Barriers to institutional learning and innovations in the forest sector in Europe: Markets, policies and stakeholders

Innovations in the forest sector may be very different in origin, objectives, context and content. This paper analyses several institutional innovations with the capacity to create considerable changes in the rules of the game of forest policy making in Austria, Scotland and France. All cases provide relevant examples of the public effort in promoting institutional innovation, in a context characterised by a shift from government regulation to governance mechanisms. They also provide examples of the basic role of the market in orienting innovation, independently from the institutional perspective. They also show that the outcome is often different to that which was expected. Whilst technical innovations in wood production are perhaps more easily learned and developed, economic considerations often intervene to impede organisational innovations aimed at promoting the multifunctional management of forests.The paper reflects on the role of the market, in inter-linking with policy decisions, and develops ideas on the comprehensive dynamics of promotion of innovation in the forest sector, where policy and markets work at the same time both as drivers as well as barriers, in creating the framework conditions for change. It focuses on the role of social and policy learning in the process of re-definition of the stakeholder networks which orientate innovation.