Afforesting Icelandic land: a promising approach for climate smart forestry?

Climate smart forestry (CSF) is considered as a promising approach for climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies as highlighted in several European policy documents. This paper describes a prospective approach to introducing an incentive-based scheme to facilitate the implementation of CSF through a case study in Iceland. It is argued that the payments for ecosystem services (PES) scheme allows for effective CSF management and long-term sustainability if introduced in compliance with local, cultural and social values. In a case study of an Icelandic afforestation programme, we conducted an institutional analysis of the PES scheme and assessed its effect on forest ecosystem services provision on long-term sustainability. We provide preliminary findings on the application of CSF in the 30-year-old Icelandic afforestation programme scheme. The perspectives of forest and policy experts, as well as local farmers participating in the scheme, were crucial for assessing the effectiveness of PES scheme performance in Iceland.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Empowering marginalised mountain communities to act for change

A demographic trend in marginalized mountain areas of Europe has been the out-migration of younger people and relocation of population from the most remote areas into nearby villages and towns. This has exacerbated the trend in the demographic profile of an ageing population with implications for delivering services and public policy addressing societal inequalities. Challenges for some mountain areas include poverty, social exclusion, and decline in public services, whereas in others large scale development (e.g., of tourism complexes, renewable energy) creates significant environmental pressures. This research employs a case study-based, mixed methods approach to understanding the challenges facing remote villages in Scottish Highlands, and the Alpine (Swiss) and Carpathian Mountains, as examples, and designing solutions to empower marginalized communities to act for change. We explore existing perspectives concerning the sustainable development of such areas and the role of social innovation for its delivery. We advance the conceptual and practical knowledge of social innovation and reveal its potential in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We demonstrate that social innovation can help in tackling societal challenges, utilizing opportunities, and enabling third sector actors to realise their capabilities, while improving social inclusion and reducing inequality. A challenge is how to balance trade-offs (between tourism and nature restoration; bio energy production and biodiversity conservation, etc.) and take advantage of opportunities available in the mountains. Our findings inform the design of policy and practice measures in European mountain areas to address sustainability and promote social justice. Acknowledgements This research is funded by the Scottish Government Strategic Research Programme 2022-2027, project JHI-D5-1, the VEGA 2/0170/21 project in Slovakia, and the EU funded projects of SIMRA (GA 677622), SHERPA (GA 862448), FirEUrisk (GA 101003890) and RURACTIVE (GA 101084377). This output is linked to the activities of the IUFRO Unit 4.05.05 on Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship.This research is funded by the Scottish Government Strategic Research Programme 2022-2027, project JHI-D5-1, the VEGA 2/0170/21 project in Slovakia, and the EU funded projects of SIMRA (GA 677622), SHERPA (GA 862448), FirEUrisk (GA 101003890) and RURACTIVE (GA 101084377). This output is linked to the activities of the IUFRO Unit 4.05.05 on Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Social innovation for sustainability transformation and its diverging development paths in marginalised rural areas

Abstract Social innovation is perceived as a collaborative response from civic society actors to societal challenges and as such is increasingly being recognised as a driver for sustainable development. Social innovation promotes civic values, particularly in marginalised rural areas that are often struggling with biophysical and market limits, as well as shortages of public funding. In order to identify diverging development paths (DDPs) for social innovation, in this article, we use two large sets of empirical material from the SIMRA research project. First, for meta-analyses of social innovation in diverse situations and contexts, we use 211 validated social innovation examples. Second, we rely on 11 in-depth cases to reflect on the contexts and dimensions of social innovation. The elaboration of conceptualisation and deductive analyses result in the creation of a typology of social innovation DDPs, with four DDPs identified and explained. The article provides an improved understanding of how social innovation emerges and develops and how to capture processes and resulting changes in marginalised rural areas in order to turn such areas’ diversity into strengths. An important conclusion is that social innovation involves both local and external actors, yet cannot develop without specific internal local activity and local knowledge

Compilation of Tools for Data Collection for SIMRA Pioneer and Regular Case Studies. Report 5.1 - Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas (SIMRA)

Deliverable 5.1 provides a common baseline for the data collection of the SIMRA case studies with the aim of reducing biases in data collection, improve the quality of outcomes and limit the emergence of unforeseen risks. The data collection protocol consists of three main sections: (i) a general overview and guidance common to all the Case Studies; (ii) a Case Study specific section, including the Pioneer and Regular Case Studies; and (iii) Appendixes that support the operationalisation of the data collection. The general overview (Section 3) explains the purpose of protocols, the general procedures for use in data collection in SIMRA Case Studies, and the processes for obtaining ethical clearance. It explains in detail the SIMRA methodology, the involvement of stakeholders and participants, and the related dissemination tasks. It also introduces the data reporting required to build the database for the posterior analysis. The section on Case Study protocols (Section 4) sets out the timetable, methodological approach and feedback for the Pioneer Case Studies and the Regular Case Studies. The Social Innovation (conceptual variables, map and history) is introduced for each Case Study, which constitutes the first step for the individual Case Study protocols. The last section (Appendixes) provides a glossary of the terminology used, the ethical clearance templates, and a checklist for the fieldwork activities. Deliverable D5.1 is complemented by Report 5.1 on the compilation of set of tools for data collection for SIMRA Pioneer and Regular Case Studies (Secco et al., 2018), and Report 5.2 on the compilation of Case Study background information and individual protocols (G\uf3rriz-Mifsud et al., 2018b)