Beschreibung:
With the rise of the concept of a forest-based bioeconomy over the past decade, sustainability is an underlying assumption and a key expectation simultaneously. Yet, can we assume that a bioeconomy is sustainable, simply because it emphasizes the use of forests as a renewable resource? And will a more forest-based bioeconomy indeed lead to a more sustainable - and prosperous - Finnish society? Considering these questions, it is important to understand the relationship between Finnish forestry and sustainability as put forward in current and past forest policy documents. We ask how the concept of sustainability is framed and translated in policy objectives, and which values are put forward when challenges and problems are defined, in the methods proposed, the emphasis given, and with regards to the overall extent to which forest policy provides a fundamental re-orientation. Our aim is to provide a more nuanced understanding of possible opportunities and risks for sustainability linked to a forest-based bioeconomy as currently promoted in Finland and elsewhere. We do this by analysing which meta-discourses are present in Finnish forest policy documents over time. Further, we identified possible trade-offs and their implications to Finnish forests and society in order to inform current and future forest policy reviews, and to increase transparency. Our research results indicate that although the language used in the policies refers widely to sustainability, the consideration of ecological aspects of sustainability is weak and rhetoric whereas economic values have a dominant role and are defined and translated more clearly towards action and practices. There is a risk that a forest-based bioeconomy simply continues forestry business-as-usual, if current discourses reflected in forest policy remain unchallenged