Competitiveness, systems of innovation and the learning economy: the forest sector in Costa Rica

The different sectors of the economy, and the forest sector in particular, must create innovations in order to survive and to be competitive. Scientific knowledge should be introduced and institutionalized into the forest processes, but also knowledge derived from other sources such as user producer relationships and others should be incorporated. A new concept is emerging that considers that the economy should learn not only from the new scientific knowledge but also from the rest of the processes. This concept is National Systems of Innovation (created in 1985 in the Scandinavian countries), however, here the concept is broadened of a Sustainable System of Innovation. This approach of sustainable systems of innovation (SSI), considers that the sources for innovation towards development, particularly sustainable development, are formal organisations (universities, research centres, or so), the productive structure (the economy), the institutional set-up (patterns of behaviour), the economy–ecology relationships (potential and limitations of the ecosystem for production) and the policies of the sector. Each one of these factors interact and feed each other. They cannot be seen independently nor static; on the contrary, they are dynamic and evolutionary, without any doubt including the ecosystem. Then, the process of learning from all these sources, which is the base for SSI, may produce ‘greener’ innovations, greener technologies and greener institutions. Innovations related to forest services from Costa Rica will illustrate these ideas.