Business ecosystems and sustainability transitions in forest landscapes: A case study in British Columbia, Canada

Empirical understanding of sustainability transitions in forestry offers unexplored and important insights into how change happens in forest landscapes. In British Columbia, Canada, the provincial government is taking steps to transform the way forests contribute to societal, environmental, and economic value. Policy reforms aim to support local stewardship and enterprises for a more diverse, competitive, and innovative forest sector. We explore the ability and agency of landscape actors to realize this change. Focusing on the Quesnel forest landscape, we use a business ecosystem framework to identify collaboration networks and value sharing mechanisms at the landscape-scale. Results from key informant interviews indicate that high-volume, reliable, efficient, integrated, low-cost wood products remain the primary value-proposition of the Quesnel forestry network. However, shared values are shifting towards resilience, reconciliation, and partnerships. Regional forestry actors are highly interdependent, yielding many economic and environmental benefits but reducing the network’s dynamic ability to deliver upon these diversified values. Provincial policy is creating space for regional actors to drive transformative change but diminished agency, characterized by uncertainty and disempowered leadership, is hindering action. Our findings suggest that shared values of business ecosystems can mobilize agency and shift value-propositions towards sustainability transitions, but progress may be limited by deep systemic barriers. Continued progress towards BC’s sustainability transition may require intermediate steps focused on aligning values, restoring trust, and clearing regulatory obstacles for long-term change. Wildfire resiliency is emerging as an opportunity space for leveraging the strengths of the Quesnel forestry network, reconciling local and provincial objectives, and shaping forestry systems that are reflective of more inclusive value-sets. Carefully navigated, these pathways can support improvements in the public’s understanding and perception of forestry.