Emerging Landscape of Bioeconomy in Norway: A Dynamic Actor Network Analysis on the Forestry Sector

Summary

Forestry sector is expected to provide a significant contribution to the emerging bioeconomy, given its increasingly important role as supplier of critical feedstock for securing the production of biofuels, biochemicals, and biomaterials. Nevertheless, there is an ongoing debate about the specific role the forestry sector should play in the emerging bioeconomy, stemming from trade-offs regarding conservation of biodiversity, managing different wood-based biomass simultaneously, the innovative technologies which are dependent on the interplay of actors from industry, research and the government (in order to build up a sustainable infrastructure). We assume that understanding actors’ views and perceptions, and the underlying factors causing disagreement, is one of the first critical steps towards a sustainable construction of the forest-biobased industry. We, therefore, employ a semi-quantitative actor based modelling approach – Dynamic Actor Network Analysis (DANA) – to map the different actors’ perceptions and see how they differ and align on various issues. The use of DANA yields valuable information, that could be translated into practical recommendations.