Non-timber Forest Products Perspectives in a Bioeconomy

Dear Colleagues,

The European Commission in 2020 defined a bioeconomy as encompassing sustainable production of renewable resources from land, fisheries and aquaculture environments and conversion into food, feed, fiber bio-based products and bioenergy as well as related public goods. A forest-based bioeconomy is posited to reduce the environmental impacts of economic growth through improved management that ensures sustainable production and consumption. While forests cover a third of the global land area, they are weakly included in bioeconomy strategies, and non-timber forest products (NTFP) are absent. The plants, fungi and animals that produce NTFP are essential to peoples' food, medicinal, energy and livelihood security and sovereignty and healthy and resilient forest ecosystems, and as sources of phytochemicals and further products, thus constituting integral parts of any forest-based bioeconomy. Getting these products recognized as just that and then integrating them into local, national and global efforts to develop bioeconomies requires expanding perspectives of what is included in a bioeconomy. A forest-based bioeconomy is much more than recycling or new advances in biotechnology. Indeed, achieving wider transitions may contribute to solving the global challenges of biodiversity conservation, climate change and eradicating absolute poverty by increasing the value of standing forests and addressing the urgent needs of forest-reliant people and communities.

The IUFRO task force “Unlocking the Bioeconomy and Non-Timber Forest Products” is facilitating this Special Issue of the journal Forests. The Special Issue "Non-Timber Forest Products and the Bioeconomy" addresses the myriad of issues affecting efforts to improve the production, management and governance of NTFP to support inclusion in emerging models of forest-based bioeconomies. Notable examples of scholarship in this area are available at https://www.iufro.org/science/task-forces/bioeconomy-and-non-timber-forest-products/publications/. Contributors to the issue are encouraged to participate in the monthly task force webinar series and are welcome to view archived presentations.

Manuscripts that examine, from an empirical or conceptual–theoretical perspective, the economic contributions of NTFP to the sustainable management and governance of forests, to advance knowledge relative to bioeconomy transitions and strategies and related policies, are invited. We are looking for a wide geographic and gender diversity of authors and subjects and encourage students and young professionals to contribute.

Dr. James L. Chamberlain
Prof. Dr. Dietrich Darr
Dr. Verina Ingram
Prof. Dr. Jinlong Liu
Prof. Dr. Carsten Smith-Hall
Daniel Moura da Costa Teixeira
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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