Lauri Hetemäki

University of Helsinki | HY · Faculty of Agriculture & Forestry

The management and governance of forests must consider the synergies and trade-offs between different societal goals, especially with the bioeconomy being a key factor in recent sectoral strategies worldwide. This literature review explores the multidimensional concept of synergies and trade-offs, focusing on scientific publications dealing with th...

Lauri Hetemäki vuonna 2023 julkaistut Maaseudun Tulevaisuuden 7 kolumnia

How could forest bioeconomy contribute more to Africa’s wellbeing, while helping to tackle climate change and other sustainability challenges? What is the outlook for forest bioeconomy in Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania? These questions are addressed by this report published by Circular Bioeconomy Alliance on 2 December 2023.

Prologue & Epilogue to the book 1. Hetemäki, L., Kangas, J. & Peltola, H. (eds.) 2021. Forest Bioeconomy and Climate Change. Springer Publisher. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99206-4

In order to realise Agenda 2030, or the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and the Paris Climate Agreement, the business-as-usual model––the policies, production and consumption habits we have been following thus far––will not work. Instead, it is necessary to change the existing economic model and how we advance societal well-being. He...

The state of the world’s managed forests is determined by the societal demands for wood resources and other ecosystem services. The forest-based sector is experiencing a number of structural changes, which makes the task of looking ahead important, but challenging. One of the main trends in the forest-based industries is diversification. On one han...

‘Planetary boundaries’ is a concept that has been introduced by Earth system scientists to refer particularly to anthropogenic pressures on the Earth system that have reached a scale where abrupt global environmental change can no longer be excluded. In the planetary boundaries discussion, climate change plays a central role due to its overarching...

Along with the evidence and analyses expounded on in this book, this chapter provides conclusions and suggestions concerning policy implications. These are based on a perspective that calls attention to the need for a holistic approach to look at the nexus of forests, the bioeconomy and climate change. Moreover, it is emphasised that, given the dif...

Finland is the most forested country in the EU – forests cover 74–86% of the land area, depending on the definition and source. Increasing carbon sequestration from the atmosphere, and by storing it in forests (trees and soil) will be one important part of the Finnish climate smart forestry strategy. However, just maximizing the carbon storage of f...

The climate-smart forestry approach was pioneered in 2015 and has been generating increasing interest since then. It was developed as a response to the often very narrow and partial perspective on how forests and the forest-based sector can contribute to climate-change mitigation. Moreover, its basis is the understanding that, in order to effective...

Climate change, global population growth, declining natural resources and the loss of biodiversity challenge us to move towards a global bioeconomy, based on the sustainable utilisation of renewable natural resources in the production of energy, products and services. The linear economic model based on fossil raw materials and products is coming to...

This document is part of a series of short papers on "The Future of X", produced as part of foresight-related research supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets, and edited by Keith Wiebe (IFPRI) and Steven Prager (Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT). These short papers are intended to provide a focused, forward-lo...

To obtain net climate benefits from intensified forest utilization in the short-term, the substitution impact of wood harvesting and increased carbon stocks of wood-based products should be higher than the forest carbon stock loss. However, the product specific substitution impacts change dynamically over time along with technological development,...

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/preserve-africa-forests-green-economy/ - Africa faces unprecedented challenges of rapid population growth and climate adaptation. - The continent is well positioned to harness nature-based solutions through sustainable forestry. - UN-backed project in Gabon proves it's possible to protect biodiversity and cre...

Ceccherini et al.1 reported an abrupt increase in harvested forest—in terms of both biomass and area—in Europe from 2016, and suggested that this reflected expanding wood markets encouraged by the bioec- onomy policies of the European Union (EU). They used Global Forest Watch2 and GlobBiomass3 data together with an analysis that sought to remove na...

Cambridge Core - Ecology and Conservation - The Wicked Problem of Forest Policy - edited by William Nikolakis

The Wicked Problem of Forest Policy - edited by William Nikolakis July 2020

EU Green Deal proposal is welcome and necessary, but needs updating to be stronger

In the EU, the Baltic and Nordic countries that have major forest-based economic activities are Estonia, Latvia, Finland and Sweden (in Lithuania and Denmark the sector has much smaller significance). The forest and wood production of these four countries account for about 1/3 of the whole EU28 forest area, roundwood production and exports value of...

To achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement, a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions is needed, as well as increased removals by carbon sinks. In this context, we argue that Climate-Smart Forestry is a necessary, but still missing component in national strategies for implementing actions under the Paris Agreement. Climate-S...

Humanity is becoming too big for our planet. After relying on a fossil-based economy for 200 years, we are threatening to reach a tipping point, crossing the resilience boundaries of our world. Using the words of Greta Thunberg – how dare you continue like this! – it is time for transformational action.We need to accelerate the transition from the...

The EU Green Deal is one of the most transformative European political initiatives in recent decades. In the words of the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, the Green Deal "is a new growth strategy that aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy whe...

In late 2019 the new European Commission (EC) came to office and outlined as its main policy line the European Green Deal proposal (EC 2019). This policy document is in many ways a landmark and a represent new type of thinking in the EC. It aims to be a across sectorial policy outline affecting all legislative processes of the EC in 2020-2024. This...

Forests and forest industries can contribute to climate change mitigation by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, by storing it in biomass, and by fabricating products that substitute more greenhouse gas emission intensive materials and energy. The objectives of the study are to specify alternative scenarios for the diversification of wood prod...

OUTLINE Provide an overview what is the role of forest-based bioeconomy in the EU and how it may be developing in future. 1. What do we mean by Forest-Based Bioeconomy? 2. Forest Bioeconomy as a Solution to Grand Challenges 3. Bioeconomy Outlook in the EU: Current & New Products 4. Key messages for EU outlook 5. Perscpective on World & EU Climate M...

Generally, there seems to be an understanding that the demand for roundwood will increase significantly due to replacing fossil based raw materials in energy and materials sectors by forest biomass and wood products. For example the WWF’s Living Forest Model predicts that to meet the demand, wood harvesting will need to quadruple by 2050 (see discu...

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change provide a license to change the existing global economic model. Production and consumption needs to be transformed to be sustainable so that we can live within our planetary boundaries. An essential part of this transfo...

There has been increasing requests for evidence-based policy, especially in complex issues such as climate change, biodiversity and bioenergy questions. Scientists have also been active in this front, e.g., such as European Academies Science Advisory Council (2017, 2019) and by writing Open Letters (e.g., Beddington et al. 2017, De Wever et al. 201...

The European forest-based sector is undergoing major changes, while, at the same time, the role of a forest-based bioeconomy is being politically discussed. The aim of this study is to elicit expert views on critical changes in the sector through an outlook towards 2030 and 2050, as well as to analyse how these views relate to the understanding of...

Video (3:30 minutes) explaining the Climate Smart Forestry approach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wGjBKhw6U4

Metsien hyödyntäminen parantaa niiden kykyä hillitä ilmastonmuutosta. Pelkästään hiilinieluina säilytettävät metsät ovat alttiita tuhoille. Julkaistu: 28.11. 2018 P AR I IS IN IL M AS T O S OP IMU S ja kansainvälisen ilmastopaneelin IPCC:n raportti vaativat nopeita toimia ilmastonmuutoksen hillintään. Kiireellisyydestä on laaja yhteisymmärrys. Tois...

The Paris Agreement and the latest IPCC Assessment Report (2018) emphasize urgent and efficient actions for climate change mitigation. This means that we must rapidly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and, therefore, also the use of fossil-based raw materials, energy and products. Climate Smart Forestry (CSF) is one approach for achieving thes...

This study identifies new wood-based products with considerable potential and attractive markets, including textiles, liquid biofuels, platform chemicals, plastics, and packaging. We apply a mixed-methods review to examine how the position of the forest industry in a given value chain determines the respective production value. An assessment is pro...

Resumen Los bosques mediterráneos están atrapados en una sor-prendente paradoja. Son extremadamente valiosos. Son una infraestructura ecológica esencial que puede ayudar a abordar los desafíos más cruciales del cambio global. Sin embargo, parece que nuestra sociedad ha perdido la capa-cidad de valorarlos, de insertarlos en los flujos económi-cos y...

https://www.efi.int/publications-bank/oumengxunhuanshengwujingjizhane-fazhanzhilu

There is heated debate about the best way to realize the potential of our forests in the fight against climate change. In the EU, the debate is currently very much focused on questioning the use of forest biomass to produce bioenergy. Our view is that bioenergy from sustainably managed forests can contribute positively to climate change mitigation.

9.1. Introduction Forest-based industries-pulp and paper, solid wood products, and a number of downstream value-added wood-based manufacturers-have received limited attention in the pursuit of a successful implementation of EU and national bioeconomy strategies. According to Eurostat, the pulp and paper and solid wood products industries accounted...

In July 2016, the European Commission (EC) published a legislative proposal for incorporating greenhouse gas emissions and removals due to Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) into its 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. The Climate and Energy Framework aims at a total emission reduction of 40% by 2030 for all sectors together as part of...

The presentation is based on the report: Hetemäki, L., Hanewinkel, M., Muys, B., Ollikainen, M., Palahí, M. and Trasobares, A. 2017. Leading the way to a European circular bioeconomy strategy. From Science to Policy 5. European Forest Institute.

Circular Economy, Green Economy and Bioeconomy are currently mainstreamed in academia and policy making as key sustainability concepts. These have different standpoints and possibly imply different sustainability visions. Furthermore, the three concepts are understood and applied in research and policy making in different ways, signaling a certain...

Industries have set ambitious targets for 2030 related to green building: Tripling the market share of wood construction, doubling the value added of the woodworking industries and reducing the environmental impact of construction by 30%. The objective of the study is to identify measures for meeting these targets, taking the case of wood-frame mul...

Pääkirjoitus | Vieraskynä Tutkijoiden tulisi pyrkiä kokonaisnäkemykseen Tieteeseen perustuvia, päättäjille suunnattuja raportteja pitäisi tukea ja rahoittaa nykyistä enemmän. S UO M AL AIS E T ja kansainväliset tutkijaryhmät ovat viime aikoina laatineet kirjelmiä ja raportteja, joilla yritetään vaikuttaa päättäjiin metsien biotalouteen ja ilmastonm...

Lecture, Managerial economics and business strategy in forest industry -course, University of Helsinki, 16 February 2017

Background In terms of global forest product market developments, the twenty-first century has been in many ways very different from the twentieth century—striking structural changes have taken place. The global forest sector can be interpreted to be in a phase of creative destruction—an era characterized by a major decline of a number of establish...

Puurakentamista voidaan edistää esimerkiksi purkamalla rakennusmääräyksiä, joille ei ole teknisiä perusteita.

Presentation at the German Forestry Association (Deutschen Forstvereins) Conference 2015, Flensburg, June 18, 2015

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze and provide a synthesis of how services are understood, how they are likely to develop and how future development can be studied more closely in the forest-based sector (FBS). Services are likely to have an increasing role in the FBS in the future. Design/methodology/approach – The findings...

Outlook and foresight studies have long traditions in the forest-based sector. However, this sector is facing major structural changes on a global level, making its operating environment more complex and interlinked with other sectors. The aim of this paper is to review forest-sector outlook and future studies in combination with recent secondary d...

For the Nordic paper industry the years 2001-2007 were a culmination point as to paper production and deliveries. The study uses plant level empirical time series data from these years from one large integrated Finnish paper mill. The research data covers complete customer data and cost components, and a major supplier for European paper markets. T...

The European forest sector is becoming more complex, interlinked and cross-sectorial. It is increasingly affected by climate change impacts, energy policies, advances in new technologies, the increasing role of services and societal and political interests, moving towards low carbon bioeconomies or green economy. The current state of the European f...

The full publication is freely downloadable: http://www.efi.int/files/attachments/publications/efi_wsctu_6_2014.pdf

The chapter focuses on how global and local forest sector issues can be linked to each other and how futures or foresight work can act as capacity-building tools for this. In particular, we focus on the multi-scale participatory scenario (MSPS) approach, showing how it has been used for this purpose and what it could offer for the forest sector to...

This report is a part of the Sustainable Bioenergy Solutions for Tomorrow (BEST) research program coordinated by FIBIC Ltd, and CLEEN Ltd. with funding from the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, Tekes. The report in hand belongs to BEST research program’s Working Package 1 (WP1) “Bioenergy Scenarios and Strategies in Global and...

The main political objectives of EU's renewable strategy are decreased use of fossil energy sources, reduced CO2 emissions and increased energy self sufficiency. Wood based bioenergy plays an important role in this strategy. The potential increase in wood demand for bioenergy production is of high interest for the EU forestry and forest industries...

Forest policies require a broad perspective on land use and natural resource management, and necessitate a focus on the value of forests to society. Forest policy documents need to be updated on a regular basis and stakeholder involvement plays an important role in this process, often through workshops and interviews. A broad variety of approaches...

Markets and Market Forces for Pulp and Paper Products Lauri Hetemäki, Riitta Hänninen, and Alexander Moiseyev Content 5.1 Background and the State of the Sector.............................................................................99 5.1.1 Background.................................................................................................

T he National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) of EU member countries are heavily reliant on for-est biomass. Th ere is heated debate, however, over whether binding sustainability criteria for energy use from forest biomass are actually needed. Th is Feature highlights the fi ndings of a recent Th inkForest event in the European Parliament wh...