Sustainability through Good Advice? Assessing the Governance of Swedish Forest Biodiversity

Abstract

This article assesses the possibility of implementing biodiversity policies using voluntary, informative policy instruments. The case is the Swedish forest sector, a policy area where vital national economic interests as well as important ecological values are at stake. The results show that informative policy instruments affect the behaviour of forest owners by providing advice and raising awareness but do not change underlying values and preferences. Sustainability through good advice is an important practice with limited effects, at least in the short run. Private regulations (certifications) have a relatively powerful influence on forest owners and complement the public informative policy instruments, implying that the forest sector can be depicted as private governance with government.

Notes

Every forest stand gets a long-term goal with regard to its environmental and cultural value (Kjellin et al., 2001).

Greener Forests is an educational campaign, launched in 1999, with the purpose of supplying knowledge, primarily to forest owners and workers, about how to realise the objectives of the forest policy in forestry (Norrfaulk, 1999).

During the period 1999–2001 the campaign reached about one-third of the Swedish forest owners (Kjellin et al., 2001).

The timber buyers have a group certificate through which smaller forest owners and entrepreneurs can join the FSC or PEFC, respectively. The umbrella organisation primarily has an administrative role (Dahl, 2001, 2002).

The RFB is responsible for establishing small-biotope reserves while the County Administration establishes larger nature reserves.

Nature consideration agreements are civil court agreements between the government and a forest owner, with the purpose of preserving and developing the nature and cultural values within a specific area (Kjellin et al., 2001).

For example, objectives such as ‘the natural functions and processes of forest ecosystems are upheld’ (Government Bill 2000–01:130) seem questionable when natural processes such as flooding and burning are almost non-existent today. Another example is the objective that ‘all species that naturally occur in Sweden shall be able to survive in long-term, viable populations and maintain their genetic variation’ (SEPA, 2003). To ensure the survival of all species seems unlikely.