Epsilon Open Archive

Abstract

The context in which public policy-making on forests take place has changed considerably in the last decades. The number of interests directed towards forests has gradually increased, particularly since the 1990s and the quest for sustainable development. The thesis is concerned with what has happened with global public policy on forests in a sustainable development policy-making context. It investigates the content of United Nations (UN) policy on forests from the first UN conference on environment and development held in Stockholm in 1972 to the year 2007, when a non-legally binding instrument on forests was adopted. In the case of forests, sustainable development has translated into the concept of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM). Achieving SFM is often described as being about balancing interests of economic, ecological and socio-cultural character. The thesis’s central argument is that UN policy-making on forests since the 1990s, has not resulted in differing perspectives on the use of forests being ‘balanced’ in the policy subjected to analysis. Instead, some perspectives have been ‘institutionalised’ and others down-played. Theoretically, the thesis draws on literature on public policy studies. Based on documentary material, interviews, and observation, the thesis explores: the context in which global public policy-making on forests takes place; different framings of the policy problem to be addressed, and; substantive policy content. A central concept is that of a policy frame, understood as a social construction of a policy issue that comprises a problem definition, a solution, and a justification for action. Four different policy frames are constructed and used to interrogate the development of the content of UN forest policy. Factors that account for the way in which UN policy on forests has been framed are discussed. The results are used to critically examine the concept of SFM as global policy framework.