Innovation In Forestry

Innovation in Forestry Territorial and Value Chain Relationships Edited by Gerhard Weiss, Davide Pettenella, Pekka Ollonqvist and Bill Slee Innovation is increasingly recognized as a key factor in environmental protection and sustainable development in forestry and forest-based industries. This volume provides a comprehensive theoretical foundation for the analysis of innovation processes and policies in a traditional, rural sector as well as presenting empirical analyses of innovation processes from major innovation areas. Innovative solutions are analysed in wood-related value chains, including timber-frame construction, furniture, bio-energy and forest transportation. Territorial services of the forest sector are examined, including various types of forest ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, non-wood products and recreation. Innovation in Forestry is essential reading for researchers and policy makers in forestry and environmental sciences.

Current developments in Central Europe will have far-reaching consequences on the region’s forestry and related institutional arrangements, such as forest administration, extension services and forest research. Future prospects for the rural population living on income from forestry will considerably depend on how individuals and organisations react in view of these changes. It will be vitally important how forest owners and managers apply new knowledge in forestry and how organisations best deal with the emerging changes. Innovation and entrepreneurship are main driving forces for economic growth, competitiveness and employment creation, especially in rural areas. From 2001 to 2003, the EFI Regional Project Centre INNOFORCE conducted research on innovation and entrepreneurship in forestry in Central Europe, seeking answers to the following questions: What is the situation and perceived future outlook for forestry in the region? How important are innovation and entrepreneurship considered in the sector? How much innovation and entrepreneurship is actually taking place? What are supporting and impeding factors? The research report provides new knowledge on innovation behaviour of forest holdings and forest related innovation systems in Central Europe and on changes that are necessary to enhance innovation and entrepreneurship in the sector. Survey results are accompanied by lessons learned from more than 30 cases referring to innovations in forestry implemented in eight countries.

This book focuses on crisis management in forest industry of Russia. It is about the present, and the future, with a short retrospective about the past of the forest industry in Russia. It includes forecasting too and description of some of the best practices of developed countries to be implemented in Russia to overcome the crisis. The main theme of the book is smart innovations and innovative activities introduced and also those which are required in the forest industry of Russia. The book considers the effectiveness of innovations and institutional changes in the forest industry, which are an important direction of innovation activities required all together with technological and economic breakthrough with ecological aspects in priority. The necessity to implement the modern innovation system in the forest industry based on institutional changes is substantiated and thoroughly explained with successful examples of ongoing and future up-to-date smart innovations. The development of the forest innovation system is suggested for sustainable forest industry management; the key components of which are technological, product, institutional, and ecological innovations, as well as, innovative entrepreneurship. Realization of the innovation system for technological and intellectual improvement requires good scientific and personnel provision, anticipation of markets and tendencies of development for some decades ahead. The implied advanced technologies in the forest industry also include IT-, nano-, and biotechnologies. The success stories of the leading Russian and international companies in the forest industry of Russia are studied attentively in the book. The book presents a profound methodical and theoretical substantiation for the further implementation of the smart innovations and of the successful experience of the industry leading companies.

This book transfers the newest service research concepts, such as value co-creation, to family forestry context. The book is aimed at as learning material for higher-education students in Western economies, and as a handbook for forest scientists worldwide. It has a strong theoretical base, but also a practical orientation with examples of novel forest services from different regions and contexts. The five parts of the book are: I Conceptualization of Service Approaches in Family Forestry; II Market and Policy Environment; III Public Service and Business Innovations; IV Communication, Cooperation, and Organizations for Services; and V Transitions Governance. Each part begins with a chapter that is more conceptual and thus sets the stage for the subsequent chapters, which then focus on a regional perspective or some more specific theme under the part’s coverage.

Compiles papers presented by extensionists, natural resource specialists, tech. transfer specialists, and others at a conf. that examined tech. transfer theories, methods, and case studies. Topics included: adult educ., extension, diffusion of innovations, social marketing, tech. transfer, etc. Descriptions of methods and case studies included combined digital media, engagement of users and commun. specialists in research, integrated forestry applications, Internet-based systems, science writing, training, video conf., Web-based ency., etc. Innovations transferred were best mgmt. practices for water quality, reforestation practices, land mgmt. system, portable timber bridges, reduced impact logging, silvicultural practices, urban forestry, etc. Illustrations.

Because there is a lack of innovation research in the forest products industry and innovative activities in the industry are not well documented, this study attempted to fill that void. The objectives of this study were to understand the process and definition of innovation in the forest products industry, identify the constraints on innovative activities, identify resources that would improve innovation in forest products companies, compare the innovation environments in Alaska and Oregon, and provide a benchmark study for innovation in the forest products industry.‍?‍?This study revealed that there are several aspects of innovation in the forest products industry. In addition, the innovation process is a combination of semiformal development stages, trial and error, intuition, and luck. A variety of factors constrained companies from being more innovative, including government regulations, shipping and labor costs, lack of cash flow, raw material characteristics, marketing expertise, and raw material supply. There do not appear to be any resources that would be helpful to forest products companies, at least none that the interviewed companies could recommend. Offering companies the chance to exchange ideas and network is the most valuable resource available.‍?‍?The innovation environments in Alaska and Oregon are somewhat similar yet different in the marketing tactics employed and the techniques used to obtain market information.‍?‍?Furthermore, the type of innovation projects that each region focuses on differs, as does the actual process used to develop innovations. Future research should focus on completing a quantitative component to this study, developing short courses or 1-day seminars, identifying factors that contribute to innovation success and failure, investigating why the forest products industry is not innovative by nature, and exploring the external acquisition of innovation in the forest products industry.