Forest bioeconomy - a new scope for sustainability indicators

From Science to Policy 4

Author
Bernhard Wolfslehner, Stefanie Linser, Helga Pülzl, Annemarie Bastrup-Birk, Andrea Camia, Marco Marchetti
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European forests and the forest-based sector play a central role in a bioeconomy: they provide material (wood and non-wood), bioenergy and a wealth of other regulating and cultural ecosystem services. These demands need to be properly balanced, and many targets have to be tackled simultaneously.

In a situation with many possibilities, synergies, trade-offs and uncertainties, indicators can help to avoid unwanted impacts, and support successful and sustainable bioeconomy development. They can be used to inform policy makers, synthesize complex matters and act as tools for decision support. At present, however, there is a fragmented landscape of bioeconomy-related data and monitoring instruments.

The forest-based sector has the opportunity to take the lead in the sustainable development of the bioeconomy. It has powerful tools in place that can be adapted and further developed for application in the bioeconomy as a whole. These tools have to be state-of-the art and continuously developed: here the forest sector can be a forerunner and role model, shaping the bioeconomy debate and its monitoring and assessment.

This study provides insights into the potential use of forest-based sector indicator sets in Europe. It builds on the rich experience gained with sectoral indicator tools, and connects to aspects of policy research, operational research and sustainability science. It develops three different options or scenarios for how bioeconomy indicators can be designed in the future.

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Recommended citation:

Bernhard Wolfslehner, Stefanie Linser, Helga Pülzl, Annemarie Bastrup-Birk, Andrea Camia and Marco Marchetti. 2016. Forest bioeconomy – a new scope for sustainability indicators. From Science to Policy 4. European Forest Institute.

Number of pages: 32
ISBN 978-952-5980-29-5 (print)
ISBN 978-952-5980-30-1 (online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36333/fs04

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Authors

Bernhard Wolfslehner is Head of the EFI Central-East and South-East European Regional Office (EFICEEC-EFISEE), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.

Stefanie Linser is a Senior Researcher at EFICEEC-EFISEE, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.

Helga Pülzl is a Senior Researcher at EFICEEC-EFISEE, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.

Annemarie Bastrup-Birk is Project Manager Forest and Environment at the European Environment Agency.

Andrea Camia is Scientific/Technical Projects Manager at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, ISPRA, Italy.

Marco Marchetti is a Professor and Chair of Forest Management and Conservation at the University of Molise, Italy.