The role of forestry in a bioeconomy
The Chair, Mr. Esko Aho, welcomed all members, stressing that the aim of the newly established HLG on Forestry and Biomaterials is to achieve concrete results and get the crucial messages relevant for the EU COM and Council, easy to understand and implementable.
There is a gap between what happened in the forest sector and how consumers view the transformation of the sector. One can use the parallel to mobile technology in the 1990´s: Europe had the experts, the skills, talents, funding, infrastructure, standards, access to the market, and this eco-system was driving technological development globally.
We need to communicate on how to create comparative advantages – forestry and bioeconomy is maybe one of the few real options for the transformation to sustainability. We have all that is needed but we need to be put together to be part of the over-arching European strategy. When speaking about innovation, there is huge innovation capacity in all sectors, but do we have the right framework conditions?
Executive summary:
Implementable and easy to understand concrete recommendations need to be designed for the EU policymakers to help them construct a competitive and inclusive strategy to help Europe transition to a more sustainable model while leading this transition globally
The forest sector is one of the key players in this transition with much potential to be unleashed with a dedicated strategy and implementation
Biomaterials are promising for a green revolution across sectors including construction, transportation, and pharmaceuticals