23-24 SEPTEMBER 2009, UPPSALA, SWEDEN

 

Conference Aim

The conference brought together researchers, policy makers and practitioners from all over the world in  discussion about  Sustainability Impact Assessment of the Forest-based Sector. Around the globe, tools for analysing sustainability are being developed to help us make better choices. One of the conference focus areas was on the EFORWOOD project  main outcome, the ToSIA tool, a dynamic sustainability impact assessment model that analyses environmental, economic, and social impacts of changes in forestry-wood production chains, using a consistent and harmonised framework from the forest to the end-of-life of final products. It was also be an opportunity for combining experiences and expertise with other EU Integrated projects (SENSOR, SEAMLESS and PLUREL) that are devolving similar tools to support decision making on policies related to various areas of science, such as land use, environmental economics, socio-economics and landscape research.

CONFERENCE THEMES

THEME 1 | SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN A KNOWLEDGE-BASED BIO-ECONOMY
Contributions should address SIA across all or parts of a sector, e.g. forestry or agriculture.
Papers that focus on methodological approaches, tools, generic questions and issues of definition and policy relevance, with applied illustrative examples, are preferred.

THEME 2 | METHODS FOR EVALUATION OF SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT FROM PROCESS TO SECTOR LEVEL
Presentations should address the issues of how to evaluate multidimensional Sustainability Impacts of
e.g. policies. Presentations may discuss and apply methods like Cost Benefit Analyses, Multi Criteria
Analyses or other alternative methods to sectors like the forest-based sector and agriculture.

THEME 3 | CASE STUDY APPLICATIONS IN SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT-ASSESSMENT
Case studies applying SIA-methods and/or evaluation tools to cases of a general interest. Case studies
may address specific issues and address process level, parts of or entire sectors or regions. Contributions may also address specific topics, e.g. environmental issues, socio-economic aspects or technological
aspects.

THEME 4 | SCENARIO ANALYSIS OF THE FOREST-BASED SECTOR AND PARTS THEREOF
Presentations should address the implications of potential future scenarios. Such scenarios may concern the availability and demand for round-wood or other forest goods and services. They may also relate to 
policy developments like REDD, NATURA2000 or other drivers that may cause large scale changes in the forest-based sector.