STARTREE – Pădurile cu rol multifuncţional şi produsele nelemnoase: provocări şi oportunităţi
StarTree: Multipurpose trees and non-wood forest products: a challenge and opportunity
StarTree is a pan-European project to support the sustainable exploitation of forest resources for rural development. The project ran from November 2012 – October 2016 and is now completed.
StarTree is an ambitious and exciting project that will show how Multi-Purpose Trees (MPT) and Non Wood Forest Products (NWFP) can be used to strengthen and diversify economic activities in rural areas.
StarTree is based on an integrated approach, identifying challenges and proposing solutions to enhance the management, product development, innovation, multi-stakeholder dialogue and marketing of MPT and NWFP.
StarTree brings together key research organisations and specialised SMEs working on MPT and NWFP throughout Europe to ensure and speed up the transfer of research and innovations to markets.
StarTree relies on strong stakeholder engagement through case studies in 14 regions across Europe and in-depth case studies in 7 key areas.
StarTree is funded by the European Union through the European Commission’s FP7 Cooperation Work Programme.
StarTree aims to provide better understanding, knowledge, guidance and tools to support stakeholders in optimising the management of multi-purpose trees and developing innovative approaches for increasing the marketability and profitability of NWFP for a more competitive rural economy.
StarTree will achieve this by:
- Developing new knowledge and tools to optimise the sustainable and joint provision of wood, NWFP and related services as well as the management of multi-purpose trees in a climate change context
- Advancing the understanding on the socio-economic importance and the potentials of markets for NWFP, including the role of public and private actors in supporting the innovation processes for new products and services based on consumers´ behaviours and patterns
- Establishing solid strategic partnerships between key research organizations and specialised small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) working on NWFP in Europe to ensure and speed up the transfer of research and innovations to markets
Tasks:
An integrated approach:
StarTree engages regional stakeholders to inform the research and development of new tools and knowledge on NWFP and MPT, the results of which will be disseminated widely. To achieve this, the project is composed of seven work packages (WPs).
| WP title: | Case study coordination and stakeholder consultation |
| WP leader: | Wild Resources Limited |
| Objectives: | With respect to the overall objective of the project to provide a holistic analysis of the European NWFP sector and its potential to support rural development for the benefit of SMEs, forest managers and policy makers, the aim of WP 1 is:the generation of a consistent and coherent dataset to facilitate inter-regional comparisons and the synthesis of findings across Europe andthe integration of theory and praxis which requires close cooperation and understanding between academic and relevant stakeholders |
| WP title: | Resource management |
| WP leader: | Technical University of Lisbon |
| Objectives: | The overall objective of this WP is to develop silvicultural guidelines, models and decision support tools to enhance the profitability of MPT and NWFPs management by combining wood and NWFP and will be achieved by pursuing the following goals:review how MPT and NWFP are currently considered in forest management and what management guidelines, models and decision support tools are availableprovide decision support tools including optimization capabilities and analyse the economics and management of MPT and NWFPdevelop new silvicultural guidelines to increase the profitability of the management of MPT and NWFPs in regional case study areas |
| WP title: | Economy and marketing of NWFP |
| WP leader: | University of Padua |
| Objectives: | The main objective of WP 3 is to provide knowledge about the current structure and dynamics of NWFP market as well as about the potential development at different scales, by describing: • production patterns and trade development paths for different NWFP • existing and potential marketing strategies and related regulatory issues affecting NWFP economy • impacts on rural development in terms of added value, employment creation, distributional effects, integration processes, financial constraints, transaction costs, risk and uncertainty for the selected case studies |
| WP title: | Economy and Marketing of NWFP |
| WP leader: | Forest Sciences Centre of Catalonia |
| Objectives: | The overall aim of this WP is to understand the role of institutions (policies, regulations, policy instruments and informal norms) in the provision and consumption of NWFP. Specific objectives are:to understand how such institutions shape the production and consumption of NWFPs, and clarify underlying causes and reasons for thatto understand whether and how such institutions can be changed and what is the role of public and private sectors in institutional change that promotes the diversification of forest activities and fosters the competitiveness of the NWFP sector in Europe |
| WP title: | Innovation systems and processes |
| WP leader: | University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna |
| Objectives: | The WPs´ overall aim is to get a better understanding of the innovation processes in the management of MPT and in the production of NWFP s, the roles of actors in the innovation systems, and to develop practical guidelines and tools for innovation support. The specific aims are:assess innovation systems and innovation processes relevant for the development and marketing of new forest products on European, national, regional, and enterprise levelscollect innovative examples for new forest products across Europedevelop innovation strategies for new forest products for different types of companies and for relevant institutional actors |
| WP title: | Dissemination and Exploitation |
| WP leader: | European Forest Institute |
| Objectives: | The aims of this WP are:to identify target users and their requirements and expectations towards improved decision support in MPT and NWFPto synthesize new knowledge gained in the project and to tailor dissemination activities towards different needs and scales: science, policy, business as well as case studies, regions, countriesto provide a portal facilitating knowledge exchange, information services, social learning, and regionalised business interactions |
| WP title: | Project Coordination and Management |
| WP leader: | European Forest Institute |
| Objectives: | The main objective of WP 7 is to assure efficient administrative coordination and management of the entire project. This goal will be achieved through the following specific objectives:monitor progress and control quality of the project along the work plan and its milestones and deliverablesenable effective information flow, communication and proper decision-making within the project consortiumoversee the contractual links between partnersensure the reports are sent to the EC, according to the terms of reference of the projectmanage risks and resolve potential problems |