The coalitional politics of the European Union’s environmental forest policy: Biodiversity conservation,timber legality,and climate protection |
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| Authors: | Metodi Sotirov Georg Winkel Katarina Eckerberg |
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| Affiliation: | 1.Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, Institute of Environmental Social Sciences, Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacher Str. 4, 79106 Freiburg, Germany ;2.Governance Programme Bonn, European Forest Institute, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 7, 53113 Bonn, Germany ;3.Department of Political Science, Umeå University, 90187 Umeå, Sweden |
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| Abstract: | European forest policymaking is shaped by progressing European integration, yet with notable ideological divisions and diverging interests among countries. This paper focuses on the coalitional politics of key environmental forest issues: biodiversity conservation, timber legality, and climate protection policy. Combining the Advocacy Coalition Framework and the Shifting Coalition Theory, and informed by more than 186 key informant interviews and 73 policy documents spanning a 20-year timeframe, we examine the evolution of coalitional forest politics in Europe. We find that the basic line-up has remained stable: an environmental coalition supporting EU environmental forest policy integration and a forest sector coalition mostly opposing it. Still, strategic alliances across these coalitions have occurred for specific policy issues which have resulted in a gradual establishment of an EU environmental forest policy. We conclude with discussion of our findings and provide suggestions for further research.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01644-5. |
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| Keywords: | EUTR/FLEGT LULUCF Multi-level governance Natura 2000 Policy beliefs Policy change |
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