Session 5.2 Social innovation in forestry

Chair:

Gerhard Weiss, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, and European Forest Institute, Forest Policy Research Network

Elena Górriz-Mifsud, European Forest Institute, and Forest Science and Technology Center of Catalonia

TA: Julia

Schedule:

8.30-8.40 Introduction: The double role of policy in social innovation (Gerhard Weiss)

8.40-9.40 Presentations

1. Carmen Rodríguez Fernández Blanco: Bottom-linked governance for wildfire resilience: A social innovation example from the Mediterranean.
2. Todora Rogelja: Changing role of public actors in the forest-based social innovation – The case of the Charcoal Land Initiative in Slovenia
3. Valentino Marini Govigli: The green side of social innovation: using Sustainable Development Goals to classify environmental impacts of rural grassroots initiatives
4. Gerhard Weiss: The role of social innovation for economic, ecological and social values of forests

9.40-10.00 Summary discussion

• On the diversity of social innovation: what do they have in common? 
• The governance of social innovation: common patterns or multiple models?
• Roles of policy for social innovation vs role of social innovation for policy

Abstract

The provision of multiple ecosystem services is a central concern of forest policies and the forest sector, furthermore, contributes in many ways to rural development. Recently, policy practice and research have discovered the role of social innovation as a potentially important mechanism to secure manifold services of forests for society. Since market mechanisms have strong limitations with regard to many goods and services with public good characteristics and top-down policy approaches face a range of barriers, social innovation promise to offer another institutional mechanism through common, collective or community action (E. Ostrom).
This panel aims to highlight the role of social innovation for securing multiple economic, ecological and social benefits of forests for society and rural development and to give insights into social innovation processes. Social innovation can be understood as new mechanisms for finding new solutions for the fulfilment of social needs where civil society actors have a central role. With this, they are distinct from market or policy innovations, although firms and policy actors may have roles in the process and policies form an important part of the environment for such innovations.
The presented papers use practical examples from across Europe and either analyse the mechanisms behind those innovations (Rodríguez Fernández Blanco et al.; Rogelja et al.) or assess their contribution to sustainability related policy goals (Marini Govigli et al.; Weiss et al.). The former provide insights into the role of various actors in the development of social innovations, including public policy actors, as well as the role of institutional frameworks and policies. The latter illustrate the specific potential of social innovations to cater to a range of policy goals, particularly non-market benefits of forests such as social and ecological benefits and the contribution to regional economic development and well-being of rural communities.

Carmen Rodríguez Fernández Blanco, European Forest Institute, and Forest Science and Technology Center of Catalonia, and KU Leuven

Bottom-linked governance for wildfire resilience: A social innovation example from the Mediterranean.

Wildfires are a major disturbance in the Mediterranean region. Despite decreasing numbers of occurrence, since the 1980s there is a trend of larger and more damaging fires (?megafires?). They have increased in size, intensity and severity, and they have become a serious threat for civil
protection. This has raised the attention to those voices calling for more holistic approaches to the wildfire issue, shifting the paradigm from ?zero-fire? policies, to another one which aligns more with the vision of ?coexisting with fire?. Resilience thinking is at the cornerstone of this approach, yet the understanding and contribution of the socio-political processes underlying the overall socio-ecological resilience of a territory remains underexplored. With this research, we aim at increase understanding of these processes from the angle of social innovation, and its capacity to enhance socio-ecological resilience in Mediterranean forested territories. By bringing together social innovation, resilience and socio-ecological systems theories, we conceptualize the Catalan Forest Defence Groups (Agrupacions de Defensa Forestal, or ADFs) as a bottom-linked social innovation. We explore their evolution from bottom-up initiatives to well-established bottom-linked institutions, and evaluate their contributions to the overall resilience of Catalan forested territories. Our results show that even though ADFs are extremely well positioned to contribute to transformative resilience, they have not fully developed their potential, and have thus far adopted a rather reactive position. We therefore argue that their capabilities to enact the ?co-existing with fire? paradigm are yet to blossom.

Todora Rogelja, University of Padova – TESAF Department

Changing role of public actors in the forest-based social innovation – The case of the Charcoal Land Initiative in Slovenia

Despite the importance of public actors for social innovation (SI), most research focuses on the roles and engagement of civil society. Yet, public actors have a role in SI initiatives, particularly in creating the enabling or hindering environment. This study explores the roles of public actors in a forest-based SI initiative. Drawing upon sociological role theories, we analyze the engagement of public actors in the development of the Charcoal Land Initiative (Slovenia). The Charcoal Land Initiative revives the nearly extinct traditional charcoal burning practices to reinvigorate isolated local villages with few economic opportunities. The success of this initiative sparks the creation of the Charcoal Path with events and educational activities attracting people of all ages to the region. We identify 5 organizations and 10 individual public actors engaged in the preparatory phase of the initiative. Our findings indicate that on the individual level, public actors in forestry could transform their organizational roles to create new SI roles. The district foresters, unit leaders, and State Forest Service (SFS) director were able to adapt their organizational roles to simultaneously take up the roles of innovators and followers in SI. This change of organizational roles was not in contradiction with their traditionally prescribed duties and rights but went beyond what is usually expected. Nonetheless, the role of SFS did not change – support private forest owners. It is how their relationships with charcoal burners and private forest owners grew into a collaborative effort to reinvigorate the local community and its economy as a means to meeting their mission. Through social innovation new relationships led to new ways to support private forest owners and local communities dependent upon forest resources.

Valentino Marini Govigli, European Forest Institute, Mediterranean Facility (EFIMED), Barcelona, Spain.

The green side of social innovation: using Sustainable Development Goals to classify environmental impacts of rural grassroots initiatives

Social innovation impacts are long-term effects generated by the changes put in motion by a social innovation initiative towards new sustainable pathways. The environmental dimension of impacts refers to any direct change to the environment resulting from the social innovation activities, products or services, which are not addressed by pre-existing systems. In this paper, we determine the role of social innovation in addressing environmental impacts. We do this by analysing a database of social innovation examples in European and circum-Mediterranean rural areas, compiled within the H2020 Project SIMRA. We conceptualise the overall aim of those environmentally-focused social innovation initiatives as targeting the sustainable development of their territories. To address their environmental impacts in a structured way, we rely on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) classification, which allowed describing social innovation environmental impacts through detailed targets. Through the SIMRA catalogue complemented with individual websites, we analysed 238 initiatives, identifying and classifying their direct environmental impacts. Our results indicate that 68% of the cases have at least one direct environmental impact that aligns with a SDG target. Such initiatives impact mainly SDG 12 (12.2 on sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources) and SDG 15 (15.1 on sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and 15.2 on sustainable management of all types of forests), and to some extent SDG 11 (11.4 on the world’s cultural and natural heritage). Of these, about 12% are related to the forestry sector, coverning mainly SDG 12 and SDG 15.

Gerhard Weiss, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, and European Forest Institute, Forest Policy Research Network

The role of social innovation for economic, ecological and social values of forests

Forest management is taking place in a wide range of contexts, a fact which leads to a variety of forest management approaches that differ in their goals, their ways of management and outcomes. Such various approaches therefore have different potentials to cater to the range of economic, ecological and social policy goals for sustainable forest management. The variety of possible goals and management practices is particularly visible in examples of social innovation in forestry. Social innovation is understood as the involvement of civil society in a central role in finding new solutions for the fulfilment of social needs. Social innovations take place in different ownership forms (e.g., private, public or joint/common ownership), have various goals (e.g., local rural development, ecological-oriented landscape management or social inclusion), apply various management approaches (from timber production to multiple services), and may be triggered or supported by various public or private programmes or organisations. In this presentation, we ask how social
innovations in forestry aim to provide economic, social and ecological benefits for society. For this purpose, we use a range of examples for forestry-related social innovations from across European countries, including various types of activities such as recreational uses (e.g. mountain biking), using forests for health, care or educational services (e.g. green care or social farming), inclusion of vulnerable groups, community forest stewardship, integrated rural development or innovations for sustainable timber production. Those examples illustrate the potential of social innovations to contribute to such different goals such as income opportunities and regional economic development, conserving ecological values of landscapes, and providing various social values for society, including non-market ecosystem services or the inclusion of vulnerable groups (e.g. refugee immigrants