Berit H. Lindstad

Shades of green: a social scientific view on bioeconomy in the forest sector

Politics increasingly introduces initiatives supporting a shift toward a bioeconomy aiming at a society relying strongly on renewable biological sources while achieving economic growth efficiently and sustainably. However, the agenda of bioeconomy comprises different “shades of green,” in the sense that different actors stress different aspects of the concept, when embracing it in communication. This conceptual paper aims to present policy and socioeconomic theoretical frameworks and research areas relevant for a more holistic understanding of the bioeconomy concept applied to the forest sector, and identify a core set of potential contributions from social sciences for enhancing the bioeconomy in the forest sector. The paper focuses on studies within policy analysis, economics, and business administration disciplines. Thus it presents diverse disciplinary perspectives on the forest sector in a bioeconomy. Furthermore, innovation and sustainability have been identified as issues relevant to be approached across these disciplines.

Influences of international forest policy processes on national forest policies in Finland, Norway and Sweden

Abstract Several international processes provide recommendations for sustainable forest management, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe and the United Nations Forum on Forests. This paper explores to what degree and how these processes have influenced national forest policies in Finland, Norway and Sweden employing methods developed for studying effectiveness of international agreements. Empirical data on changes in response to the international recommendations were collected, revealing influences on all policy elements in Finland. In Sweden, minor influences were identified on only two out of five investigated elements, while Norway is in an intermediate position. The variations in influences on selected policy elements in rather similar countries indicate different national considerations in response to the international recommendations, signalling challenges in determining effects of the international processes. The assessed influences are next used for an initial investigation of how the international forest policy recommendations influence national policies. Evidence indicates multifaceted and complex ways of influences, and signals of both calculative and normative influences, and their interactions, are found. Elements requiring further investigations are identified, emphasising the casual relationships in determining to what extent and how national policies are affected by international policy processes.

Changes in Norwegian forest policies: what are the effects of the international forest regime complex?

An increasing complexity is seen in global governance systems for forests, with multiple policy processes providing binding and non-binding commitments and partly conflicting objectives. This paper intends to contribute to clarifying domestic influences of global initiatives, by an exploratory contrasting of two alternative analytical perspectives. For the first perspective, regime effects, two cases of policy changes in Norway revealed variation in effects depending on the scope of analysis and reference points used for measurement. Compared to a situation with no regime, an effect is revealed for the climate regime, while for biodiversity, the effect is uncertain. For problem-solving achievements, both cases of policy change indicate difficulties in determining effects, due to ambiguity in regime objectives. The initial contrasting of regime effects with global governance influences, the second perspective, find that these are incompatible concepts, with the governance influences encompassing broader sources of influences and their dynamic interactions. The explorations point to the need for clarity in what is the topic under study (effect of one or more regimes, or governance influences) and to the analytical delimitations (regime obligations, process-generated effects of regime, broader regime consequences, or governance influences). Finally, promising topics for extending our understanding of national–global interactions are identified.