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

To reach the Sustainable Development Goals, it is central to maintain economic growth while effectively dealing with environmental problems.

The transition towards a bioeconomy has now gained significant policy traction, and Sweden has the ambition to become the world’s first climate neutral, fossil-free welfare nation by 2045.

The current Swedish policy design – i.e. the mix of policy goals and policy instruments – will however not be sufficient to reach climate neutrality by 2045.

In the forest sector – a key sector for Sweden´s ambition to reach climate neutrality – a strong reliance on incentive-based instruments, such as information, advice and collaboration, have resulted in an inability to effectively govern towards a bioeconomy.

The present project brings together expertise in political science and applied forest management to addresses this challenge.

It will i) evaluate the potential of the current policy design to accelerate a bioeconomy shift, ii) conduct in-depth analyses of the central public policy instrument of state-initiated collaborative processes, and iii) elaborate on alternative policy designs, recommend changes to the current one, and identify how these changes could be accepted by key stakeholders given present knowledge gaps and uncertainties of outcomes.

We do this by combining policy analysis of key policy documents and reports with interviews, focus groups, observations as well as scenario and pathway analysis with key stakeholders.