Increasing diversification, urbanization, economic restructuring, and distances, as well as declining economic dependence on forestry, are changing the characteristics of forest ownership and the conditions for environmental governance. Through an interview-based case study of Swedish forestry industrial actors, this article examined the organizational and governing aspects and implications of recent shifts by exploring the strategies and marketing/governing technologies of private/industrial forestry organizations. With a focus on local implementation, this study shows that forest owners are largely constructed, and engaged, as consumers (rather than, for example, as timber suppliers) and are governed, partly at a distance, through specific forms of guidance, technologies, and knowledge to overcome the lack of social and physical presence in the design and interaction of sale. This stresses the need to understand the role, function, and power of the forestry organizations and sales processes in research on environmental and forest policy implementation on multiple levels.
Adaptive management (AM) is one approach to manage migratory waterbirds, but obstacles to the implementation of AM require adaptive capacities in the management system (rules, institutions, action situations). This study aims to examine the adaptive capacity of participatory goose management in Sweden. Considering the biophysical and institutional context, we analyzed how tangible, individual, and governance assets were associated with technical and social learning. Interviews with informants in the national council for geese, swans, and cranes, and local management groups (LMGs) were conducted, and documentation reviewed. Results revealed evidence of a local preparedness in areas with an LMG. Nevertheless, the study highlighted a need to formalize the evolving system, to consider a more systematic implementation of AM (including regulations allowing for adaptive responses), and to ensure stakeholder acceptance for management tools and visions. The study illustrates the need for a broad set of assets to ensure learning in participatory management.
Based on the reasoning that contextual variations are important for understanding differences in forest cognitions, this study examined forest values and management attitudes in the general public in Germany (n = 1135) and Sweden (n = 1311) by means of a questionnaire. Results indicated that the public in both countries emphasised similar forest values, and the overall pattern was comparable for different types of forest, although certain differences based on forest type and country were evident. For example, the German public was more ecologically oriented, whereas the Swedish public was more production oriented in its forest values and management attitudes. Furthermore, ecological and various anthropocentric forest values were perceived to be quite compatible, with the Swedish respondents perceiving this to a greater extent than the German. The overall cognitive structure of forest values and management attitudes was similar in both countries, although differences were revealed, particularly regarding attitudes.
In the present study, the legitimacy of the forest policy in Sweden was explored. Based on a value belief approach, the general public's support for forest policy was examined by means of a questionnaire (n=796). Results demonstrated that the respondents believed ecological principles, such as sustaining natural conditions for native plants and animals, were most important in forest policy, but preservation of social values and using the forest efficiently to maintain high market value were also emphasised. Although socio-demographic variables (i.e. gender and age) had some impact on support for the policy, different values and beliefs reflecting ecological, social and economic interests were more important. By considering different values and beliefs, as well as policy support explicitly, the study provides a multifaceted account of the public's viewpoint regarding forest issues.
Environmental Impact Assessment has gained a prominent position as a tool to evaluate the environmental effects of economic activities. However, all approaches proposed so far use a burden‐oriented logic. They concentrate on the different environmental impacts in order to ascertain the overall environmental damage caused by economic activity. This paper argues that such a burden‐oriented view is (a) hampered by a series of methodological shortcomings which hinders its widespread use in practice; and (b) is analytically incomplete. The paper proposes a value‐oriented approach to impact assessment. For this purpose an economic analysis of the optimal use of environmental and social resources is conducted from both a burden‐oriented and a value‐oriented standpoint. The basic logic of a value‐oriented impact assessment is explained, as well as the resulting economic conditions for an optimal use of resources. In addition, it is shown that value‐ and burden‐oriented approaches are complementary to achieve optimality. Finally, the paper discusses the conditions under which the use of burden‐ or value‐oriented impact assessments is appropriate, respectively.
In many contemporary societies, multiple functions are connected to hunting. Here, we use the concept of multifunctionality to investigate the role of hunting beyond its traditional function of supplying meat. Hunting may contribute, for example, to biodiversity conservation, recreation and the preservation of economies and cultures in rural areas. Our comparative analysis of hunting in eight study sites in Europe and Africa examines the tensions and trade-offs between these ecological, economic and social functions of hunting, and investigates the interplay between the institutions regulating these functions to better understand conflicts over hunting. Based on this analysis, we present institutional arrangements that have developed to address these challenges of multifunctionality, and explore the institutional change brought about by such arrangements. Finally, we discuss the implications of this study for policy and institutional design.
The insurance industry is important for facilitating climate change adaptation. Insurance companies' involvement is, however, influenced by national adaptation policy. The literature suggests that especially policy factors - government interventions, political priorities and public-private cooperation - and market factors - cost offset, cost mitigation, planning flexibility and business opportunities - shape private actor approaches. To increase the understanding of insurance company involvement in adaptation, this study examines how insurance companies' approaches are influenced by policy and market factors in three countries: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The study found that the policy factors tested significantly shaped the approaches of the companies assessed, while market factors currently appear less influential. This is likely due to the absence of climate risk and adaptation in political debates and among insurance policyholders. The study discusses the potential role of the insurance industry in adaptation governance and suggests how barriers facing insurance companies could be overcome.
This paper aims to fill the gap in the literature about distributional impacts (who wins and who loses) of implementing new management plans for non-market priced environmental goods and services. The focus is on whether and to what extent, age, gender, presence of large carnivores and income affect willingness-to-pay (WTP) for increasing large carnivore stocks in Sweden. Our results contradict findings from previous studies on large carnivores in the sense that patterns change when different distributional dimensions are analysed together. The results indicate that WTP is independent of the presence of large carnivores, except for the group ‘young men’. In general, young men are found to be a disparate group.
Certification represents a comparatively new means of CSR, which is important in the forest industry. Forest companies and industries have previously certified their management and products in accordance with one of the competing systems (FSC: Forest Stewardship Council and PEFC: Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes), but recently, important large-scale companies in several countries have started to certify under both schemes. This study explores the causes and effects of this change in strategies, drawing on semi-structured interviews with Swedish forest companies and industries and European retailers. The results show that public bodies, not the least in the EU, as well as ENGOs, have transformed customer demands, resulting in dual-certification. This change in strategies has the potential to alter corporate environmental practices throughout the supply chains. These results call for further research on the under-studied issue of the interaction between public regulation and private forest governance.
Using the Foucauldian theoretical framework of governmentality, this paper examines the role of regulative 'technologies of government' in climate change adaptation. The paper examines such technologies and underlying rationalities in a multi-level context, in three European countries that represent different stages of adaptation policy development: the UK, Finland and Sweden. Drawing upon policy documents and interviews at different levels, the paper illustrates differences in technologies of government for adaptation between the relatively 'regulative' UK state system and Finland and Sweden's traditional legalistic and welfarist systems. The study illustrates that, while the treatment of adaptation as an issue on a national level coheres with national rationalities, local and regional levels show a diversity in the development of bottom-up adaptation technologies.
Using the Foucauldian theoretical framework of governmentality, this paper examines the role of regulative ‘technologies of government’ in climate change adaptation. The paper examines such technologies and underlying rationalities in a multi-level context, in three European countries that represent different stages of adaptation policy development: the UK, Finland and Sweden. Drawing upon policy documents and interviews at different levels, the paper illustrates differences in technologies of government for adaptation between the relatively ‘regulative’ UK state system and Finland and Sweden's traditional legalistic and welfarist systems. The study illustrates that, while the treatment of adaptation as an issue on a national level coheres with national rationalities, local and regional levels show a diversity in the development of bottom-up adaptation technologies.
We have investigated why conflicts linked to the distribution of power between governments and actors at the national and local levels concerning environmental management of mountain areas in Norway persist despite political intentions to strengthen local powers. We seek to explain this by analysing changes in policies, institutional frameworks, and regional contexts, and the local perceptions of these changes. Paradoxically, the national government's power has apparently been strengthened by new sectoral regulations and more stringent enforcement of the existing ones, increases in the number and extent of protected areas, and failures to act on intentions to devolve power. An additional factor spurring conflicts is the increased importance of tourism to mountain communities. To become more relevant to policies and development in mountain areas, future studies on multilevel governance must address multilevel politics, entire mountain areas, and the context of their development, rather than focusing on minor projects and protected areas.
Habermas's theory of communicative action is used in this paper to develop a cultural model for empirical studies of environmental policy processes. The model consists of three cultural ideal types: anthropocentric material; anthropocentric immaterial; and ecocentric immaterial. Obstacles to social learning and public participation, such as forms and styles of reasoning and the exclusion of citizens, are brought into focus. Finally, the model functions as a criticism of a pure liberal view of environmental problems.
Rural land-use planning should handle land-use interests, such as nature-based tourism, biodiversity preservation and industrial resource extraction, on an appropriate level of scale. Management for multifunctionality represents an option in factually multifunctional landscapes. The Swedish policy of national interests, as applied in the context of the three northernmost municipalities? statutory comprehensive plan-making, provides an attempt in this direction. Based on mapping and practitioner interviews, the study reveals that the vague ?practical? implications of the omnipresent land-use designations under the policy complicate the task of local-level spatial planning. Integrated consideration of multiple uses (or use options), implicated by policy principles, was found to fall back into case-by-case assessments. Land-use designation can be worked into a tool for the governance of multifunctional landscapes when care is taken to manage the aspects outlined in the study, among others interagency orchestration and explicit regulation of co-existence.
The paper analyzes the prerequisites for a regulatory-driven transition toward radically lower air and water pollution in industry. This is achieved in the empirical context of the Swedish mining and metals industry, and by investigating the environmental licensing processes during two regulatory systems. The paper derives an analytical framework that explores under what circumstances such licensing processes can result in radical emissions reductions without seriously jeopardizing the competitiveness of the industry. Archived material covering six environmental licensing processes, three during each system, is used to illustrate the various design and implementation issues. The results suggest that regulatory-driven green transitions benefit from trust-based bargaining procedures in which companies are involved in repeated interactions with regulatory authorities, and which extended probation periods permit tests of novel abatement technologies (including innovation). The findings also illustrate the importance of abstaining from simplified normative notions about policy instrument choice (e.g. taxes versus standards).