Clash or concert in European forests? Integration and coherence of forest ecosystem service-related national policies

Abstract

This paper compares how forest ecosystem service-related policies are integrated in different national European forest governance contexts. Efforts to achieve policy integration at the EU and national levels are often described in terms of limited success. Our analysis of forest, energy/bioeconomy, climate, and conservation policies sug-gests that notions of progress or failure merit careful assessment. Combining theories of policy integration (PI), environmental policy integration (EPI), and policy coherence, we argue that integration outcomes depend on the combined effects of the degree and nature of PI, EPI, and multilevel coherence in the context of the prevailing forest governance system. The nature of the interdependencies, specifically anticipated synergies, and the scope of FES-related climate objectives, are crucial. Realizing the range of FES-related objectives entails safeguarding objectives not synergistically aligned with economic aims. Failures to safeguard biodiversity and regulating and cultural ecosystem services in the process of integration may have far-reaching consequences.

Keywords

Policy integration; Environmental policy integration; Forest governance; Forest; climate; conservation; energy; bioeconomy nexus; Europe

Published in

Land Use Policy
2023, volume: 129, article number: 106617
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

• Widmark, Camilla

  • Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Forest Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106617

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/121914