Abstract
The role of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) in industrialised country economies has declined in the past, but they are generating renewed interest as business opportunities. In a forest-based bio-economy frame, NWFPs can contribute to human nutrition, renewable materials, and cultural and experiential services, as well as create job and income opportunities in rural areas. Applying a service-dominant logic (SDL) approach to analysis of NWFPs, this article aimed to understand how new goods and services are co-created through networks of public and private actors in specific institutional, social, and cultural contexts. This focus sheds light on the experiences associated with NWFP harvest and use, revealing a fulsome suite of values and economic opportunities that include but are greater than the physical goods themselves. Turning the SDL lens on in-depth case studies from Europe and North America, we show dimensions of forest products that go beyond commercial values but are, at the same time, constituent of commercial activities. SDL provides a new view on customer relations, service provision to businesses, and policy measures for innovation support for non-wood forest products.
Highlights
Modern forest management systems prioritize market-oriented timber production and tend to neglect other forest goods and services, including non-wood forest products (NWFP) [1,2,3]
The future role of forests in a bio-economy is often primarily envisioned as resulting from cultivated species, industrial uses, and intensive production systems, we argue that NWFPs have and will retain broader commercial and non-commercial roles and deserve greater attention
As such they represent innovations in forest bio-economies that, we propose, can be studied from the perspective of value co-creation and service-dominant logic (SDL; [18]) to reveal their full value and characteristics [16,19]
Summary
Modern forest management systems prioritize market-oriented timber production and tend to neglect other forest goods and services, including non-wood forest products (NWFP) [1,2,3]. There are indications of a revival of NWFPs as a result of various social trends that are creating new demands for wild and natural products, traditional skills and production methods, retro styles, experiential products, and healthy and sustainable lifestyles [11,16,17] In this context, NWFPs are often specialised custom-made products and are increasingly marketed as well-being products embedded in recreation or educational services or as products that include experiential services such as guided tours, fairs, or events [10,11,16]. That NWFPs have long and continuous histories of use notwithstanding, marketing in the modern context transforms them into new types of products, even as it may retain and reinforce some of their traditional values As such they represent innovations in forest bio-economies that, we propose, can be studied from the perspective of value co-creation and service-dominant logic (SDL; [18]) to reveal their full value and characteristics [16,19]. We derived conclusions and recommendations for better support of innovations in NWFPs
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