Abstract

"The Swedish forestry model" refers to the forest regime that evolved following the 1993 revision of the Swedish Forestry Act. It is key to Swedish forest politics and used to capture the essence of a sustainable way of managing forests. However, the ideas, institutions and practices comprising the model have not been comprehensively analyzed previously. Addressing this knowledge gap, we use frame analysis and a Pathways approach to investigate the underlying governance model, focusing on the way policy problems are addressed, goals, implementation procedures, outcomes and the resulting pathways to sustainability. We suggest that the institutionally embedded response to pressing sustainability challenges and increasing demands is expansion, inclusion and integration: more of everything. The more-of-everything pathway is influenced by ideas of ecological modernization and the optimistic view that existing resources can be increased. Our findings suggest that in effect it prioritizes the economic dimension of sustainability. While broadening out policy formulation it closes down the range of alternative outputs, a shortcoming that hampers its capacity to respond to current sustainability challenges. Consequently, there is a need for a broad public debate regarding not only the role of forests in future society, but also the operationalization of sustainable development. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license

Keywords

Forest policy analysis; Forest governance; Frame analysis; Tradeoffs; Pathways to sustainability; Sweden

Published in

Forest Policy and Economics
2017, Volume: 77, pages: 44-55

SLU Authors

• Ranius, Thomas

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Roberge, Jean-Michel

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Future Forests (until Jan 2017)
SLU Future Forests


Sustainable Development Goals

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss


UKÄ Subject classification

Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalization Studies)


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2015.10.012

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/80682