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NWFP implications in a bioeconomy: Resource and management – Novel management concepts to boost product diversity and secure higher product flows
Abstract
NWFPs show a variety of connections to the concept of smart, inclusive development in a bioeconomy. However, there is no substantial body of evidence that comprehensively considers NWFPs in the context of a bioeconomy. Based on the knowledge collected in this report, this chapter describes a few examples of the contribution of NWFPs as a basis for more in-depth perception of NWFPs as a central natural resource of European forests. This chapter: (i) briefly summarizes some principle linkages of NWFPs that bear opportunities in a cross-sectoral bioeconomy; and (ii) highlights the importance of modern, adapted management concepts.
... Ex Pers.) Pilát), stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) grafted for Mediterranean pine nuts [25] and American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) cultivated under shade structures since the mid-1800s [26]. The promotion and utilisation of NWFP commodities supports the concept of a future based on the utilisation of sustainably sourced natural resources as a foundation of a bio-based economy replacing the current modern fossil-based economy (cf. ...
... Integration of NWFP into sustainable co-production management for wood and non-wood requires several major considerations [85,86,104,105,123] and may demand an element of silvicultural innovation [25,117]. Compatible management, defined as the concurrent production of multiple products without significant decrease in other values (cf. ...
This review provides perspectives and insights of forest researchers from four continents representing a range of geo-regions, with examples from diverse and dynamic use of forest products that are undervalued and often misrepresented. A comprehensive discussion of the subject provides special attention to property, tenancy, public goods and access rights to non-wood forest products (NWFP), seen as forest ecosystem services in a framework for forest management decisions. The overall purpose is to provide a logical argument for transitioning to sustainable management of forests for timber and NWFP.
Multifunctional ecosystem-based approaches are transforming our understanding of forests. The prevailing economic relevance of NWFP for trade and sustenance requires their operative integration into forest management. Integration of NWFP will shift a traditional timber-oriented management paradigm towards an inclusive ecosystem forest management approach. We show that the impact of NWFP resources on livelihoods provides multiple benefits to all sectors of global society. Policy and property rights affect the availability and sustainability of the resource, while regulations, restrictions and prohibitions target the sustainable harvest of NWFP under growing demand. Official reporting of production volumes of NWFP is sparse, erratic or inaccurate due to a complex system that is opaque and with inadequately understood value chains, yet research is underway to better understand all NWFP sectors.
A shift from command-and-control forest management to broader governance schemes is observed, yet despite a growing awareness of their importance, NWFP and their potential for a bio-based economy require more research. A conceptual framework for transitioning to sustainable co-production management of timber and NWFP is presented. Such a transition is needed to ensure long-term forest security, health and resilience.
Purpose of Review
Climate change poses a threat to European forests and threatens their capacity to deliver ecosystem services. Innovation is often considered critical to increasing resilience in wood-based value chains. However, the knowledge about types of innovation processes and how they enhance resilience, if at all, is largely dispersed. In this conceptual paper, we refer to examples from the forestry, bioeconomy, adaptation, and innovation literature to develop an overview of innovation pathways along the wood value chain. Thereafter, we evaluate the extent to which they enhance or compromise resilience to climate change and how they do so.
Recent Findings
We differentiate between forest and value chain resilience and assume that innovation positively influences both types of resilience via three resilience drivers: diversifying the product portfolio, making operations more efficient, or making the processes more flexible. Our literature review revealed nine innovation pathways along the value chain.
Summary
The pathways rarely connect forest management and the processing industry. Consequently, a mismatch was identified between the innovation pathways and resilience drivers applied to increase diversification at the beginning of the value chain (in forest management) and those applied to increase efficiency towards the end of the value chain (in the processing industry). Considering this mismatch, we stress that it is critical to reconsider the term innovation as a silver bullet and to increase the awareness of resilience drivers and innovation pathways, as well as reconsider ways to combine them optimally. We recommend engaging in open innovation activities to cooperatively draft innovation strategies across the entire wood value chain and intercept pathways by making processes more flexible.
Wild plant gathering becomes again a popular and fashionable activity in Europe after gathering practices have been increasingly abandoned over the last decades. Recent ethnobotanical research documented a diversity of gathering practices from people of diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds who gather in urban and rural areas. Few efforts were though made to study the motivations for gathering wild plants and to understand the resurgent popularity of wild plant gathering. This paper addresses the following research questions: (1) which motivations activate wild plant gatherers? (2) which motivation-types of gatherers exist in the Grosses Walsertal? (3) how do the motivations for gathering relate to the socio-demographic background of gatherers?
Field research was conducted in the Grosses Walsertal, Austria in the years 2008 and 2009 in two field research periods. Thirty-six local farmers were first interviewed with semi-structured interviews. The motivations identified in these interviews were then included in a structured questionnaire, which was used to interview 353 residents of the valley. Pupils of local schools participated in the data collection as interviewers. Principal Component Analysis was used to categorize the motivations and to identify motivation-types of wild plant gatherers. Generalized Linear Models were calculated to identify relations between motivations and the socio-demographic background of gatherers.
The respondents listed 13 different motivations for gathering wild plants and four motivations for not gathering. These 17 motivations were grouped in five motivation-types of wild plant gatherers, which are in decreasing importance: product quality, fun, tradition, not-gathering, income. Women, older respondents and homegardeners gather wild plants more often for fun; older respondents gather more often for maintaining traditions; non-homegardeners more frequently mention motivations for not gathering.
The resurgent popularity of wild plant gathering comes along with an internalization of motivations: the main motivations for wild plant gathering changed from the external extrinsic motivation of gathering because of necessity towards the internalized extrinsic motivation of gathering for the highly esteemed product quality and the intrinsic motivation of gathering for the pleasure of the activity itself. This internalization of motivations supports the persistence of wild plant gathering, a positive self-perception of gatherers and good quality of engagement with wild plant gathering.
Edible wild mushroom picking is becoming an important source of income in rural areas. The wide range of activities which add value to mycological production (initial sale, transformation, marketing, etc.) include those related to tourism which can attract visitors to mushroom producing areas, leading to so-called mycological tourism. To date, no research exists quantifying the importance thereof in rural areas endowed with such resources. The present research provides the first model to estimate this activity's contribution to the economy of rural areas in the region of Castilla y Leon. The main finding to emerge evidences a close link between influx of visitors, who come principally to pick, and mycological productivity in the region. Based on this relation, we estimate four key variables to determine the impact which said activity has on the regional economy as a whole: the number of overnight stays and trips made by mycological tourists, as well as associated expenditure and employment created. Findings underscore the importance of this activity in the regional tourism industry and point to its significance as a major market niche, particularly during the hotel low season. The need for public administrators to implement a related management policy is also inferred.
Non-timber forest product (NTFP) governance is a recent concept denoting the process of rule and decision-making concerning production and marketing.This paper reviews the multiple dimensions of and recent trends in NTFP governance. It emphasises that NTFP governance is more than rule-making and includes a broader societal process based on social practices, values and principles.This process is characterised by the coexistence of formal and informal institutions based on plural statutory, customary and market norms; the combination of forestry and agrarian regimes; multilevel and multi-actor involvement in many –but usually not all – of these arrangements; and largely separate institutions that govern access to resources and markets. NTFP governance is characterised by an increasingly complex and dynamic hybrid of institutional arrangements, norms and collective social practices and by cross-scale dynamicsin space and over time.
In this paper, the property rights system (PR) in small-scale forestry in Europe is analysed in relationship to enterprise
and innovation development. The paper applies the theory of property rights to distinguish four criteria relevant for enterprise
and innovation development: security of rights, definition of the content, transferability of the rights and owners’ participation
in the definition of rules for forest management. The description of the PR systems in the national COST Action E30 reports
has been used as empirical data to illustrate some barriers to enterprise development according to the four selected criteria.
Two categories of rearrangements in the PR systems in favour of innovation were identified: the partition of property rights
amongst different users and the public allocation of rights over resource utilisation.
Within the globalizing world, regions and their identities are subjected to great pressure. At present, places are engaged in a process of “territorial competition†in an integrated world economy. The identity of the region can be used as a starting point to brand a region and differentiate it from others. In the regional branding process, the region as a whole becomes a product or brand and offers a “basket†of regional products and services. Regional branding is aimed at creating a more distinctive image or reputation, which helps to increase regional competitiveness. This paper discusses the possibility of regional identity as a mobilizing force for rural development, by studying best practice examples of regional branding. Using the grounded theory approach, we conducted interviews in three case regions: West Cork (Ireland), Groene Woud (the Netherlands) and Pajottenland (Belgium). The study of these cases led to the formulation of critical success factors on the organization of regional branding. Comparative analysis of the cases demonstrates the importance of passionate initiators as ambassadors of the region and the advantage of a well-coordinated internal network in the region. Next to that, the internal marketing of the region is considered an important critical success factors.
The paper sets out to examine the characteristics of support for innovation processes in Non-Wood Forest Products (NWFP). The typical enterprises and start-ups which emerge in this sector tend to be small-scale and family owned. We claim that there is a large unused potential for NWFP to support rural development and increase incomes of land owners and rural enterprises. In this article, we study what makes selected and so far successful product innovations in NWFPs special and subsequently what were the factors that supported their development and marketing? These questions we study at hand of four empirical innovative case studies in four European rural areas. We come to the conclusion that the entrepreneurs show some common features in the ways they started their business. However, they have applied individual strategies for the realisation of their own ideas. In line with recommendations from recent literature on creating innovations, all of them have used some “external” support, but at very different levels: They range from monetary support and consultation of effective support organisations to personal non-monetary exchange-relationships in social networks within a communal area. Our results contribute to an understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour as a very individual and context-specific undertaking on the one hand and as a “universal” activity with common features and attributes on the other.
The first forest-related policy measures - and the birth of the forestry profession - in the Scandinavian countries were related to game management and protection. However, attention was also given to the conservation of fruit-bearing forest trees very early in the development of forest policies in the region (Helander, 1949; Fritzboeger and Soendergaard, 1995). This article discusses policies concerning non-wood forest products (NWFPs). (For the most part only plant-based products such as berries and mushrooms are considered.) Their role in forestry is greatly influenced by the general status assigned by legislation to the multiple use of forests. Free access rights to multiple products and services of forests are characteristic of many northern European countries and are examined country by country. Finally, a general framework for the development of NWFP policies is outlined.
Forests are known to produce timber in the first place and this is also the main income source for most forest owners. At the same time, it is also widely known that forests provide many more benefits to society: They provide landscape amenities and opportunities for recreation, they conserve biodiversity and protect environmental features, they deliver clean water and offer protection against natural hazards such as landslides, rock-fall or avalanches, and last but not least they are a source for renewable energy and are an important means to mitigate climate change through their ability to sequester carbon. All of these goods and services, in fact, are increasing in significance. It seems that the image of forestry is currently changing from a quite traditional and declining sector to a “future sector” which offers solutions to a range of challenges that our society is facing today. Innovation plays a key role in making the sector able to fulfil this promising role.
What this chapter aims for is to understand current innovation processes in the sector, including supportive and hampering factors, institutional conditions and drivers, the relevant policies and innovation systems, and success and failures.
This study presents an environmental analysis of the cork sector by integrating and evaluating the production of the products that are most commonly made of cork: natural cork stoppers, champagne cork stoppers, white cork granulate and black cork granulate, in order to propose environmental strategies that could contribute to minimising the potential impacts of the cork sector. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was the methodology used in order to assess the potential environmental impacts of the cork sector and its main products. Inventory was supported by 15 companies in Catalonia.Different environmental midpoint impact categories were reported and analysed according to CML 2001 method such as Abiotic Depletion (ADP), Acidification Potential (AP), Eutrophication Potential (EP), and many other. Also, the Global Warming Potential (GWP 100 years), was assessed, and it was found that the cork sector contributed to fixing carbon dioxide and consequently can help to mitigate climate change, besides generating cork products. Specifically, 3.4 tonnes of CO2 eq. were emitted to convert a tonne of raw cork from the forest into products, while 18 tonnes of CO2 are fixed per tonne as a result of the existence of cork oak forests; the resulting balance was that 14.6 tonnes of CO2 are fixed. A sensitivity analysis was carried out of the distribution of environmental impacts between products; it was observed that allocation rules were an important point of the assessment.The use of cork, a natural, renewable and local material, can help to reduce the environmental impact of products. The use of cork stoppers contributes to reducing the carbon footprint of beverages such as wines, champagnes, beers, ciders, brandies and many other beverages.
Picking wild berries, which has long been the most popular consumptive outdoor recreation activity in the Nordic countries, has shown indications of declining. In Finland, over half of the population still participates in berry picking, and picking wild berries is generally considered to have cultural and economic importance. Recreational berry picking is based on the Nordic everyman's right, which is the right of open access to all forests for purposes such as picking wild berries and mushrooms, regardless of land ownership. Using logistic regression and negative binomial regression models, this study analyzes those characteristics of a representative Finnish sample that affect not only berry picking in general but also frequency of berry picking. The results of this analysis indicate that the activity of picking wild berries is linked to a rural lifestyle, particularly to the lifestyle of older generations and the use of summer cottage.
Innovations in the forest sector may be very different in origin, objectives, context and content. This paper analyses several institutional innovations with the capacity to create considerable changes in the rules of the game of forest policy making in Austria, Scotland and France. All cases provide relevant examples of the public effort in promoting institutional innovation, in a context characterised by a shift from government regulation to governance mechanisms. They also provide examples of the basic role of the market in orienting innovation, independently from the institutional perspective. They also show that the outcome is often different to that which was expected. Whilst technical innovations in wood production are perhaps more easily learned and developed, economic considerations often intervene to impede organisational innovations aimed at promoting the multifunctional management of forests.The paper reflects on the role of the market, in inter-linking with policy decisions, and develops ideas on the comprehensive dynamics of promotion of innovation in the forest sector, where policy and markets work at the same time both as drivers as well as barriers, in creating the framework conditions for change. It focuses on the role of social and policy learning in the process of re-definition of the stakeholder networks which orientate innovation.
Constructing a Wild Mushroom Panopticon: The Extension of Nation-State Control over the Forest Understory in Oregon, USA. For most of the 20th century, wild mushrooms on national forests in the United States fell under a de facto open-access management regime. As
consumer demand for wild mushrooms increased, a nation-state wild mushroom management regime based on the use of disciplinary
power emerged on many national forests in the Pacific Northwest region. Data from an ethnographic study conducted during the
late 1990s illustrate how the simultaneous application of three core surveillance technologies—categorization, monitoring,
and tracking, and the creation of a panopticon surveillance system—enabled the Forest Service to enforce nation-state claims
to wild mushrooms. The data indicate that many pickers are unsupportive of the new regulatory system because it has transformed
what was once their living space into a working place. Pickers also point out that the system does little to protect or enhance
the growth of wild mushrooms. The study supports conclusions from previous studies that disciplinary power techniques play
a critical role in the capacity of modern states to extend their control over mobile populations and natural resources.
In recent years, worldwide socioeconomic, ecological, and cultural changes have led to a paradigm shift in forestry and forest management. Some years ago, most forest enterprises exclusively focused on wood production, whereas today, forest management is expected to be multifunctional and economically as well as socially and ecologically sustainable [Harrison, S., Herbohn, J., Niskanen, A., 2002. Non-industrial, smallholder, small-scale and family forestry: what's in a name? Small-scale Forest Economics. Management and Policy 1 (1), 1–11; Schmithuesen, F., 2004. Forest policy developments in changing societies — political trends and challenges to research. Towards the sustainable use of Europe's forests: Forest ecosystems and landscape research: Joensuu: European Forest Institute, Proc., vol. 49, pp. 87–99]. In this context, non-timber forest products (NTFPs) such as forest honey, mushrooms, or berries could gain importance as an additional source of income for the forestry sector. To assess the market potential of NTFPs in Switzerland, two corresponding surveys were conducted. A consumer survey (N = 897) conducted in six cities in Switzerland investigated the purchase of Swiss NTFPs, consumer preferences, and demand potentials. An additional survey of sellers of NTFPs (N = 105) looked at these aspects from a complementary perspective. The results showed that there is a high esteem and considerable demand potential for such products among urban consumers. Food products were mentioned most frequently. Both consumers and sellers considered quality and environmental friendliness the most important attributes of NTFPs. Structural and organizational innovations and considerable marketing efforts and sales promotion would be required to expand the market for Swiss NTFP, however. Our results indicate that certification of the products' origin, environmental performance, and quality could support such efforts and that recreational and ecological forest services have a synergetic potential for the marketing of NTFPs.
This article challenges the pervasive view that commercialisation of non-timber forest products can (easily) achieve ecosystem and species conservation as well as improving livelihoods. Following a brief review of who and what is involved, it focuses on the main ecological and livelihood risks of unconsidered promotion of NTFP commercialisation, drawing on a wide range of case studies from around the world. It concludes with some recommendations, emphasising the lack of 'magic-bullet' products, and the importance - among other things - of not ignoring national policy, taking an integrated view of the value chain, considering the implications of different production options, and improving both quality and quantity. Copyright 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Analysis of innovation related policies on European and national levels relevant for NWFP
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the utilization of wild berries in the context of local traditional rights and the interests of
the berry industry. Barents studies: Peoples, Economics and Politics 1, 24-49. http://urn.fi/
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NTFPs policy access to markets and labour issues in Finland: impacts of regionalisation and globalisation on the wild berry industry
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Wynberg, R.P., McLain, R.J. (Eds.), Wild Product Governance. Finding Policies That Work for
Non-Timber Forest Products. Earthscan, pp. 287-307.
Key messages • Besides the traditional synergies with agriculture and food industries, bolstering the NWFP economy requires coordination of policy issues as varied as production of raw materials; health and well-being
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Vidale, E., Dare, R. and Pettenella, D. 2014. Global trade in NWFP and position of EU. In: Wong,
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star-tree.eu/images/deliverables/WP1/D1_3_SOSR_nov2015.pdf
Key messages
• Besides the traditional synergies with agriculture and food industries, bolstering the NWFP economy requires coordination of policy issues as varied as production of raw materials; health and well-being; art and tourism; nature protection; labour, and trade.
Rural development and SME: the bridge between natural capital and NWFP economy
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between natural capital and NWFP economy. Deliverable D3.4 of the "StarTree" project, FP7
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NWFP in the international market: current situation and trends
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- R Da Re
- M Lovrić
Pettenella, D., Vidale, E., Da Re, R. and Lovrić, M. 2014. NWFP in the international market: current situation and trends. StarTree Deliverable 3.1. FP7 Project no. 311919 KBBE.2012.1.2-06.
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Key references
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Key messages • The issue of NWFPs should systematically be made visible in policy documents, information/statistics, budget lines, education and training, research, development and innovation
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Key messages
• The issue of NWFPs should systematically be made visible in policy documents,
information/statistics, budget lines, education and training, research, development and innovation, as well as in all relevant political communication activities.