Daniela Kleinschmit

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.

1. Forests, Trees and Landscapes for Food Security and Nutrition

As population estimates for 2050 reach over 9 billion, issues of food security and nutrition have been dominating academic and policy debates, especially in relation to the global development agenda beyond 2015.1 A total of 805 million people are undernourished worldwide, even though the trend appears to be slowly reversing (FAO et al., 2014) and malnutrition -- defined as either under-5 stunting, anaemia among women of reproductive age or adult obesity -- affects nearly every country on the planet (IFPRI, 2014).

Conceptualizing Path Dependence through Discourse Analysis: The Case of Seasonal Farm workers in Germany

This article introduces discourse analysis as a theoretical concept and an empirical methodology that may enable the endogenization of path creation and path breaking changes in conventional models of political path dependencies. Economic criteria such as rents created by a policy do not always provide a comprehensive explanation for path dependent political decisions. Discourse theory implies that specific interpretative schemata and narratives, such as story lines in the mass media, heavily influence the political discourse. Discourses themselves exercise a constitutive power that constrains decision-making processes and, thus, influence the ensuing policy creation path. Hence, discourses must be taken into account when political path creation is analysed. In this paper we trace over time individual story lines that represent important elements of the discourse underlying the restriction of seasonal farm workers from central and eastern European countries in Germany. We illustrate how dominant speakers and their story lines have been and currently are interacting to shape this policy.

Research on forest policy in Sweden – Review

Abstract The aim of this review paper is to provide a structured overview on the state-of-the-art of research on Swedish forest policy over the last two decades. An additional aim is to identify major trends and blind-spots within this research area. To achieve this aim, 34 peer-reviewed journal articles and Ph.D. theses on forest policy in Sweden published between 1990 and 2009 have been reviewed and analyzed. The categories used comprise the date of publication, the affiliation of the author, theories and methodologies used, as well as major conclusions drawn. One major result of the review is that there is a continuous increase in the studies on Swedish forest policy, not the least due to the fact that an increasing number of authors are affiliated with non-forest research organizations. The shift of authors from forest scientists to political scientists is also linked to the theories used in these studies, e.g. neo-institutionalism. The main focus of the reviewed studies is on small-scale forestry as well as on governance, in particular on certification. Analysis of the linkage between Swedish forest policy and political processes beyond the nation state are an exception in the reviewed papers.

Frames in environmental policy integration: Are Swedish sectors on track?

Abstract This paper explores whether and how frames used within different sectors in Sweden concerned with bioenergy from forest products are driven by environmental objectives. It complements existing research on environmental policy integration (EPI) in bioenergy policies of political-administrative Swedish sectors by conducting a frame analysis of articles published in three journals in Sweden that represent the energy, agricultural and forestry sectors. Ten frames that were used consistently across the three sectors in the time period from 2001 to 2010 were identified. Environmental rhetoric, one of the prerequisites for EPI, was identified; however, it plays only a secondary role given that bioenergy frames focus mainly on economic objectives, presenting bioenergy as a means of increasing profitability.

Drivers of Forests and Tree-based Systems for Food Security and Nutrition

With the establishment of the Global Forest Expert Panels (GFEP) initiative in the year 2007, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) created an international mechanism which effectively links scientific knowledge with political decision-making on forests. The GFEP responds directly to key forest-related policy questions by consolidating available scientific knowledge and expertise on these questions at a global level. It provides decision-makers with the most relevant, objective and accurate information, and thus makes an essential contribution to international forest governance. This report entitled “Forests, Trees and Landscapes for Food Security and Nutrition” presents the results of the fourth global scientific assessment undertaken so far in the framework of GFEP. Previous assessments addressed the adaptation of forests and people to climate change; international forest governance; and the relationship between biodiversity, carbon, forests and people. All assessment reports were prepared by internationally recognised scientists from a variety of biophysical and social science disciplines. They have all been presented to decision-makers across relevant international policy fora. In this way, GFEP supports a more coherent policy dialogue about the role of forests in addressing broader environmental, social and economic challenges. The current report reflects the importance of policy coherence and integration more than any previous GFEP assessment. It comes at a time when the United Nations General Assembly seeks to adopt a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which build upon the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and converge with the post-2015 development agenda. In this context, the eradication of hunger, realisation of food security and the improvement of nutrition are of particular relevance. By 2050, the international community will face the challenge of providing 9 billion people with food, shelter and energy. Despite impressive productivity increases, there is growing evidence that conventional agricultural strategies will fall short of eliminating global hunger and malnutrition. The assessment report in hand provides comprehensive scientific evidence on how forests, trees and landscapes can be – and must be - an integral part of the solution to this global problem. In other words, we must connect the dots and see the bigger picture. The review of the International Arrangement on Forests by the member states of the United Nations Forum on Forests provides a unique opportunity to integrate forests into the SDGs in a holistic manner and to promote synergies in the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda across multiple levels of governance. It is my hope that those with a responsibility for forests, food security and nutrition at all levels will find this report, and its accompanying policy brief, a useful source of information and inspiration.

National forest policy between change and resistance

Over the previous decades, forest policy has been affected by social, ecological and economic changes. Traditionally forest policy is understood as addressing forest and forest management issues stemming from, and concerning the timber sub-sector of the forest sector (Pülzl & Hogl 2013). The provision of wood has been one of the major goals of the actors of this sector and in the field of forest policy. In the last 20 years in particular, new challenges and demands have affected this traditional orientation of forest policy. Ecological challenges, including the loss of biodiversity and climate warming, have resulted in public and political attention at multiple levels and a demand for new services from forests such as the provision of biodiversity and climate change mitigation. Social changes, such as increasing urbanization, have resulted in new or more extensive demands for social functions of forests, such as recreation. A growing awareness of social inequalities questions role allocation in this traditionally male dominant sector. Additionally, the traditional-production-orientated use of forests has changed, through a shift towards green and bioeconomy, to an increasing demand for bioenergy and new bio-based products from forest resources. These social, ecological and economic changes are accompanied by a shift in policy-making towards new modes of governance. Nongovernmental actors are increasingly included in policy-making, e.g. in national forest programmes. Furthermore, policy-making at the European and international level is increasingly taking up forestrelevant issues. These changes have led to new partly conflicting goals in the use of forests and new political procedures. The focus of this special issue deals with the responds of national forest policy-making to the variety of new demands resulting from these changes. Political scientists represent different schools when it comes to investigation of policy change. Some scholars, using agency-based approaches such as the advocacy coalition framework (Sabatier & Jenkins-Smith 1999), explain changes in policies through learning processes. In contrast others, more institution-based approaches highlight the resistance of policies, e.g. caused by path dependencies (cf. Howlett & Rayner 2006). Acknowledging the knowledge of this research, this special issue not only tries to show that changes take place but also how they are hindered and what could support change. Questions on whether and how forest policy-making integrates different goals are central for the contribution of this special issue. They, however, go well beyond mapping new forest policy outputs addressing amongst others the effectiveness of new policy programmes and the possible change of underlying values. The papers making up this special issue are selected from a session on forest policy change at the 2013 Nordic Environmental Social Science (NESS) conference in Co‐ penhagen supported by the EFINORD-SNS network programme. They represent a range of different drivers for change in forest policy, including climate change, gender quality or demands for recreation. Furthermore, they build on diverse theoretical approaches such as global governance (cf. Bernstein & Cashore 2012), regime theory (cf. Underdal 2008), values and discourse (cf. Kooiman & Jentoft 2009), transformative learning (cf. Mezirow 2006) and Institutional Analysis and Development (cf. Ostrom 1990). Methodologically, the fiver papers range from qualitative interview and document analysis studies to quantitative analysis of forest inventory and national statistics. In the following a brief introduction to the papers will give an overview of the issues and perspectives of change covered in this special issue. The paper by Wilkes-Alleman et al. (2015) focuses on the conflicts resulting from an increasing demand for urban forest recreation in Switzerland. The use conflicts in urban Swiss forests emerges from divergent forest recreation activities, a growing population in agglomeration zones, demographic changes and lack of communication, especially with respect to urban forest management measures and their impact on forest recreation. WilkesAlleman et al. (2015) analyse these conflicts and provide suggestions for effective management, particularly understanding and recognising the structure of the conflict

Public Sector, Private Sector and Socio-Cultural Response Options

This chapter focuses on political, economic and social response options at national to supranational scales to drivers of unsustainable management of forests and tree-based landscapes and their effects on food security and nutrition. Three different angles are considered: a) policy responses to enhance linkages between food security and forests with a focus on setting up the right institutional and governance structures and addressing the important issue of forest tenure reform; b) market-based response options that focus on global processes for supporting sustainable supply, and innovative corporate and multi-actor initiatives to support inclusive value chains of forest and tree products; and c) socio-cultural response options to enhance food security where the focus is on: changing urban demand; education to change behaviour and improve dietary choices; reducing inequalities and promoting gender-responsive interventions; and social mobilisation for food security.For the public sector, a central governance issue is how and to what extent policy and regulatory frameworks help ensure that the most vulnerable groups, in particular the poorest members of society and women, have equitable access and rights to food security and nutrition from forests and tree-based systems. To this end, it is important to include relevant actors, from local communities to government departments, and initiate tenurial reform, devolution of decision-making to sub-national levels and a strengthening of institutional capacity at local levels.For the private sector, sustainability standards supported by multi-stakeholder processes, complement policy frameworks and offer opportunities for change on the ground, particularly if these can include smallholders. In addition, pledges by corporate actors to zero deforestation and sustainable supply will likely have significant influence in shaping future production practices and business models if they include benefits for smallholder rural populations. Co-regulatory approaches that involve both public and private sector actors to achieve more inclusive food systems through innovations and greater valuation of local practices, management systems and knowledge, may in the future further enhance the governance of food systems.At the level of social responses, education plays a pivotal role in empowering rural populations and has the potential to generate tangible benefits for households and communities in achieving food security and nutrition, sustainable forest and landscape management, and improved health. Targeting women and other vulnerable groups is particularly important to enable greater inclusiveness in decision-making and benefit sharing in forests and tree-based systems. Behavioural change that is often driven by social movements toward the consumption of food with lower environmental impact, particularly in growing urban areas, can have significant positive impacts on rural populations if the value chains necessary to meet the demand are set up to include smallholders and marginalised groups.

The social relevance of forest policy research – views from the Nordic countries

Forests as a natural resource are the locus of struggles between various economic and ecological interests which have significant social implications. Contemporary national as well as international discussions related to forests, e.g. forest strategy plans, national forest programs, climate change, bioenergy, biodiversity, livelihood, clearly reveal the importance of the social and political dimensions of forest management. The conflicting and divergent interests expressed in these discussions show how forest policies are being produced and reproduced through the interaction of different social drivers at the same time as being tightly connected to the wider interests of society at large. In most of the Nordic countries, forests play an important economical and ecological role, and environmental challenges like climate change, as well as economic reorientations of the forest industry, demand new social responses. Under these changing circumstances, the values of and interests in forests are contested and the conflicts persisting around forests emerge in all political spheres and at all political levels which are based on historical changes in the context of forests. One can argue that forests more than ever before in history have become a global political issue, transgressing local and national borders. Forest policy can be understood as the process of regulating and mediating societal conflicts regarding forests. In recent decades two shifts in forest policymaking have been noticed. The first is a shift toward institutionalized forest policy-making beyond the state. The context of climate change is one example of how discussions about forest management taking place locally have significant global implications. The noticed shift is regarded as a movement from governmental regulation toward new governance mechanisms. The previous insights on forest policy illustrate several problems and complex issues in the very process of forest policy-making. However, one can observe that policy recommendations are often developed in a way that imply a rather simplistic and reductionist view on forest policy. Within such a framework, policy recommendations are many times presented without consideration of the rather conflictive dynamics of policy formation. In a world of changing governing systems for forests, the importance of social analytic perspectives is essential, and all the previous issues concerning forest policy should be a matter of concern for social sciences and theories. Changes in forest policymaking have been accompanied by studies on forest policy issues, an area rapidly evolving within the past decade at several research organizations in the Nordic countries. Many such studies can be subsumed under the title of forest policy research. Yet, the socio-theoretical challenges of making sense of forest policy imply issues of competing theoretical approaches and paradigms, and there is a need for creating clarifications about both the formation of forest policy and the social challenges concerning the sustainable and, from a societal point of view, the right use of forests as a resource. In this regard forest policy research is a field that deserves important theoretical development. In particular the connections between policy analysis and the inherent normativity of forest policy are important to be