Mapping forest-based bioeconomy research in Europe

Bioeconomy imaginaries: A review of forest-related social science literature

“…Accordingly, sustainability transformations are long-term democratic projects where definitions of new socially shared meanings, collective behaviours, and the inclusion of new actors are central to any practical attempts to link place-based and global approaches, local community interests with traditional institutional actors, and short- and long-term priorities. Transformational actions thus require more than developing the right technologies, institutions, markets, and metrics (Mancebo and Sachs 2015 ), which are often the focus of scientific knowledge produced in bioeconomy-related projects (Giurca and Metz 2018 ; Korhonen et al 2018a , b ; Lovrić et al 2020 ).…”

“…climate mitigation and adaptation, water and soil protection, biodiversity conservation, recreation and cultural ecosystem services). Furthermore, funding for research related to the forest-based bioeconomy is increasing in Europe (Lovrić et al 2020 ). Bioeconomy imaginaries in the scholarly research are likely to have major implications for how these forest values are balanced and prioritized in policymaking and whose perspectives and interests concerning forests are heard, or whose are marginalized.…”

Bioeconomy perception by future stakeholders: Hearing from European forestry students

“…involving HEI that supposedly share similar visions and approaches, to help cooperation and advance research and knowledge, and across different clusters, to support spreading of different views and bioeconomy development paths. Recently created programs and university consortia focused on bioeconomy, as well as more traditional student exchange programs might serve this purpose and could be integrated with other initiatives spanning from education (including online and blended courses on specific bioeconomy-related topics) to cross-boundary research projects (Lovrić et al 2020 ).…”

Editorial: Woody Plants and Forest Ecosystems in a Complex World—Ecological Interactions and Physiological Functioning Above and Below Ground

“…They are essential to global biogeochemical cycles and economies alike, shape the landscape, provide habitat for a large number of animal and plant species, are a renewable resource of wood, and provide a carbon sink that can reduce anthropogenic CO 2 pollution and mitigate climate change (FAO, 2018b). Yet despite the importance of intact forest ecosystems for future generations of humankind (Costanza et al, 1997), notoriously more research funds are directed towards agricultural systems, or wood processing at most (Lovrić et al, 2020), than towards the preservation and sustainable management of forest ecosystems under global change. This is alarming, as in times of rapidly changing environmental conditions, resource management of long-lived woody species and their ecosystems is facing new challenges (Macdicken et al, 2016;Ammer, 2019).…”

“…However, the current dominance of funding for bio-energy and bio-refinery topics over more forest ecosystem-focused studies [e.g. in the EU; (Lovrić et al, 2020)] follows the perspective of science and technology studies (Birch et al, 2010)-by which bio-economy research is focused on the innovation potential of biotechnology, and less on the sectors that manage natural resources. In contrast, we believe that an increased investment into cross-disciplinary ecological research is needed to strengthen our functional understanding of woody plants in complex ecosystems.…”