Interplays and local policies in forests: The case of North Karelia in eastern Finland Jyrki Kangas / 29 June 2017
Finland country of forests and lakes Independent since 1917 Total area 338,424 km 2, 10% waters Forests cover 75% of land area; 4.2 hectares of forest / a Finn; 95% certified; standing volume 2.5 bill.m³; growth 109.9 mill.m³/a; total drain 85 mill.m³/a (of which roundwood harvests 65 mill.m³/a) Wide everyman s rights irrespective of the land ownership SOURCE: EFI
Forests in the core of the growth of Finnish bioeconomy Current bioeconomy in Finland: Total output more than EUR 64 billion, more than 300.000 employed persons More than 50% of the total Finnish bioeconomy is based on forests More than 20% of export incomes come from forest industry products Aims of Finland s National Bioeconomy Strategy, in 2025: total output EUR 100 billion, 100.000 new employed persons Forest bioeconomy is growing fast and ge_ing more versatile; not only the use of wood but also nature tourism, non-wood forest products and services, etc. North Karelia in eastern Finland is especially addicted to forests => not a surprise that the region and its capital Joensuu focus much on forest bioeconomy RDI 11/10/17 3
Joensuu Center for Forest Bioeconomy Forest Capital of Europe
BIOECONOMY KNOW-HOW IN JOENSUU Ø More than 600 forest bioeconomy experts - researchers, trainees, teachers, innovators Ø Research: University of Eastern Finland (UEF; with its Bioeconomy Policy), Karelia University of Applied Sciences, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Finnish Environment Institute (Syke), Joensuu Science Park, European Forest Institute (EFI) Ø Diverse forest bioeconomy education at all levels Ø International environment, plenty of foreign students Ø International companies like John Deere (machines), Fortum (pyrolysis oil), Stora Enso (dissolving pulp wood-based biotextiles) Ø Over 500 bioeconomy companies of different sizes with more than EUR 2 billion turnover + forest landowners + lot of forests and trees
COMMITMENT Ø In North Karelia region the environment is favourable for developing bioeconomy: active companies, strong know-how and commitment, lot of forests and other renewable natural resources Ø Strategies of the region rely heavily on forests; e.g. the region s Smart Specialisation Strategy: Forest-bioeconomy is an essential theme in the North Karelian application of smart specialisation. It is based on more innovative utilisation of our forest resources. and the goal is that North Karelia should be completely fossil fuel free by 2030 Ø The turnover in bioeconomy aimed to still grow by EUR 1 billion by 2025 Ø The forest bioeconomy innovation ecosystem in Joensuu has had an important input in development of national bioeconomy programs and in pu_ing the Finnish government s bioeconomy strategy into practice; and the role of RDI is crucial in the bioeconomy innovation ecosystem
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Transdisciplinary Forest Bioeconomy RDI: GreenHUB
GreenHUB team and companies UEF, Karelia, Luke, Syke, EFI, Forest Centre, Science Park working together
GreenHUB? Ø Open innovation platform on forest bioeconomy Ø "GreenHUBbars" = doctors, experts, professionals, who know the latest bioeconomy news and research Ø GreenHUBbars provide companies, public bodies, NGOs etc. with their know-how, expertise and problem solving skills Ø first 1-2 days free of charge, paid by the so called growth agreement by the State and town of Joensuu Ø A number of options to continue and apply funding Ø Call a doctor to a visit (we may visit you anyway!)
Challenges Ideas Input from companies, business, admistration, NGOs Problems Customer needs GreenHUB Transdisciplinary open innovation platform _ openess, involvement, enthusiasm, cooperation, solutions Education Research Input from the academia knowledge pool and other platform actors Consultancy Problem solving
GreenHUB company example: Arbonaut Ltd
UEF JOENSUU KUOPIO SAVONLINNA An example of transdisciplinary research projects: FORBIO - Sustainable, climate-neutral and resource-efficient forest-based bioeconomy www.uef.fi/ forbio @FORBIOproject
Most important: shared will and target North Karelian forest bioeconomy actors have them both
Questions by the Workshop Organizers What are the priority research needs for the next 10 years? - A lot of them hard to rank; e.g. bioeconomy foresight, business models, multi-functional management of natural resources, multi-criteria decision analysis, intensification of biomass production (supply to meet the growing demand), consumers and stakeholders preferences, wood material science, digitalization and: do not forget basic research! Which tools for research and development are lacking today? - More systematic networking, interaction and collaboration between scientists and practitioners; and funding for that kind of transdisciplinary interplay - Human mobility within value networks; from science to practice and vice versa - Tools for assessing the holistic (overall) sustainability Which types of partnerships are necessary for the development of bioeconomy? - Transdisciplinary Research & Development & Innovation - Different fields of science together; multidisciplinary collaboration - Commitment by all partners - All stakeholders must be welcome, including NGOs, companies, public bodies, research, education, local inhabitants,
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