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The change in forest ownership structures, the resulting fragmentation of forest properties and restitution processes have led to the emergence of organizations in Europe that are able to deal with these challenges. Changes in the timber selling process due to decisions of the German Federal Competition Authority have led first to uncertain conditions for forest management cooperatives (FMCs) and their members in the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. In the course of this change, some FMCs have questioned their status quo while others have evolved under uncertain conditions. This paper aims to provide an overview of factors determining the further development of forest management cooperatives under uncertain conditions following the categories of actor-centered institutionalism (ACI). To be able to conduct a comprehensive political analysis of the changes taking place in the timber selling process, the ACI approach is used in conjunction with path dependency as the theoretical framework for this paper. Methodologically, it is based on a qualitative analysis of field protocols from four regional conferences in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, involving a total of 140 participants in 2017. The results highlight that individual actors, the economic and social capabilities of FMCs, the existing constellations and interactions determine further developments under uncertainty. Legal certainty and in some cases the withdrawal of the state determine positively the dealing with uncertain situations. Foresters and their direction essentially determine the development. Furthermore, FMCs highlight that the cooperation with municipal foresters has a positive impact that will help deal with uncertainty in the future. A clear interest of cooperation and long-standing relationships also determine further developments under uncertain conditions.

Using secondary literature and interviews, this paper examines forest discourses since World War II in four countries: Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The national discourses often thematically coincide between the case countries, most prominently in the post-war endeavour to restore forest resources. This period was followed by diverging ideas and practices such as abandonment and fragmentation in Italy, resource conservation by stealth in Lithuania, multifunctionality in the Netherlands, and ongoing intensification in Sweden. Recently, the national discourses have been re-converging on the environment and the bioeconomy, albeit at different times and intensity. Overall, many national ideological battles follow the global meta-discourses, but linkages to these are much weaker for forestry practices.

International audience; The overarching aim of this review paper is to investigate the involvement of experts, citizens, and participatory professionals in forest policy decision-making processes. Three interpretations of governance are distinguished to translate the idea of an orchestra to European (forest) policy making processes, referring to Frank Fischer's differentiation between a centralised state guided by administrative and policy experts on the one hand and deliberative governance driven by citizen participation on the other and a form of governance by participation professionals. The review included in total 81 research articles published between 1998 and 2015 addressing participation and expert involvement in forest policy. The results show that governance by participatory professionals is clearly visible in forest policy making processes in Europe mainly involving traditional groups as forest owners. Whether these participation professionals are engaged in a deliberative process with citizens remains unanswered. The results furthermore show a strong involvement of experts though the literature is rather silent as to how this steering of experts evolves in participatory forest processes. Finally the analysis shows that governance by citizen participation is rather neglected in forest policy processes in Europe. It is perceived as difficult to pursue, even at the local level. Therefore this article found nearly no empirical evidence for a socalled citizen's orchestra with the competence to self-align by deliberation. Instead citizens seem to be no part of the orchestra itself, but remain outside as part of the audience.

International audience; The term bioeconomy has been generated as a new discourse in the environmental policy arena. This paper raises three questions: (i) are environmentalconcerns integrated in the political discourses of bioeconomy and, if so, to what extent?, (ii) in which way is the environment framedin the political discourses of bioeconomy?, and (iii) are environmental concerns considered in the political discourses on forest-basedbioeconomy? The theoretical framework of this paper builds on the cognitive approach of policy integration and on frame analysis. Theempirical research design is a comparative qualitative analysis of five different political bioeconomy discourses in the EU and four different EUmember states – Germany, Finland, France and the Netherlands – in general and in the forestry sector specifically. Results show a weak andmainly rhetorical integration of environmental concerns in political bioeconomy discourses. Three major environmental frames are identified:(i) The dominant frame of ‘Environment benefitting from economic growth’, (ii) the ‘Environment as a challenge’ and (iii) the less visible‘Environment as a standard’ frame. In general, these frames address the environment mainly as a challenge or something that needs to be safeguardedwith the help of the bioeconomy. With the exception of Finland, amongst the countries studied, forests plays only a minor role inbioeconomy discourses while environmental concerns in this strand of discussion are mainly focused on sustainability arguments in general.

Forest policy and management are subject to various and often conflicting demands, which internationally have led to distinct policy responses and related management paradigms. These range from a strong focus on commodity production complemented by economic rationalities – e.g. focusing on plantations – to community-based or social forestry approaches highlighting local participation and stakeholder engagement, to a focus on ecosystem services and conservation. A major challenge involves the potential orientation of the overall forest policy and management paradigm either towards integrating manifold demands more or less evenly across an area, or towards dividing the land base into forest areas with different management priorities. The specific reconciliation and integration of both sides of the spectrum have been at the centre of scientific and political discussion on forest policy and management for several decades. In this context, the “German model” of integrative and multifunctional forest management has received international attention. It is regarded as an example for integrating diverse (societal and ecological) demands into a timber-production-oriented management approach. At the same time, the model's primary focus on timber production has been criticised by some. In this paper, we analyse the political dimension of the German model by tracing the birth and evolution of the so-called LÖWE programme, a much noticed governmental forest management programme in the German state of Lower Saxony. LÖWE has frequently been presented as a particularly successful example of multifunctional forestry. We first assess the specific societal and political circumstances that led to the establishment of the programme 20 years ago. Subsequently, we assess its political function in forest policy debates about various demands on Lower Saxony's public forests. We show that the evolution of the programme can be interpreted in two distinct but non-exclusive ways. On the one hand, LÖWE was a strategic success story for the Forest Service because it aligned (and also appeased) conflicting demands in line with the changing political priorities. On the other hand, it also embodied a learning process towards environmental policy integration. By underlining LÖWE as an example of the German model of integrative multifunctional forest management, we reiterate the strategic importance of this model in the German context and also highlight future challenges and related research needs.

The aim of this paper is to understand if analytical theory as used in forest policy analysis can contribute to explaining how global media reports about a contested issue like forest conservation are framed. It therefore takes an actor and interest-based approach on framing. The empirical study is based on 129 media articles on forest conservation published in international print media, TIME and International Herald Tribune between 1990 and 2004. The results indicate that journalists are in a prime position: on the one hand, dominantly framing problems and, on the other hand, acting like a gatekeeper deciding on the visibility and standing of other actors. In their framing, journalists have assigned the role of causers mainly to the political-administrative system (PAS) and enterprises and the role of the helper as well to the PAS but furthermore to NGOs and individuals. Attention paid to media stars addressing forest conservation issues appears as a strategy to increase the news value of the articles. Except for journalists, actors with standing use the chance to present themselves in the role of helper only to a limited extend and they make even more seldom use of the speaker position to point towards a specific causer.

International audience; The term "orchestration" is predominately used in relation to studying or practicing music. Recently the term has also been used to describe the automated coordination and management of complex computer systems in order to make their service-oriented architecture and provisioning more efficient. Both terms conceptualize a process of different elements working together in an aligned way. This special issue addresses as well the question of how 'elements' work together, focusing on European forest governance and on the orchestration of stakeholders and experts in forest governance.

Politics increasingly introduces initiatives supporting a shift toward a bioeconomy aiming at a society relying strongly on renewable biological sources while achieving economic growth efficiently and sustainably. However, the agenda of bioeconomy comprises different “shades of green,” in the sense that different actors stress different aspects of the concept, when embracing it in communication. This conceptual paper aims to present policy and socioeconomic theoretical frameworks and research areas relevant for a more holistic understanding of the bioeconomy concept applied to the forest sector, and identify a core set of potential contributions from social sciences for enhancing the bioeconomy in the forest sector. The paper focuses on studies within policy analysis, economics, and business administration disciplines. Thus it presents diverse disciplinary perspectives on the forest sector in a bioeconomy. Furthermore, innovation and sustainability have been identified as issues relevant to be approached across these disciplines. Politics increasingly introduces initiatives supporting a shift toward a bioeconomy aiming at a society relying strongly on renewable biological sources while achieving economic growth efficiently and sustainably. However, the agenda of bioeconomy comprises different “shades of green,” in the sense that different actors stress different aspects of the concept, when embracing it in communication. This conceptual paper aims to present policy and socioeconomic theoretical frameworks and research areas relevant for a more holistic understanding of the bioeconomy concept applied to the forest sector, and identify a core set of potential contributions from social sciences for enhancing the bioeconomy in the forest sector. The paper focuses on studies within policy analysis, economics, and business administration disciplines. Thus it presents diverse disciplinary perspectives on the forest sector in a bioeconomy. Furthermore, innovation and sustainability have been identified as issues relevant to be approached across these disciplines.

Over the previous decades, forest policy has been affected by social, ecological and economic changes. Traditionally forest policy is understood as addressing forest and forest management issues st...

SUMMARY Community-based forest groups (CBFGs) were developed in eastern and southern Africa based on the assumption that natural resources are best managed by the communities who depend on them. However, many CBFGs have not met expectations due to internal weaknesses and external obstacles. This study describes the current status of CBFGs in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia; identifies drivers and barriers for developing CBFGs; and generates insights about how barriers are best addressed. The report combines case studies of 11 CBFGs and a verification workshop. Several factors suggest that the development of CBFGs in the region has been positive, including a high membership; strong commitment; basic operational skills; the growth of local, regional and international markets; and infrastructure improvements. Impediments to CBFG success include inappropriate registration of the organisations, insecure access rights, weak leadership and organisational capacities, limited resources, weak market ac...

International forest and environmental governance processes assume that ideas and concepts surrounding biodiversity at the international level will be made accessible at a national level so that they can be easily adopted by national forest and environmental policy arenas. One prerequisite for a seamless implementation of these ideas and concepts is a common definition of specific problems at different political levels. Different perceptions mirrored by media reporting on problems at different political levels may affect the implementation of policies that must be carried out at a national level, even if decisions concerning this implementation are made at an international level. Using the illustrative case of human–tiger interaction, this article shows how national and international media reporting differ in their framing of a particular problem. Based on a theoretical framework consisting framing and media selection theory, and on initial empirical observations, the article recommends blueprints for future in-depth research on the relationship between media framing and policy at different political levels. This case study is based on quantitative content analysis of reports on tiger–human interaction published between 2005 and 2010 in an international newspaper and a national one from Bangladesh. Our example shows that the selected national newspaper frames the tiger as a threat to the livelihood and well-being of local people, whereas the international newspaper stresses biodiversity and climate-change related aspects of human–tiger conflicts. These results indicate that the framing of an issue in the media can differ considerably at different levels and that this is a fruitful field for future in-depth research.

Over the past several years, at least three different forest policy processes have emerged in the European sphere, two of which are legally binding agreements — one under the auspices of Forest Europe, attempting to negotiate a legally binding agreement; and two, the possibility of a legally binding agreement within the European Union (EU). We aim to identify, reconstruct and classify the major conflicts in both the Commission Green Paper on forest protection and information in the EU: preparing forests for climate change and Forest Europe initiated LBA process. The theoretical framework of this study uses an adapted conflict regulation approach based on the conflict triangle model. Empirically four dimensions are analysed to reconstruct and classify the conflicts: substance, procedure, relationship and discourses around the conflict. Empirical data has been gathered by qualitative document analysis and expert interviews with stakeholders at the national and EU level. The results of the empirical analysis identify three major conflicting interests: a) the subsidiarity principle, b) forest management and c) the responsibility for conducting the negotiations. Classifying these three conflicts into substance and procedural dimensions highlights the major role of the latter within the recent European forest policy processes.

The aim of this review paper is to provide a structured overview on the state-of-the-art of research on Swedish forest policy over the last two decades. An additional aim is to identify major trends and blind-spots within this research area. To achieve this aim, 34 peer-reviewed journal articles and Ph.D. theses on forest policy in Sweden published between 1990 and 2009 have been reviewed and analyzed. The categories used comprise the date of publication, the affiliation of the author, theories and methodologies used, as well as major conclusions drawn. One major result of the review is that there is a continuous increase in the studies on Swedish forest policy, not the least due to the fact that an increasing number of authors are affiliated with non-forest research organizations. The shift of authors from forest scientists to political scientists is also linked to the theories used in these studies, e.g. neo-institutionalism. The main focus of the reviewed studies is on small-scale forestry as ...

The main aim of this paper is to investigate and discuss the applicability of a normative meta-theory on empirical research. This is done by confronting the demands of a deliberative public sphere with assumptions resulting from media theory and discussing it on the basis of exemplary cases from environmental and forest policy cases. A core concept of this paper is Jurgen Habermas' notion of a deliberative discourse in the public sphere, where the essential elements for a democratic ideal are openness to speakers from the periphery of the political system, a discursive communication flow and a public consensus or a result supported by the majority. Since today's political public sphere mostly comprises the media public these elements are confronted with the constraints of the media. Theoretical approaches of media studies as well as empirical examples of debates on forest, agricultural and environmental policies in the media corroborates that the media lacks the function of deliberation. Nevertheless, normative demands allow empirical findings to be interpreted relative to expectations. Applying the theoretical concept of a deliberative democracy to the empirical cases of forest, agriculture or environmental policy already serves as a first step toward awareness of deliberation in public communication. It not only can exemplify the gap between normative ideals and the empirical approach but it highlights the degree of “grey” between the static poles of black or white used in entitling processes as deliberative or not deliberative.

The term bioeconomy and closely related notions like bio-based economy or knowledge-based bioeconomy (KBBE) are increasingly used by scientists and politicians in the last years. It does therefore have the potential of becoming an influential global discourse. Its role is however so far unclear. The general assumption that guides this paper is that discourses, resulting ideas and arguments are generally said to have performative power. They shape actors' views, influence their behaviour, impact on their beliefs and interests and can cause institutional change in a given society. Thus, the aim of this paper is twofold: first, it aims to analyse whether the ideas used in a bioeconomy discourse differs from those in other global meta-discourses of the last decades affecting forest discourses, such as the ecological modernization discourse or the sustainable development discourse. Second, this paper aims to analyse whether and how the bioeconomy discourse has started (or not) to reshape or overshadow the “classical” forest discourses, such as sustainable forest management, forest biodiversity or forest and climate change.