Social sustainability in the forest-based bioeconomy: A narrative review

Abstract

Social sustainability aims to enhance societal wealth, and the forest-based bioeconomy contributes to this goal by leveraging forests and wood to create products and services. Recently, the forest-based bioeconomy has been critically examined through a social sustainability lens, emphasizing its evolving nature and the engagement of local communities. This study used a narrative literature review with qualitative content analysis to interpret peer-reviewed publications on social sustainability in the forest-based bioeconomy in Finland, including its aspects and temporal and spatial scales, while presenting the associated challenges and recommendations. The findings reveal that social sustainability exerts both supportive and conflicting influences on the forest-based bioeconomy, notably through the aspects of employment, welfare, and power dynamics. Although a future perspective is considered, the connection between the forest-based bioeconomy and the interests of future generations remains weak. The geographic scale, including the local, regional, national, European Union, and global levels, is also applied and integrated because it is crucial in understanding the global value chains of the forest-based bioeconomy. Overall, our findings indicate that while social sustainability is recognized as an important component of the forest-based bioeconomy, there remains a significant gap between policies and tangible and verifiable implementation. Achieving comprehensive social sustainability in the forest-based bioeconomy is complex, if not unfeasible, due to divergent aspects across various temporal and spatial scales. Nevertheless, social sustainability can be strengthened by developing tools and programs for policy, practical and research purposes, refining terminology, and fostering inclusion through participatory policy processes in a verifiable manner.