Key Indicators and Social Acceptance for Bioenergy Production Potential as Part of the Green Economy Transition Process in Local Areas of Lapland

The aim of this article was to create key indicators for measuring the implementation potential of the green economy transition at a local level in a northernmost, natural biomass-rich environment. The case area to test the set of indicators was the village of Saija in Lapland. The work presented in this article is based on a communicative cooperative research and development project. The selection process for the appropriate indicators is based on a conceptual framework for developing local sustainability indicators and the thematic framework follows the key dimensions of the green economy (ecosystem resilience, resource efficiency and social equity). When selecting the local-level indicators, a strong emphasis was placed on the special characteristics of the local area and the availability and validity of the data. Layman villagers and data policy relevance (in this case green economy) were also taken into consideration. The key indicators developed as a result included: the increment of growing forest stock in relation to the drain on growing forest stock, the village population, the bioenergy consumption share, the utilization share of side streams, the bioenergy production potential, capital outflow, demographic dependency ratio, the ratio between employed and working age residents and the number of forest owners in relation to area households. The key indicators are targeted for use in supporting local decision-making and monitoring and assessing development activities and their effectiveness in the process of the green economy transition. The indicators measure the most critical factors for green economy transition in a local area and identify the most optimal development opportunities when moving towards green growth. In the measurement of the transition potential of the green economy, it was found that the case area’s imported fossil energy consumption could be substituted with self-sufficient bioenergy production utilizing the area’s own raw materials. There is extensive potential for the utilization of manure (an agricultural side stream) and forest resources (forestry side streams) at the local level, especially since forests account for 98% of Lapland’s land area. In support of the change from fossil-based energy consumption towards bioenergy production, plans for a biogas plant were examined for self-sufficient bioenergy production and this appeared to be the initial key process in the path of the green economy transformation in the case village of Saija.