Co-creation of governance innovations for sustainable forest ecosystem services in Europe

The high complexity of forest ecosystem services calls for novel governance arrangements that are capable of addressing diverse socio-ecological contexts and actor configurations. To better understand the transformative potential of such arrangements, it is essential to identify key influencing factors that enable governance reconfiguration across multiple decision arenas and stakeholder groups. This paper aims to examine the role of these factors in the co-creation of forest ecosystem services (FES) governance, and to derive lessons that support long-term sustainability transformations in varied forestry contexts. The analysis draws on original innovation processes developed within six forest innovation communities which are seen as learning communities across the European Union, which differ in their social-ecological, institutional, and forest management conditions. Building on the quintuple helix model of collaborative knowledge co-creation and the three phases of transformative learning, the paper provides empirical insights that contribute to the systematisation of a governance innovation framework for FES. The findings highlight key leverage points for governance reconfiguration, and propose roadmap strategies with the potential to accelerate sustainability transformations in forest-based systems.