sent 755,000 tonnes constituting 10% of our supply. The regions we source from in the Baltics have increasing areas of sustainably managed forest land, greater quantities of carbon stored in their forests, and increasing productivity. Markets provided by pellet mills helped foresters improve forests, and sawmills utilise residuals. Summary data can also be found in Figure 3 below.

British Columbia

We have studied the sourcing area for pellet mills in the centre of British Columbia, Canada that have supplied Drax for a number of years, named Houston and Burns Lake. These two areas provided 315,000 tonnes in 2019, about 4.5% of our total supply. The CAA report for this region shows the devastating consequences for the forest of a ‘pine beetle’ attack that started in 1999 and affected millions of hectares, killing trees that contained more than 150 million cubic metres of wood. Harvesting was accelerated to utilise the timber before it rotted, and pellet mills provided (and continue to provide) really good use of the sawdust, chips and shavings from sawmills, and beetle-damaged low-grade timber. The forest landscape has therefore changed, and this will alter how forests are used in future. With less sawmilling expected in the next decade or so, shown by a reduction in recent years in the amount of cutting, more feedstock will come from forest residues that are often burned after harvest.

The graph and tables below summarise data collected from the individual CAA reports, analysing the key metrics in each region. Figures 1 and 2 show data for five of the areas we source from in the US South and Figure 3 measures the forest landscape in Latvia and Estonia.

Figure 1

Annual change in inventory volume by catchment area (USFS)

Figure 2

Figure 3