Insights into the development and key factors of five European governance innovations for forest ecosystem service provision

Climate change and biodiversity loss require forestry to adapt management practices to sustain forest ecosystem services (FES). Yet knowledge remains limited on what enables or constrains novel forest governance approaches. This study applies the SETFIS analytical framework to five European governance innovations at local, regional, and national levels, treating forests as socio-ecological-technical-innovation systems. The cases comprise compensation schemes and network-based arrangements aimed at carbon sequestration, biodiversity restoration, and the sustainable provision of multiple FES. Across cases, innovation emergence and development were shaped by local context, historical trajectories, proactive leadership, core teams, multi-stakeholder networks, initial funding, capacity building, knowledge exchange with related innovations, and monitoring and evaluation that supported learning and adaptive planning. Core teams ensured continuity and stability, while broader networks fostered flexibility and future pathway development. Although these factors were evident across cases, governance design and operation remained strongly context specific, highlighting the importance of bottom-up, place-based approaches involving local actors in design, implementation, management, and evaluation. The findings show that governance innovations extend beyond technological change and depend on interactions among social, ecological, economic, and institutional systems. Supporting such innovations requires stable and adaptable funding, policy coherence, and multi-actor partnerships to move from focusing on single-service objectives, such as timber production, toward integrated FES bundles including biodiversity, recreation, climate adaptation, and cultural values. Overall, the results provide an empirical basis for more effective forest governance and more adaptive policy responses to major challenges in European forests.