The forest sector has a relevant role to the bioeconomy, a key policy strategy in which renewable resources such as forest biomass are used to meet society’s needs for energy, chemicals and raw materials. Despite all opportunities and advantages of a transition to a bioeconomy, it puts the challenge of making woody resources scarcer, which is already a reality in some countries such as Portugal.

The SustainFor project aims to assess the effects of the transition to a bioeconomy on the eucalypt and maritime pine forest sectors in Portugal, providing insights for improved policy and decision-making concerning the choice of more sustainable solutions taking into account the three pillars of sustainability (environmental, economic and social).

The project will provide answers to the following questions:

  1. What are the current environmental, economic and social impacts of the eucalypt and maritime pine forest sectors in Portugal?

  2. How these current impacts can be decreased?

  3. What are possible alternative management strategies for these forest sectors in the future?

  4. What are the environmental, economic and social impacts of those possible future scenarios?

  5. What are the most sustainable scenarios that should be adopted in the future?

This project adopts a life cycle approach to quantify the environmental, economic and social impacts by using Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). The full value chain is considered from the forest up to the use and final disposal of products such as paper, solidwood products, fuels and bio-based chemical products.