The supercapacitive hierarchical porous carbon electrodes are obtained from wood species as feedstock, and their performance is investigated as a green alternative to conventional cathodes for use in sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs). In this context, wood-based electrodes are directly obtained by pyrolysis of spruce (Picea abies), cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), sycamore (Platanus orientalis) and poplar (Populus deltoides) wood blocks at 900 °C following a top-down synthesis route. The results show that wood-based cathodes perform much better than conventional carbon felt. The maximum power density of 1500 mWm−2 is achieved by cathodes derived from sycamore compared to 145 mWm−2 for carbon felt as cathodes. The high capacitance of wood-derived electrodes obtained from all wood species is demonstrated in electrochemical tests. The comparison of cathode performance shows that carbonized cypress and sycamore have a greater chance of being used as bio-inspired cathodes in the SMFC applications.