The role of Swedish forests in climate change mitigation - A frame analysis of conflicting interests

Abstract

Forests are assumed to play a significant role in relation to climate change mitigation. However, previous studies show that actor groups' perspectives vary regarding how to best utilize forests. This paper focuses on exploring frames in recent Swedish forest-and climate politics and to what extent they may form the basis for conflict resolution or contribute to perpetuate conflicts among actors. The analysis of recent forest-and climate policies, and actor groups' positioning on the issues, builds upon the pathways to sustainability approach in combination with frame analysis. The results showed that ideas based on "Ecological Modernisation" dominated within the forest-climate nexus, but also a clear presence of alternative frames promoting "Sustainable Development". As a result, conflicting frames were identified within the policies on how to reach policy targets -stressing both the importance of consensus and neutral dialogue with actors, while concurrently prioritizing an economic perspective.

Keywords

Climate change; Swedish forestry; Sustainable development; Frame analysis; Conflicting interests; Actor representation

Published in

Forest Policy and Economics
2022, volume: 144, article number: 102842
Publisher: ELSEVIER

SLU Authors

• Bostedt, Göran

  • Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Luleå University of Technology
  • Umeå University

Associated SLU-program

SLU Forest Damage Center

Global goals (SDG)

SDG13 Climate action
SDG16 Peace, justice and strong institutions

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science
Public Administration Studies
Climate Research

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2022.102842

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/119533