The future of the forest-based bioeconomy in selected southeast European countries

•SEE countries: Serbia, Croatia, and North Macedonia lack bioeconomy strategies, across diverse forest-related sectors to address bioeconomy.•SEE forest-based bioeconomy future changes are expected by expansion to added-value products or applications of non-traditional use of wood.•In SEE by 2030 the need for cross-sectoral cooperation and demand for woody biomass will increase, especially on wood coming from private forests.•In SEE by 2050 forest-based value chains and business models will become more diverse.