Innovations are a key component of the forest bioeconomy. Many types of innovations are needed for an efficient forest bioeconomy to be deployed. This article aimed to analyze the scientific literature on the topic of innovations in the forest bioeconomy, to understand where we are and where we are likely to be in the future, considering technologies, business models, etc. First, the scientific literature, in the form of peer-reviewed articles indexed in the Web of Science, was compiled in a comprehensive dataset, on which we analyzed the most important authors, their affiliations, regions they come from, journals where papers were most commonly published, and under which categories the papers were indexed. The total number of papers matching the keywords was 161. We found that the number of papers published on the topic is increasing and that, on average, each paper was cited 18 times. A total of 504 authors dealt with the topic, presenting a rather small community. This finding was reinforced by the outcomes of the analysis of regions where the authors of the papers were affiliated—Europe being the region to which most papers were affiliated. We conducted a qualitative synthesis of the literature on forest bioeconomy innovations. We found that authors dealt with the necessary adaptation of policies, while innovations were mainly focused on biorefining, biotechnology, production of various biomaterials, as well as innovations of business models and stakeholder interactions.

Wood charcoal (WCH) is a sustainable biofuel for rural and urban users because of its higher energy density and emission of marginal smoke when compared with firewood. Besides helping the poor majority who cannot afford kerosene, electricity or liquid petroleum gas (LPG), WCH is a key source of income and livelihood. This work aimed at quantifying the volume of WCH production as well as appraising its socio-economics, including environmental impacts, especially the impact of long-term deforestation and forest degradation in Africa. Historically robust data from the databases of UN-FAO, FAOSTAT, International Energy Agency (IEA), United Nations Statistics Division, UN-DESA energy statistics yearbook, and the Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) were used. The data analysis involved descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis, and geospatial techniques. The result revealed that East Africa had the highest average wood charcoal production which was 32,058,244 tonnes representing 43.2% of the production whereas West Africa had 23,831,683 tonnes denoting 32.1%. Others were North Africa (8,650,207 tonnes), Middle Africa (8,520,329 tonnes), and South Africa (1,225,062 tonnes) representing 11.6%, 11.5% and 1.6% respectively. The correlation matrix showed that WCH production for the three decades had a significant positive correlation with all the measured parameters (such as areas of forest cover, export quantity, export value, GDP, human population, climate season, average income per citizen, and literacy rate). Wood charcoal is an essential livelihood support system. New policies including commercial wood charcoal production and licensing for revenue and ecological sustainability are required. Enterprise-based approaches for poverty reduction, smallholders’ tree-growing, wood charcoal-energy conserving technologies, improved electricity supply and agricultural productivity are encouraged. The novelty of this study can also be explained by the diverse parameters examined in relation to WCH production which no other studies in the region have done.

This study was aimed at assessing the indicators of a sustainable forest bioeconomy in Ghana for three decades (1990–2020). Sustainable development in a forest bioeconomy is a system geared towards improving people’s socioeconomic and environmental situation through forestry, yet in Ghana, it is neither heard about nor well understood by many people. A good knowledge about the forest bioeconomic system will enhance people to become custodians of the forest ecosystems instead of being destroyers. Field and secondary data were collected and analyzed using IBM SPSS 29.0, CANOCO 5.0, and ArcGIS 10.5. The study showed that larger areas of forest were found in decade 1 (1990–1999) relative to decade 2 (2000–2009) and decade 3 (2010–2020). Forests’ contributions to GDP vary between the forest–vegetation belts and regions, decreasing rapidly from 1990 to 2020. Population growth, agricultural activities, and commodity-driven deforestation ranked highest in the list of the drivers of deforestation. A reduction in deforestation might bring about a reduction in carbon emissions; however, the economic repercussions are negative as the contribution of forest to GDP, income, and employment will fall as trade-offs. Findings from the study will significantly help to bring lasting solutions to deforestation and enhance the sustainable forest bioeconomy. The study has unveiled remote drivers of forest loss that have been long overlooked by previous studies. A sustainable enlightenment campaign and routine informal education of the rural people are highly necessary. This is because some of the peoples’ reasons for deforestation and preference for forest products compared with modern resources seem convincing and logical.

Sustainable forest bioeconomy (SFB), as a multidimensional approach for establishing mutual benefits between forest ecosystems, the environment, the economy, and humans, is a nature-based solution for a promising future. The study aims to evaluate the potential of carbon stocks (Cstocks) and variability for SFB. It is hypothesized that the decrease in Cstocks is related to an increase in population and agriculture, which caused a decrease in forest area and growing stock and consequently affected SFB. Primary and secondary data were collected from the field, national, and international databases, and analyzed using some statistical and geospatial software packages including IBM SPSS 29.0, CANOCO 5.0, and ArcGIS 10.5. The results revealed that large forest areas were converted to arable lands between 2000 and 2020. Across the forest zones, the aboveground and belowground Cstocks varied significantly, with the aboveground biomass being higher than the belowground biomass. The main drivers of Cstocks were politics and governance (57%), population growth (50%), soil degradation practices (50%), and socio-cultural beliefs (45%). Cstocks had significant negative correlation with population growth, carbon emissions, forest growing stock, forest loss, and the use of forest for biofuel. Evergreen forest zones (rainforest and moist) had more Cstocks than the moist deciduous and swamp/mangrove forests. The study demonstrated that the variability in Cstocks over the last three decades is attributed to an increase in population and agriculture, but Cstocks variability between the forest-vegetation belts could be better explained by differences in trees abundance than population. The study also revealed that the increase in Cstocks contributed to the realization of many SDGs, especially SDG 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, and 15, which in turn support a sustainable forest bioeconomy. Future study is necessary to evaluate Cstocks in individual tree species, biodiversity, and other forest ecosystem services to promote SFB in the country.