TY - JOUR

T1 - Harnessing the full potential of a global forest-based bioeconomy through non-timber products

T2 - Beyond logs, biotechnology, and high-income countries

AU - Chamberlain, James

AU - Smith-Hall, Carsten

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - An increasing number of countries are developing and implementing novel approaches to transition to a forest-based bioeconomy. These innovations present opportunities for rethinking and repositioning the forest sector in many countries, making them more relevant to key contemporary global challenges, including sustainably managing forests for biodiversity conservation, poverty alleviation, and climate change mitigation. This requires expanded scholarship and refocused interventions and policies, moving beyond current associations of bioeconomies with timber, biotechnology, and high-income countries. Harnessing the economic potentials of widely harvested, sustainably sourced, and appropriately processed non-timber products is key to full realization of a forest-based bioeconomy. In this commentary, we draw on recent scholarship to illustrate this potential across a range of countries, products, and experiences. We present evidence that forest products other than wood contribute significantly to local and national economies and contend that obstacles impeding the transition to inclusive forest-based bioeconomies can be overcome. To support development and implementation of a globally oriented functional forest-based bioeconomy, that can be pursued in different ways at the national level, research is needed to support: non-timber product integration into nominal and functional forest law and bioeconomic policies; implementation pathways that vary with priorities, e.g. integrating indigenous knowledge or focused on poverty alleviation; national-level short-listing of priority species; realizing opportunities for non-timber product, process, and functional upgrading; and implementation of standardized data collection procedures at subnational, national, and international levels.

AB - An increasing number of countries are developing and implementing novel approaches to transition to a forest-based bioeconomy. These innovations present opportunities for rethinking and repositioning the forest sector in many countries, making them more relevant to key contemporary global challenges, including sustainably managing forests for biodiversity conservation, poverty alleviation, and climate change mitigation. This requires expanded scholarship and refocused interventions and policies, moving beyond current associations of bioeconomies with timber, biotechnology, and high-income countries. Harnessing the economic potentials of widely harvested, sustainably sourced, and appropriately processed non-timber products is key to full realization of a forest-based bioeconomy. In this commentary, we draw on recent scholarship to illustrate this potential across a range of countries, products, and experiences. We present evidence that forest products other than wood contribute significantly to local and national economies and contend that obstacles impeding the transition to inclusive forest-based bioeconomies can be overcome. To support development and implementation of a globally oriented functional forest-based bioeconomy, that can be pursued in different ways at the national level, research is needed to support: non-timber product integration into nominal and functional forest law and bioeconomic policies; implementation pathways that vary with priorities, e.g. integrating indigenous knowledge or focused on poverty alleviation; national-level short-listing of priority species; realizing opportunities for non-timber product, process, and functional upgrading; and implementation of standardized data collection procedures at subnational, national, and international levels.

KW - Circular economy

KW - Environmental products

KW - Global approach

KW - Non-timber forest products

KW - Policy

KW - Research priorities

U2 - 10.1016/j.forpol.2023.103105

DO - 10.1016/j.forpol.2023.103105

M3 - Comment/debate

AN - SCOPUS:85176354673

VL - 158

JO - Forest Policy and Economics

JF - Forest Policy and Economics

SN - 1389-9341

M1 - 103105

ER -