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Article Embracing the Non-Wood Forest Products Potential for Bioeconomy—Analysis of Innovation Cases across Europe Gerhard Weiss 1,2 , Alice Ludvig 1,2,3 and Ivana Živojinovic´ 1,2,3, *
1 Institute of Forest, Environmental and Natural Resource Policy, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Feistmantelstrasse 4, 1180 Vienna, Austria 2 European Forest Institute, Forest Policy Research Network c/o, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Feistmantelstrasse 4, 1180 Vienna, Austria 3 Centre for Bioeconomy, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Peter-Jordan-Straße 82/II, 1190 Vienna, Austria * Correspondence: ivana.zivojinovic@boku.ac.at Abstract: This article focuses on the potential role of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) which are so far largely neglected within forest-related bioeconomy research and policy. From an innovation system perspective, we look at the barriers for NWFPs development and propose how they can be supported. We analyse 20 innovation cases in Europe, based on the analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews with experts involved in the cases. Results show that there is no “one” innovation system supporting NWFPs, but support is given rather erratically through certain programmes from various sectoral or regional innovation systems (forestry, agriculture, nature conservation or rural or regional development). There is a pronounced neglection of the institutional system towards NWFPs, resulting in a lack of statistics, research, education and training programmes and focused support structures. However, our results show rich potential of NWFPs in the forest bioeconomy for private forest owners and producers. These activities can range from a collection of NWFPs for subsistence to collectively organized production relevant to rural areas. Most of these are product innovations, some are service or social innovations, while some combine different innovation types. From some successful examples we derive suggestions for how to improve innovation support structures.
Citation: Weiss, G.; Ludvig, A.; Živojinovic´, I. Embracing the Non- Wood Forest Products Potential for Bioeconomy—Analysis of Innovation Cases across Europe. Land 2023 , 12 , 305. https://doi.org/10.3390/ land12020305 Academic Editors: Stefanie Linser, Martin Greimel and Andreas Pyka
Keywords: case studies; Europe; innovation system; institutional innovations; policy; non-timber forest products; social innovations
1. Introduction Over the years the concept of bioeconomy has developed and today is one of the main strategic policy agendas of the EU [1]. Its main aim is the transformation process of the current economy to a bioeconomy in which fossil resources should be replaced by biogenic materials to mitigate climate change, contribute to sustainability, protect environment, and conserve natural resources. Research and innovation are supposed to enable this transformational process [2–5], with the help of transformative policies, access to finance, risk-taking capacity as well as new and sustainable business models and markets [6]. The bioeconomy principles are addressed in the 2018 update of the European Union (EU) Bioeconomy Strategy [1]. The strategy has five main objectives: ensuring food and nutrition security; managing natural resources sustainably; reducing dependence on non-renewable resources for energy; mitigating and adapting to climate change; and strengthening European competitiveness and creating new jobs. With this strategy, EU paves the way to its long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate- neutral economy by 2050 [7]. According to this strategy, bioeconomy relies on all primary production sectors and all economic and industrial sectors that use biological resources and processes to produce food, feed, bio-based products, energy, and services [7]. Forestry,
Received: 23 December 2022 Revised: 16 January 2023 Accepted: 20 January 2023 Published: 21 January 2023
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
Land 2023 , 12 , 305. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12020305
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land
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