Harnessing the full potential of a global forest-based bioeconomy through non-timber products: Beyond logs, biotechnology, and high-income countries
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Harnessing the full potential of a global forest-based bioeconomy through non-timber products : Beyond logs, biotechnology, and high-income countries. / Chamberlain, James; Smith-Hall, Carsten.
In: Forest Policy and Economics, Vol. 158, 103105, 2024.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › Research
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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 -
ID: 389412544