Session 6: Economic and social challenges for the bioeconomy
The rise of an increasingly integrated biomass-based industry that spans forestry, agriculture, the chemical and energy sectors has ramifications at the levels of socio-economic structures, cultures and practices, affecting European forestry and farming sectors, land use and landscapes. It is unclear how the EU’s technology and industry-focused vision of the bioeconomy will be integrated in business concepts, and how social innovation in multi-stakeholder practices, agro-ecological concepts and ecosystem service provisioning will be affected.
As a result of the lack of consensus over what the bioeconomy is and should look like, there is also a lack of integrated biomass policy frameworks. In terms of social and environmental safeguards, the EU’s biofuel and bioenergy sustainability legislation faces criticism for its inability to account for indirect price - or land use effects, which have been associated with land grabs and conversions in biomass-exporting countries. Forest conservation and forest carbon storage initiatives funded by developed countries face similar questions as to how they can guarantee free choice, engagement, and benefits for local communities.
The session was chaired by Jean-Luc Peyron, Managing Director of ECOFOR, France. The presentations were the following:
|
Name |
Affiliation |
Presentation title |
Presentation (15 min.) / Speed talk (1 min.) |
|
Alessandro Paletto |
Researcher at the Forest Monitoring and Planning Research Unit of the Italian Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Italy |
Presentation |
|
|
Päivi Pelli |
PhD Candidate, School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland |
Presentation |
|
|
Nadine Pannicke |
The Hemholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Germany |
The political economy of fostering a wood-based Bioeconomy in Germany |
Presentation |
|
Irmeli Mustalahti |
Academy Research Fellow, Institute for Natural Resources, Environment and Society, University of Eastern Finland |
Presentation |
|
|
Anna Harnmeijer |
Researcher, MHG Systems, Finland |
Beyond technology innovation: a holistic assessment of sustainability policy for bioenergy production systems in the UK |
Presentation |
|
Elena Gorriz |
Researcher at European Forest Institute and Forest Sciences Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), Spain |
Social Capital in the design and implementation of a wild mushroom picking permit in Poblet (Catalonia, Spain) |
Speed talk |
|
Mihail Hanzu |
Research assistant at the National Institute of Forest Research and Development "Marin Drăcea", Romania |
Speed talk |
|
|
Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen |
Academy postdoctoral researcher, Institute for Natural Resources, Environment and Society, University of Eastern Finland |
Sustainability – A ‘selling point’ of the emerging EU Bioeconomy? |
Speed talk |
