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This article explores the use of a dialogue process to approach complex issues related to forest management. Aninterdisciplinary research team set up an experimental dialogue process concerning the use of introduced tree speciesin Southern Sweden for the purposes of climate change adaptation. The process involved stakeholders at a regionallevel, including those with divergent opinions regarding introduced tree species and their use in forestry. Through aprocess of repeated meetings and exchanges with researchers, the participant’s knowledge was deepened and grouprelationships developed such that the group was able to jointly formulate a set of policy recommendations. Theinvestigation revealed that dialogue processes may improve decision-making by identifying priorities for action orfurther research. However, when a collaborative process targets complex environmental issues on larger geographicaland temporal scales, as matters about forests typically do, a collaborative process must be integrated with externalactors and institutions in order to attain tangible outcomes. Consequently, to fully access the benefits of usingcollaborative processes to handle complex challenges in forest policy and management, the connections betweenpolitical sphere, the private sector, authorities and research institutions must be concretely established.