European forests and the forest sector play an important role in supplying biomass and other ecosystem services for a green economy. It is foreseen that the role of the sector will increase due to the urgent need to move to a sustainable low carbon economy. Global challenges, like climate change, human population growth and scarcity of natural resources require urgent actions to change conventional models of economy.

Until now, several European countries had adopted dedicated national bioeconomy strategies, aiming to generate economic growth from sustainable and efficient use of natural resources.

The potential of strengthening the competitiveness of the forest sector within the bioeconomy and the transition to a green economy is yet to be fulfilled. Bioeconomy is often seen to develop in different paths and pace in the region. Resource availability is an important factor, but may not be main factor influencing the development of bioeconomy. There might be other barriers and drivers for development of viable and competitive forest-based bioeconomy value chains. So, what are the policy tools and actions needed to foster the forest-based bioeconomy development in the Pan-European region? What are possible drivers and barriers for effective policies and governance? What possible actions should be taken to deliver desired change?