Abstract

To implement policies about sustainable forest management (SFM), different international and national concepts have appeared. The Polish Promotional Forest Complex (PFC) concept was introduced in the 1990s. We analysed the emergence of this concept, its objectives and establishment, and its perceived outcomes on the ground. We conducted a literature review and sent out a questionnaire to all forest management units involved with the established 19 PFCs in Poland. The results indicate that the management in PFCs largely satisfied its objectives. However, in the context of SFM, this management was unbalanced to the advantage of the ecological dimension while paying little attention to either social or economic sustainability. This finding correlated with the SFM principle not being clearly defined in the policies for the PFC concept. Our results thus indicate that PFCs became neither pioneers in implementing pro-ecological forestry nor exemplary models for other Polish forests. We conclude that sustainable development as a process towards the goal of sustainability in countries in transition requires time and a change in attitudes among stakeholders that reflect both SFM policy and the transition from government to governance. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Poland; Promotional Forest Complex; Sustainable forest management; Policy implementation; Forest policy; Forest governance

Published in

Forest Policy and Economics
2012, Volume: 23, pages: 28-39
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

• Blicharska, Malgorzata

  • School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Angelstam, Per

  • School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Elbakidze, Marine

  • School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Axelsson, Robert

  • School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
SDG12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns


UKÄ Subject classification

Other Earth and Related Environmental Sciences


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2012.07.008

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/45080