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.

In order to meet its Kyoto Protocol commitment targets, the Italian Government has made relevant investments in forest projects in developing countries through the Clean Development Mechanism. This paper investigates the Italian participated afforestation/reforestation (A/R) projects under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, by considering the countries hosting forestry projects, the project areas, the estimated emission reductions, the use of tree species (native/non-native), the issuance of Carbon credits, and the projects’ contribution to sustainable development and technology transfer in general, as stated by the “Project Design Document” of each project. This study utilizes the “Project Design Documents” and “Monitoring Reports” of the registered projects in the United Nations Convention on Climate Change database and data from the BioCarbon Fund database. Results show that, in terms of number of projects, the A/R sector is a prominent component of the Italian CDM portfolio. The financing of the 16 projects by the Italian government, with a total of about 65 k ha planted and an estimated emission reductions of about 556 k tCO2 eq per year, are based on criteria that differ substantially from the ongoing policy adopted for domestic forest interventions.