Forestry Bioeconomy Contribution on Socioeconomic Development: Evidence from Greece

Abstract

Forests are of utmost importance for sustainability because of their ongoing contributions to biodiversity protection, fertility management in agricultural areas, and the well-being of people. However, few studies have focused on the extent to which the bioeconomy of forests impacts a country’s social and economic development. This study aimed to examine the bioeconomy contribution of forestry to social and economic development using Greece as a case study. Data was collected from 312 professionals in the forestry and finance sectors of Greece using a survey questionnaire. Forests are associated with direct and indirect contributions that impact human livelihood and contribute toward a country’s economic development. However, the role of forestry in development is affected by policy-related and human-made challenges. The difficulties are primarily caused by shifts in how economic activity is distributed from the agricultural to the industrial to the service sectors, different government policies intended to increase forest cover, and in other instances, as a result of the role of global capital and trade. The forestry contributions to global commerce, national economies, employment, and family incomes remain consistent throughout all these patterns of loss, stabilization, and recovery. It was established that the bioeconomy can increase the benefits of forests by further exploiting forest wealth (biomass, resins) with the direct and indirect benefits for forest-related societies and local economies. In addition, the management and exploitation of forests by adopting bioeconomy practices, allows the attainment of important skills, knowledge, and new fields of entrepreneurship.