Research and innovation in sustainable forestry lessons….pdfVIP

ANNALS OF SILVICULTURAL RESEARCH 38 (2), 2014:74-77 http://ojs-cra.cilea.it/index.php/asr Conference paper Research and innovation in sustainable forestry: lessons learnt to inform the policy making community Gérard Buttoud1* Received 17/09/2014 - Accepted 23/11/2014 Abstract - From an already rich experience of cooperation between scientists and policy makers in the framework of international research institutions such as the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), the Center for International For- est Research (CIFOR) and the European Forest Institute (EFI), as well as through the promotion and development of EU research projects and programs, some lessons can be drawn considering the possible role of scientists at the science-policy interface. Today, on the example of the global change - and especially the climatic changes that policy makers are demanding about-, most of the researches to be carried out have to answer social questions the solutions of which require the support of science. This is especially the case in the forestry fi eld, which is characterized by the particularly long term of cycles and the great number of stakeholders interested in. Whilst decision making processes are complex systems, science is not the only source of knowledge useful for taking decisions, so that in a democratic context, research results have to be confronted to other lessons learnt (for instance from technical expertise, or from traditional knowledge) in order to get accountability in terms of instrumentation. In scientifi c terms, it should certainly lead to multi-disciplinary approaches of the multifunctionality of forest and related techniques to be implemented. But this does not mean that research activities have to be assessed only against their instrumentality. Howeve