Gerhard Weiss

Gerhard Weiss
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna | boku · Institute of Forest, Environmental and Natural Resource Policy

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156
Publications
52,174
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3,885
Citations
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April 1994 - February 2015
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna
Position
  • Senior Researcher

Publications

Publications (156)
Article
Full-text available
The potential of forest-based social innovations (SI) can be understood by looking at existing institutional structures, relevant policy programmes and instruments, as well as the roles of the various relevant actors in SI frameworks. The case examples from Serbia and Slovenia aim to understand how existing institutional structures have become embe...
Article
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This article focuses on the potential role of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) which are so far largely neglected within forest-related bioeconomy research and policy. From an innovation system perspective, we look at the barriers for NWFPs development and propose how they can be supported. We analyse 20 innovation cases in Europe, based on the ana...
Article
Full-text available
In rural areas, the social innovation (SI) process emerges as a response to negative socioeconomic trends or gets triggered by open windows of opportunity, bringing solutions that revitalize the rural fabric through the voluntary involvement of the local community. As such, SI is increasingly recognized as a tool to support rural development and tr...
Article
Full-text available
The development of societies, including spiritual development, is closely connected to forests. The larger interrelations among changing societies, transforming forest landscapes, and evolving spiritual values related to forests have yet to be extensively considered. Addressing this research gap is important to avoid the neglect of spiritual values...
Technical Report
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Herausgegeben von: EFI European Forest Institute – Forest Policy Research Network InFER –Institut für Wald-, Umwelt- und Ressourcenpolitik der Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU) Feistmantelstraße 4, A-1180 Wien, Österreich
Article
Full-text available
Europe's forest provide multiple ecosystem services for societies, ranging from provisioning (e.g. wood) and regulating (e.g. climate mitigation and biodiversity) to cultural (e.g. recreation) services. In this paper, we assess the state and prospects of forest ecosystem services provision in Europe, introducing new data from the European collabora...
Article
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In Europe, private forest owners play an important role in achieving sustainability goals, such as those set by the European Green Deal. Efficient communication and coordination with these actors is therefore central. However, ongoing structural changes in forest ownership have in many cases silenced traditional communication channels, especially t...
Article
Innovation in the forest sector is a growing research interest and within this field, there is a growing attention for institutional, policy and societal dimensions and particular when it comes to the question of how to support innovativeness in the sector. This Special Issue therefore focuses on governance aspects, relating to and bridging busines...
Chapter
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European forests belong to around 16 million private and public forest owners. In the EU, about 60% of the forest area is privately owned and 40% public.
Article
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The current state of research shows that there is big potential for the use of wood, particularly harvested wood products (HWP) to mitigate climate change and increase carbon stocks. Despite of discussions on different accounting approaches, the forest-based sector can contribute with the production of long-lasting wood products to reach internatio...
Article
The forest sector in various ways fosters employment, community development and prevents depopulation in marginalized rural areas. Since the economic recession in Europe from 2009, there has been a notable change regarding the roles that public and private actors play in tackling current social and economic problems. The term Social Innovation (SI)...
Method
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This annex cotnains the methodological tools (full questionnaire and semi structured guidelines) to the paper (it is as well publically available under the existing DOI).
Chapter
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https://foresteurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SoEF_2020.pdf
Chapter
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Human interactions with forests span over ages. Forests have served as a source of food, shelter, and wood for various purposes. Though progress in technologies and urbanisation have reduced the dependence of people on food from forests, forests still generate job opportunities and income, as well as provide many other ecosystem services, including...
Book
Full-text available
Vor dem Hintergrund großer gesellschaftlicher Herausforderungen wie den Umweltproblemen, der Klimakrise, dem demografischen Wandel oder erhöhter Krisenanfälligkeit vermag Soziale Innovation Lösungsmöglichkeiten aufzuzeigen. Sie hat unter anderem das Ziel, das gesellschaftliche Wohlbefinden zu erhöhen und wird oft von der Zivilgesellschaft initiiert...
Article
Full-text available
Political frameworks and policies have a strong influence on the institutional ecosystem and on governance patterns, which in turn shape the operational space of civil society initiatives. This article aims to explore the social and institutional conditions and policy initiatives that foster or hinder social innovation and the pathways leading from...
Article
This article conducts a systematic literature review of journal articles on innovation in forestry and forest-based industries. We include international, English language, peer-reviewed research articles included in the scientific databases Scopus and Web of Science since the 1980s. Our search for articles that specifically mention "in-novation/inn...
Article
Full-text available
Over the last decade, the term social innovation has received increased attention as a potential solution to address complex global social problems and to add collective values to society. The forest sector has great potential for fostering employment, community development and reducing increased emigration from rural to urban areas. This potential...
Chapter
Full-text available
The chapter proceeds as follows: the first chapter (5.2) deals with the issue of data collection, a pre-requisite for making any serious analysis and for any political decision. One of the best examples of a stable, long running system of data collection on NWFP collection and consumption is presented: that one set down since 1994 in the Czech Repu...
Article
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In the last two decades, attention on forests and ownership rights has increased in different domains of international policy, particularly in relation to achieving the global sustainable development goals. This paper looks at the changes in forest-specific legislation applicable to regular productive forests, across 28 European countries. We compa...
Chapter
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This study examines forest ownership in the UNECE region. Based on data on 35 countries, and the first to include all forest ownership categories, this study investigates the changing nature and patterns of forest ownership, the ways in which governance and social structures influence forest owners and users, as well as forest management. Within th...
Chapter
Full-text available
This study examines forest ownership in the UNECE region. Based on data on 35 countries, and the first to include all forest ownership categories, this study investigates the changing nature and patterns of forest ownership, the ways in which governance and social structures influence forest owners and users, as well as forest management. Within th...
Article
There is increasing emphasis on innovation as a driver of continued prosperity in the rural economy. Globalisation poses challenges to rural areas given technological advances and intensified competition in agricultural markets, ageing rural populations and expansion of urban areas. However, in recent years, the conception of rural areas has shifte...
Article
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The role of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) in industrialised country economies has declined in the past, but they are generating renewed interest as business opportunities. In a forest-based bio-economy frame, NWFPs can contribute to human nutrition, renewable materials, and cultural and experiential services, as well as create job and income opp...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Adaptation for carbon efficient forests and the entire wood value chain (including a policy decision support tool) - Evaluating pathways supporting the Paris Agreement
Chapter
Over the last decade, the term social innovation has received increasing attention as a means to address complex global social problems and to add collective values. In earlier innovation research, the term “institutional innovation” was introduced to denote institutional efforts and the role of institutions in successful innovations. We detect ove...
Chapter
Non-wood forest Non-wood forest products (NWFPs) have often-underestimated economic potential, particularly for family forest owners. Their role and value, however, is changing in the global West and so are the business opportunities and innovation need associated with them. Focusing on industrialized countries, this chapter gives an overview of th...
Presentation
Full-text available
Today’s world society is facing a number of longstanding challenges, such as poverty, famine, inequalities, environmental challenges, and migration, which call for new and creative responses that stimulate change and are often lacking in traditional governmental approaches. Social innovations are such responses that can offer social-ecological and...
Chapter
Full-text available
Chapter 5 Available at: https://www.efi.int/sites/default/files/files/publication-bank/2019/efi_wsctu_10_2019.pdf#page=74&zoom=auto,81,71
Article
In the urbanizing society faced with the climate change challenge, wood has major potential as a low-carbon and renewable construction material. Yet, Wooden Multi-storey Construction (WMC) remains a niche even in countries with rich forest resources. This paper compares the institutional and policy setting and assesses the WMC growth prospects in A...
Technical Report
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In this report we present results of evaluation of 11 Social Innovation Case Studies. The assessments of the Social Innovations were based upon three main blocks. The first step of the evaluation of the social innovation initiative focuses on five evaluation criteria: Relevance, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Impacts and Sustainability (REEIS). This wa...
Article
Forest ownership is changing in Europe. Reasons include recent institutional changes in Eastern Europe, changing lifestyles of non-agricultural owners and afforestation. At present, there is little comparative analysis across Europe, and the implications that these changes have for forest management and for the fulfilment and redefinition of policy...
Article
Full-text available
Forest management, with its diverse land-use and institutional pressures, can be considered a “wicked problem”. Transdisciplinarity and social learning are considered relevant approaches of investigating “wicked problems” because they favour creative solutions, stakeholder involvement and the reframing of problems. Taking this into account, partici...
Article
Research on forest ownership has received growing attention in recent years, particularly in relation to the effects of restitution processes in former socialist countries, emerging new forest owner types, trends towards fragmentation of ownership structures, and questions related to the steady supply of forest industries with raw materials. Litera...
Technical Report
Full-text available
The aim of this study is to help build a knowledge base for the review of the EU Forest Strategy that was adopted by the European Commission in 2013. The EU Forest Strategy addresses 8 priority areas that were identified as being particularly relevant for forests and the forest-based sector until 2020. These priority areas address: (i) support of r...
Article
The term “social innovation” (SI) is currently applied to denote a broad range of activities connected to explicit goals and supposedly designed to address inherent societal problems. These problems are rooted in current economic and ecological crises, such as poverty, unemployment, forced migration, brain drain, social inequality or environmental...
Article
In the UK the term “Third Sector” is traditionally an umbrella term for all organisations working with civil society in a not-for-profit capacity; differentiating them from the public (first) and the private (second) sector. In other European countries, such ways of non-profit making work in non-governmental organisations are summarised under the t...
Article
Regardless of the crucial role of civil society in social innovation, European Union (EU) social innovation concepts emphasized market-economic features rather than social by prioritizing social business over social movements. By emphasizing the economic features of social innovation, social enterprises, as ventures with both social and economic go...
Article
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Private forests are widespread in Europe providing a range of ecosystem services of significant value to society, and there are calls for novel policies to enhance their provision and to face the challenges of environmental changes. Such policies need to acknowledge the importance of private forests, and importantly they need to be based on a deep...
Poster
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This poster is a part of a Ph.D. research project "Governance capacities of public actors for the forest-based social innovation". It focuses on the selected case of a forest-based social innovation in Slovenia, by presenting the life-story of a community initative to keep the traditional charcoal cooking practice alive.
Article
Full-text available
Private forests are widespread in Europe providing a range of ecosystem services of significant value to society, and there are calls for novel policies to enhance their provision and to face the challenges of environmental changes. Such policies need to acknowledge the importance of private forests, and importantly they need to be based on a deep...
Chapter
Full-text available
Forest ownership in Europe is more diverse than usually assumed and goes beyond a simplistic division into public and private ownership. The type of ownership has significant implications for the provision of forest biomass and ecosystem services. The share of non-agricultural, urban forest ownership with non-traditional management goals is growing...
Article
Full-text available
Social innovation (SI) has rapidly expanded in the debates and agenda of the research and policy communities over the last decade (Adams and Hess, 2010; Baker and Mehmood, 2015; Neumeier 2016, Haxeltine et al., 2017). There are considerable expectations of the potential of SI for addressing urgent societal challenges. Considering the diversity and...
Article
The establishment of Natura 2000, the European Union’s network of protected areas, has been a challenging process and has caused a variety of conflicts. These conflicts are related to contradictory stakeholder interests and perceptions, as well as to procedural issues and feelings of exclusion, especially by concerned local land user groups. To pre...
Article
Full-text available
This paper develops and applies a comprehensive model for characterising regional forest-sector innovation systems. With this approach, we aim to describe and compare regional forest industry clusters across Europe and to assess how well their innovation systems are developed and how strongly they support innovations. By looking at a range of frame...
Article
Natura 2000, which is the core pillar of the European Union's biodiversity conservation policy, is an ambitious and complex venture that requires funding to be successful. A major challenge is said to be a lack of available funding, and a low uptake of allocated funds is also reported. However, in in-depth analysis has still not been produced to as...
Article
Full-text available
Since non-Timber forest products (NTFP) are usually associated with side-Activities of forestry, their development is often neglected by companies and innovation systems. Their real value, however, is underestimated and interesting innovative examples of marketed NTFP exist. Our article thus asks: How do innovations happen in a situation where ther...
Book
Full-text available
Natura 2000 is the core pillar in the European Union’s (EU) biodiversity conservation policy. It is an EU-wide ecological network of protected areas that cuts across countries’ borders, administrative levels, policy sectors and socio-economic contexts. The network is established and managed according to the legally-binding provisions of the 1979 EU...
Presentation
Full-text available
Driven by political and economic reforms, forestry sectors in selected South‐East European (SEE) countries (Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia) faced the changes in last two decades, which resulted in increment of private businesses development. Many of those entrepreneurial businesses become innovative in the sphere of various forest goods and service...
Article
The paper sets out to examine the characteristics of support for innovation processes in Non-Wood Forest Products (NWFP). The typical enterprises and start-ups which emerge in this sector tend to be small-scale and family owned. We claim that there is a large unused potential for NWFP to support rural development and increase incomes of land owners...
Data
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This file contains the full report text of "State of Europe's Forest 2015". Due to size limitations, the annexes are presented in a separate file upload. Together the two files make up the entire 314 pages report.
Article
Full-text available
All former socialist countries in central and eastern Europe have been undergoing a transition from one political system (based on a centrally planned economy and a one-party system) to a radically different political system (based on a market economy and a democratic political system). The formation of a free timber market and new modes of ownersh...
Article
Full-text available
Natura 2000 is the core of the EU's biodiversity conservation policy. 50% of the overall protected area under Natura 2000 is forest. Yet, comparatively little is known about the implementation of the policy in forests. Building on a rich set of social and natural science data, and an inter- and transdisciplinary discussion process involving scienti...
Technical Report
Full-text available
The Summary for Policy Makers is a brief document based on information included in the “State of Europe’s Forests 2015”report. This document offers a comprehensive overview of European forests, their current status, trends and policy responses related to them, as well as an insight into sustainable forest management (SFM) in Europe. The State of E...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Find report at this link: http://facesmap.boku.ac.at/index.php/library2/doc_download/452-fp1201-country-report-austria
Technical Report
Full-text available
Scholars studying forest owners in the USA and Europe have emphasized the impact of changing motives, goals and objectives with their forest land. While a significant part of the forest land in Europe is managed by private owners with an active management interest in their forests, this is clearly not always the case. Alongside traditional forestry...
Article
Full-text available
Beech forests previously covered substantial areas of the continental region of Europe, however, their current distribution is limited to a small percentage of their former yet still potential range. Many beech forests are now protected under the European Union-wide conservation approach of Natura 2000. We analyse the impact of Natura 2000 on the m...
Article
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he restitution and privatization in Central and Eastern European countries in the early 1990s predisposed a heterogeneous ownership structure, a large number of forest owners and a variety of types of property ownership modes. Furthermore, development of governance in these countries posited anew framework for interest representation in the forestr...
Article
Projet co-financé par la commission européenne au sein du sixième programme-cadre (2002-2006). Project n° 518128: EFORWOOD: Tools for Sustainability Impact Assessment Thematic Priority: 6.3 Global Change and Ecosystems
Article
Projet co-financé par la commission européenne au sein du sixième programme-cadre (2002-2006). Project n° 518128: EFORWOOD: Tools for Sustainability Impact Assessment Thematic Priority: 6.3 Global Change and Ecosystems