Academic workshop in Umeå: Forests at a Crossroads: Sustainable Pathways for Sweden and Japan - 14 Nov 2023

Forests fulfill crucial economic, environmental and social functions. Given resource limitations, complex trade-offs are necessary to balance forests’ diverse roles. While increasing wood extraction to grow the bioeconomy fosters the substitution of fossil-based, carbon-intensive materials, it might result in biodiversity loss and even higher GHG emissions. Various stakeholders such as forest owners, forest product enterprises, government agencies, NGOs and indigenous groups, have divergent views on these dilemmas. This has ignited intense, polarized debates, especially in Sweden.

The prevailing forest sector is under great pressure. To many experts, a paradigmatic transformation is needed for the sector to properly address today’s severe challenges, particularly environmental ones. 

Clearly, the nature and trajectory of this transformation, the pathways chosen to achieve sustainability, may be idiosyncratic, being shaped by societal, cultural, and political dynamics at the national level. These influences can lead to fundamental differences in how forests are valued, used, managed; in how trade-offs are made and balance achieved; in the interactions among stakeholders and institutions.

The goal of this workshop was to discuss sustainable forest management approaches in Sweden and Japan, with a focus on change and transformation. The workshop adopted an interdisciplinary perspective, with speakers addressing the topic from diverse angles, ranging from innovation to history of ideas, from academic to practitioner standpoints. An interactive roundtable dialogue complemented the presentations. 

The workshop was organized by the House of Innovation's Professor Mattia Bianchi and aimed not only to facilitate knowledge exchange and foster networking but also to encourage concrete action and future projects.

The workshop was part of the MIRAI 2.0 Research Week 2023. Mirai 2.0 is a multi-disciplinary research project, “a collaboration between 20 Swedish and Japanese universities, aiming to contribute to long-term research collaboration and to promote Sweden and Japan as nations of world-leading large-scale research infrastructure”.