Reviewing natural resources law in the light of bioeconomy: Finnish forest regulations as a case study

Development of bioeconomy is high on political agendas around the world. As part of bioeconomy policies governments have initiated reviews of the contemporary laws in order to identify and remove potential barriers and address the shortcomings as well as develop new tools to facilitate transition to bioeconomy. This paper discusses the role of natural resources law in bioeconomy and considers the needs for developing legislation to better meet the future challenges. As a concrete case study the article evaluates regulations governing the use of forests in Finland from the perspective of bioeconomy. The paper shows that major deficiencies in regulations governing the use of forests in Finland in developing bioeconomy relate to ecological and social sustainability, resource efficiency, and conflict management. The article concludes that there is a need to increase integration, adaptability, transparency and public participation in Finnish forest regulation to facilitate the transition to and maintain sustainable bioeconomy.