Coupling climate change and forest policy: A multiple streams analysis of two German case studies

As one of the last agricultural frontiers of the humid tropics, Amazonia is the largest area of the world currently undergoing frontier settlement. Although the earliest intrusions of foreign populations into Amazonia date from pre-Hispanic times, the large-scale entrance of peasant colonists into the vast region is a recent phenomenon. Much of this movement represents the spontaneous migration of peoples, but governments in the region have also become increasingly interested in opening up and integrating Amazonia to national and international economies. These actions are frequently seen as potential solutions to a number of national problems, including the need to increase agricultural production, correct spatial imbalances in the distribution of population, exploit frontier lands for reasons of national security, and defuse potentially serious political problems resulting from the existing agrarian structure, landlessness, and unemployment. The upper basin of the Amazon in Ecuador, bordering on the eastern slopes of the Andes, is one such area of frontier settlement. Recent decades have witnessed the rapid conversion of these Amazonian forests to agricultural uses through a series of schemes bearing such labels as land development and colonization. Most forest intervention in the region has come at the hands of colonist farmers attempting to establish land claims along transport routes originally constructed to aid in petroleum exploration and exploitation. These are farmers who formerly have made a living in long-established farmlands and who, for various reasons (population pressures, pervasive poverty, maldistribution of farmland, lack of inputs for intensive cultivation, lack of nonagrarian livelihood opportunities, and generally inadequate rural development) have been increasingly squeezed out of their homelands. A marginal person by virtue of his low socioeconomic and political status, the farmer often perceives

Recognizing the potential interactions and synergies between adaptation and mitigation in land-use policies in general and forest policies in particular, research on climate change policy has increasingly focused on integrating both objectives simultaneously (hereafter “interaction model”). However, while support exists for the integration of adaptation and mitigation, very few policies have successfully integrated both objectives in practice (hereafter “separation model”). In addition to the interaction and separation models, we introduce the “adaptation-first model”—an approach to climate policy integration that centers adaptation at the core of forest management, with mitigation as one benefit amongst others—and assess whether it more effectively characterizes the practical realities of forest management than the separation or interaction models. Drawing on a review of policy documents, a survey (n = 48) and interviews (n = 22) with government managers in British Columbia (BC), Canada, we analyze which of the three models have been used for integrating climate objectives into BC’s forest policy and explore views of government managers on the relationships and trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation and which model should be prioritized for their integration into forest management. Our analysis of climate-focused forest policy documents indicates that a possible shift from the separation to the interaction model is taking place in BC. However, our results also indicate that while government managers support the interaction model in principle, they perceive numerous barriers to policy integration that may prevent the shift towards the interaction model to materialize in practice. Because of the fundamental perceived differences in the levels at which adaptation and mitigation intervene in decision-making, government managers in our study were generally more comfortable with the adaptation-first model, which ultimately suggests the need to rethink how we frame climate integration into forest management and policies.

Climate change can be addressed by mitigation (reducing the sources or enhancing the sinks of greenhouse gases) and adaptation (reducing the impacts of climate change). Mitigation and adaptation present two fundamentally dissimilar approaches whose differences are now well documented. Forest ecosystems play an important role in both adaptation and mitigation and there is a need to explore the linkages between these two options in order to understand their trade-offs and synergies. In forests, potential trade-offs can be observed between global ecosystem services, such as the carbon sequestration relevant for mitigation, and the local ecosystem services that are relevant for adaptation. In addition, mitigation projects can facilitate or hinder the adaptation of local people to climate change, whereas adaptation projects can affect ecosystems and their potential to sequester carbon. Linkages between adaptation and mitigation can also be observed in policies, but few climate change or forest policies have addressed these linkages in the forestry sector. This paper presents examples of linkages between adaptation and mitigation in Latin American forests. Through case studies, we investigate the approaches and reasons for integrating adaptation into mitigation projects or mitigation into adaptation projects. We also analyze the opportunities for mainstreaming adaptation–mitigation linkages into forest or climate change policies.

Several key international policy frameworks involve forests, including the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). However, rules and guidelines that treat forest types equally regardless of their ecosystem integrity and risk profiles in terms of forest and carbon loss limit policy effectiveness and can facilitate forest degradation. Here we assess the potential for using a framework of ecosystem integrity to guide policy goals. We review the theory and present a conceptual framework, compare elements of integrity between primary and human-modified forests, and discuss the policy and management implications. We find that primary forests consistently have higher levels of ecosystem integrity and lower risk profiles than human-modified forests. This underscores the need to protect primary forests, develop consistent large-scale data products to identify high-integrity forests, and operationalize a framework of ecosystem integrity. Doing so will optimize long-term carbon storage and the provision of other ecosystem services, and can help guide evolving forest policy at the nexus of the biodiversity and climate crises.

The aim of this paper was to review and analyse the main forest policy documents in terms of the priorities formulated at the European level for Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany (federal level) and Brandenburg (federal state level), as well as Finland. A total of 14 documents was covered in this research, including national forest programmes and forest strategies implemented in the period from 1997 to 2017. In all of the studied countries, forest policy documents were periodically revised and updated to account for changing political, economic, social and environmental conditions. As a result, at some point during the examined 20-year period, in each country the forestry priorities and goals were defined by a national forest programme. Furthermore, the vast majority of the priorities set by the European forest policy was reflected in the programmes and strategies of all the countries. Certain priorities concerning the illegal harvesting and trade of forest products, however, have not been included in the explored documents. Combating illegal harvesting of forest products and related trade is a corner stone of the EU FLEGT Action Plan and extends beyond forest policy issues of EU member states. The second corner stone is to ensure the contribution of the forest sector to a green economy, including a new concept of green economy, which still needs to be incorporated into national forest policies. Unlike Poland, in the studied countries the priorities of European forest policy have been included in single policy programmes or strategies, which define aims and goals, as well as means of their implementation in a comprehensive and coherent manner. This promotes strengthening the position of the forest sector within the national socio-economic system and supports active shaping of its relations to other sectors of the economy.

Many studies have suggested various kinds of forest policies, management planning and practices to help forests adapt to climate change. These recommendations are often generic, based mostly on case studies from temperate countries and rarely from Africa. We argue that policy and management recommendations aimed at integrating adaptation into national forest policies and practices in Africa should start with an inventory and careful examination of existing policies and practices in order to understand the nature and extent of intervention required to influence the adaptation of forest ecosystems to climate change. This paper aims to contribute to closing this gap in knowledge detrimental to decision making through the review and analysis of current forest policies and practices in Burkina Faso and Ghana and highlighting elements that have the potential to influence the adaptation of forest ecosystems to climate change. The analysis revealed that adaptation (and mitigation) are not part of current forest policies in Burkina Faso and Ghana, but instead policies contain elements of risk management practices which are also relevant to the adaptation of forest ecosystems. Some of these elements are found in policies on the management of forest fires, forest genetic resources, non-timber resources, tree regeneration and silvicultural practices. To facilitate and enhance the management of these elements, a number of recommendations are suggested. Their implementation will require experienced and well-trained forestry personnel, financial resources, socio-cultural and political dimensions, and the political will of decision makers to act appropriately by formulating necessary policies and mainstreaming adaptation into forest policy and management planning.

In the Italian political and economic agenda the forest sector occupies a marginal role. The forest sector in Italy is characterized by a high institutional fragmentation and centralized decision-making processes dominated by Public Forest Administrations. Public participation in forest policy processes has been implemented since the 1990s at national, regional and local levels in several cases. However, today no significant changes have been observed in the overall governance of the forest sector and stakeholders’ involvement in Italian forest policy decision-making is still rather limited. The aims of this paper are to describe the state of forest-related participatory processes in Italy at various levels (national, regional and local) and identify which factors and actors hinder or support the establishment and implementation of participatory forest-related processes in the country. The forest-related participatory processes are analyzed adopting a qualitative-based approach and interpreting interactive, complex and non-linear participatory processes through the lens of panarchy theory.

This article analyzes three cultural entities in Beijing, China: National Centre for the Performing Arts, 798 Arts District, and Today Art Museum using two lenses: Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework (MS) and concepts of arts entrepreneurship, in order to examine these entities' development and current condition. The performing arts center has become a source of national pride, the arts district now is one of the world's largest, and the museum paved the way for a new kind of “private” institution in China. Concepts including policy streams, policy windows, and policy entrepreneurs ground the analysis. In order to enrich the perspective, we explore theories in the growing field of arts entrepreneurship and their applicability to the changing economic environment of China. We point to the realities of policy formation as well as the innovative economic growth fostered through arts entrepreneurship in China, grounding the analysis in a positivist perspective due to the opacity of the process in that country. While Multiple Streams Framework is a powerful tool with which to understand and interpret policy formation, change, and adaptation, it is the arts entrepreneurship principles that provide important ways to look at creative commerce, both from the perepective of the individual and the organization. We find that, while each arts entity was formed under very different circumstances, they all now incorporate facets of arts entrepreneurship including brand building, market development, and audience growth. Frameworks and theories must be flexible and resilient in order to be adapted to more diverse contexts. By reframing cultural policy and arts entrepreneurship theory to incorporate culturally relevant data, they each can provide valuable tools for scholars, policymakers, and municipal leaders. This allows the understanding of key theoretical components to expand, reflecting political and social realities while ensuring the relevance and viability of these analytical tools in multi-cultural contexts.

The article explores innovative approaches to the monetization of ecosystem services in Ukraine’s forest sector, focusing on the modernization of forest policy instruments in the face of increasing environmental challenges. The urgency of the topic stems from climate change, environmental degradation, and the pressing need to transition from resource-exploitative forestry practices to an ecosystem-based model of forest management. A thorough analysis of scientific literature has identified a range of monetization models, including payments for ecosystem services (PES), license markets, certification systems, tax relief measures, subsidies, and voluntary forest conservation initiatives. These instruments serve as key mechanisms for enhancing forest sustainability and for promoting multifunctional forest management that accounts for both market and non-market values. The paper argues that economic tools, when properly designed and implemented, can become powerful levers for the conservation and sustainable use of forest ecosystems. However, an essential condition is the establishment of a balance between the commodity function of forests, such as timber production, and their intangible benefits, including biodiversity support, climate regulation, water purification, and recreational services. The study classifies ecosystem service markets and financial mechanisms, highlighting the dominance of investments in timber-related markets, while other critical services remain marginalized and lack systematic financial support. In light of these findings, the article proposes ways to integrate the ecosystem services market into Ukraine’s Forest Sector Development Strategy. This includes the development of a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework that would support accurate assessment, monitoring, and long-term financing of ecosystem services. The paper concludes that the introduction of ecosystem service-based mechanisms into forest policy could foster more sustainable, resilient forest landscapes and enhance Ukraine’s alignment with global environmental and climate policy goals. The research offers valuable insights for policymakers, environmental economists, forest managers, and scientists engaged in promoting sustainable forest governance.

Disentangling the effect of future land use strategies and climate change on streamflow in a Mediterranean catchment dominated by tree plantations

How are climate change concerns addressed by spatial plans? An evaluation framework, and an application to Indian cities

Forest policy in aroused society: Ukrainian post-Orange Revolution challenges

이 연구는 테러방지법 입법의 정책변동 과정을 사바티에르(1988)의 정책옹호연합모형(ACF)과 킹돈 (1984)의 다중정책흐름모형(MSF)을 결합한 모형을 적용해 진보정권인 김대중・노무현 정부와 보수정권인 이명박・박근혜 정부라는 두 시기로 나눠 비교분석하였다. 분석 결과, 정책옹호연합모형(ACF)과 다중정책흐름모형(MSF)을 결합한 모형이 정책의 다양한 분야에서 정책의 결정 및 변동 과정과 변동의 원인을 설명하는데 있어서 유용함을 확인할 수 있었다. 그리고 정책옹호연합모형(ACF)의 구성요소인 안정적 외적 변수와 동태적 외적 변수들이 정책의 형성과 변동, 그리고 산출에 영향을 미쳤으며 그중에서도 동태적 외적변수인 지배체제의 변동은 가장 큰 영향을 미치는 요인임을 알 수 있었다. 이는 다중정책흐름모형(MSF)에서 정치의 흐름 의 중요성과 같은 맥락이라고 할 수 있다. 다음으로 정책옹호연합모형(ACF)의 구성요소인 정책중개자의 역할과 다중정책흐름모형(MSF)에서의 정책선도자의 역할이 정책산출에 있어 중요하다는 점이다. 특히 정책선도자로서 대통령은 절대적인 권력과 정치력을 활용해 자신의 신념체계에 따라 정책을 산출하는데 결정적 임무를 수행하였다. 그러나 정책옹호연합모형(ACF)의 핵심 구성요소인 옹호연합의 경우 보수・진보권 공히 진영논리에 갇혀 한 치의 양보도 이끌어 내지 못한 채 오 히려 정책 창출을 지연시키는 역할에 머물렀다. 이상과 같은 연구 결과는 앞으로 국민의 이해와 밀접하게 연관된 정책 중에서 보수・진보 진영 간 첨예한 대립과 갈등으로 지연되고 있는 유사 사례를 타개하는 데 있어 많은 정책적 함의와 시사점을 제공해 주고 있다.This study analyzes anti-terrorism legislation in Korea by comparing the period of progressive Kim Dae-jung & Roh Moo-hyun government and conservative Lee Myung-bak & Park Guen-hye government by applying combined framework of Advocacy Coalition Framework(ACF) by Sabatier(1988) and Multiple Streams Framework(MSF) by Kingdon(1984). The analysis result shows that the combined framework of ACF and MSF is useful for explaining the process of policy decision, its changing and cause of policy changing in the various areas of policy. Furthermore, settled external variables and dynamic external variables which are the components of ACF, have an effect on formation, change and output of policy. Especially, change of governing system which is one of the dynamic external variables was found that it is the most important factor. It can be understood in the same vein as the importance of political trends in MSF. Next, the role of policy intermediary and policy leader, the components of ACF and MSF, is important for policy outputs. In particular, the President, a policy leader produces policy by according to his/her belief system using absolute authority and political power. However, in the case of Advocacy Coalition in ACF, both the conservatives and the progressives hold up producing policy without making concessions owing to political camps. This research suggests political implications for resolving similar cases especially highly related to public’s understanding which are falling behind because of tension and conflicts between the conservatives and the progressives.

In the context of increasing environmental violations in the forest sector, it is necessary to apply adaptive approaches to forest management that would take into account all driving forces and limiting factors. That is, changes of an ecological and socio-economic nature in forestry land use require the study of indicators in dynamics, taking into account their reaction to the influence of various factors and interrelationships. The intensity and direction of these changes require constant assessment and analysis of the impact of management decisions on the regional forest sector. Despite the fact that a significant amount of research is aimed at activating positive factors and mitigating the negative consequences of forestry land use, the problem of ensuring balanced forestry land use remains relevant. This necessitates further research on improving management tools that will create a scientific basis for achieving environmental policy goals at the regional level. The purpose of the study is to identify areas for improving the management of forestry lands, taking into account the balance of ecological and socio-economic aspects of forestry land use. A review of the scientific literature indicates that in the coming decades the forest sector will undergo significant transformations caused by global shifts in the use of natural resources. The article examines current issues of forest land use in the region and substantiates directions for its improvement. The main ecological, economic, and legal aspects of forest land management are analyzed. Special attention is paid to the use of modern technologies, institutional changes, and the involvement of local communities in the management of forest resources. Practical recommendations are proposed to ensure the sustainable development of forestry in the context of climate challenges and Ukraine's course toward European integration. It was determined that in the future we should expect a more active implementation of innovative technologies in monitoring the state of forests, in particular remote sensing, geographic information systems, automated management systems. At the same time, the importance of public participation and transparency in decision-making will increase, which is an important requirement of European environmental policy. The development of forestry land use should also be focused on expanding the environmental protection functions of forests, supporting green tourism, environmental education, and restoring degraded areas in priority ecosystems. Thus, the prospects for the development of forestry land use in Ternopil region are based on the integration of adaptive nature management, environmental responsibility, digital transformation and European approaches to resource management. This creates opportunities for strengthening environmental security, developing rural areas and increasing the role of Ukraine in global climate policy. Improving forestry land use is a strategically important task for Ukraine as a whole and Ternopil region in particular. Implementation of modern approaches to management, integration of digital solutions, increasing the role of communities, and effective implementation of legal norms will allow preserving and rationally using forest resources. A comprehensive solution to these tasks will contribute to ensuring the ecological security of the state and its sustainable development. Keywords: forest land use, forest resources, sustainable development, environmental security, digital technologies, forest policy.

This article explores the concept of policy windows within the multiple streams framework through a case study of Hong Kong, specific to cycling and fencing. Data were sourced from 15 semi-structured interviews with pertinent insiders in Hong Kong. Two main findings take centre stage. First, in the context of elite sport, in addition to problems and political events, policy windows can also be opened by positive events, most notably successful performances and breakthroughs. Second, in spatial terms, policy windows comprise both (1) policy windows from other policy sectors including non-elite sport sectors; and (2) elite sport policy-focused policy windows. This paper has the potential to advance the concept of policy windows by adding the perspective of positive events and further developing the spatial domain features beyond the big-little divide. The findings also have utility for elite sport practitioners who will more likely launch positive policy changes or pursue desirable outcomes.