Abstract

This study examines which kinds of social benefits derived from forests are emphasised by Swedish stakeholders and what governance modes and management tools they accept. Our study shows that there exists a great variety among stakeholders' perceptions of forests' social values, where tourism and recreation is the most common reference. There are also differences in preferred governance modes and management where biomass and bioenergy sectors advocate business as usual (i.e. framework regulations and voluntarism) and other stakeholders demand rigid tools (i.e. coercion and targeting) and improved landscape planning. This divide will have implications for future policy orientations and require deliberative policy processes and improved dialogue among stakeholders and authorities. We suggest that there is a potential for these improvements, since actors from almost all stakeholder groups support local influence on governance and management, acknowledged and maintained either by the authorities, i.e. targeting, or by the stakeholders themselves, i.e. voluntarism.

Keywords

Cultural ecosystem services; Forest management; Legal instruments; Multiple use forestry; Social values; Stakeholder analysis

Published in

AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
2016, Volume: 45, number: Supplement 2, pages: S87–S99

SLU Authors

• Nordström, Eva-Maria

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Future Forests (until Jan 2017)
SLU Future Forests


UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-015-0745-6

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/79276