On the road to a bio-based economy: Governance pathways and policy design for sustainable forest use (GOVFORBIO)

In recent years, the role of Swedish forestry has been repeatedly discussed in the Swedish policy debate regarding the transition towards a climate neutral bioeconomy. Forestry is expected to contribute to a higher withdrawal of biomass, carbon sequestration and new business opportunities in rural areas.

This means that society is increasing the demands on forests to deliver on a number of competing ecosystem services. At the same time, intensive production of biomass often come into conflict with other land use, environmental interests and recreational activities. Thus, it will be difficult to reach a sustainable bioeconomy if policy makers do not handle the goal conflicts and develop effective combinations of policy instruments concerning forest use.

Mapping and analysing how Swedish forest policy needs to develop

The aim of this project is to map and analyse how Swedish forest policy needs to develop in order to meet the transition to a biobased economy. This is done by examining the interplay between policy goals, regulatory and informative policy instruments and the ability of management to turn goals into action.

A central starting point is that complex issues, like a transition towards a bioeconomy, requires that different economic, informative and coercive policy instruments complement each other. Policy instruments should be interpreted in a broad sense like taxes, subsidies, legislation and collaboration, including broad participation from various actors. Collaboration is especially important in Sweden where informative policy instruments dominate forest policy and where forest owners are to a large extent expected to take responsibility for nature conservation without financial compensation.

Interaction with key stakeholders

The analyses are based on interviews, focus group discussions, scenario analyses, participant observation and analyses of policy documents. The project will result in urgent contributions to science, policy making and public debate about the challenges and prerequisites for a Swedish biobased and climate neutral economy. Besides, different forms of interaction with key stakeholders will contribute to a broad dissemination of knowledge.