Local articulations of climate action in Swedish forest contexts

Local actors are recognized as key drivers for climate action. Making climate change relevant and possible to act on in local contexts is thus a critical undertaking for both researchers and society at large. Connecting climate change to people's known surroundings and experiences, and framing climate action in relation to everyday practices in the local context, might then be crucial to making climate change relevant and actionable on the local level. In this paper, we explore the potential of forests to serve as such a connection. We have worked in close collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders in two case study locations in Sweden to explore potential courses of action for local climate action in relation to forests. We critically analyze these local articulations of climate action and examine the assumptions underlying them, with the aim to assess the effects and consequences of different problem representations. Our results illustrate the challenges of thinking and acting outside of the prevalent business-as-usual or more-of-everything discourses, of recognizing the importance of politics and choice, and of overcoming perceived barriers to action. We find tensions in the allocation of responsibility in both time and space - but also potential room for more local action in assumptions of un-or underused potential for political and civil action on the local level

Tailoring forest management to local socio-ecological contexts : Addressing climate change and local stakeholders’ expectations of forests

Forests are expected to provide multiple ecosystem services and mitigate climate change whilst also being adapted to the impacts of climate change. This thesis aims to analyse these competing expectations placed on forests in Sweden and how to tailor forest management locally to meet them by (i) applying machine learning to analyse forest conflicts in daily media from 2012 to 2022 and (ii) collaborating with local forest stakeholders to co-produce locally-tailored forest management pathways in two study areas in Sweden. The results showed that media coverage of forest conflicts has increased over time and that the conflicts concerned why and for whom forests should be managed. The co-production processes additionally highlighted expectations of how forests should be managed. Overall, the local stakeholders wanted to diversify forest management to enable more multifunctional and climate-smart forests, whilst they also stressed several conditions that may enable or disable its implementation in practice, depending on how they are handled. To adapt forest management to climate change impacts, the stakeholders emphasised the value of learning from past experiences and continuously improving management in line with an adaptive forest management approach. To limit climate change, they argued that it is necessary to consider climate change mitigation holistically and in conjunction with climate change adaptation and forests’ provision of ecosystem services. By collaborating with local stakeholders and combining their context-based local knowledge with forest science, this thesis developed a broader and pluralistic understanding of forest management while enabling collaborative learning. In summary, this thesis highlights competing expectations placed on forests in Sweden and the value of co-production processes to tailor forest management to local socio-ecological contexts in collaboration with local stakeholders

Inställningar till en branschstandard för traktdirektiv

Idag utförs de flesta skogliga åtgärder i Sverige av entreprenörer, kallade utförare, och detta på uppdrag av skogsbolag och skogsägarföreningar, kallade beställare. Inför åtgärd får utföraren ett traktdirektiv innehållande allt som är viktigt att veta inför åtgärd. Det är stor variation på kvaliteten i dessa då det saknas en standard för hur de bör se ut. Det finns däremot certifieringar och bestämmelser som kräver att de skall finnas och som har riktlinjer för innehåll. Eftersom undermåliga traktdirektiv ger produktionsförluster och ökad risk för skador på mark och fornlämningar, finns det starka incitament för att branschgemensamt höja kvaliteten på dessa. Förslagsvis genom att skapa en branschstandard. Arbetet syftade till att undersöka branschens inställning till att skapa en branschstandard för traktdirektiv och behovet av en sådan. Detta genom telefonintervjuer med 18 utförare och 9 beställare. Resultatet visade att det finns förbättringspotential i dagens traktdirektiv och att majoriteten av utförarna, och hälften av beställarna, är positiva till en standard. Det som behövs skapas är ett standarddirektiv för varje åtgärd, med tillhörande checklista för planeraren och med en enkel återkopplingsfunktion för utföraren samt riktlinjer för språkbruk, symbolanvändning och färganvändning. Slutsatsen av detta arbete är att en branschstandard är efterfrågad och att det skulle behöva skapas en sådan.Today forest operations in Sweden are mainly performed by contractors, called performers, and they’re ordered by forestry companies and forest owner’s associations, called clients. Before operation the performer gets a site instruction containing everything that’s important to know before operation. It’s a great variation in the quality of these as there’s no standard for how they should look. However, there are certifications and regulations that require their existence and that have content guidelines. Because poor site instructions yield production losses and increased risk of damage to soil and ancient monuments, there are strong incitements to industry-wide improve the quality of these. Suggestively by creating an industry standard. This work aimed to investigate the industry’s attitude to create an industry standard for site instructions and the need for one. This through telephone interviews with 18 performers and 9 clients. The results showed that there’s potential for improvement in today's site instructions and that the majority of the performers, and half of the clients, are positive to a standard. What’s needed to be created is a standard directive for each forest operation, with an associated checklist for the planner and with a simple feedback feature for the performer, and guidelines for use of language, symbols and colors. The conclusion of this study is that an industry standard is requested and that it’s needed to create one

Nyckelbiotoper i allmänhetens blickfång

År 1993 startade en nationell inventering av nyckelbiotoper i Sverige med syftet att identifiera de biologiskt värdefulla miljöerna i skogslandskapet. I dagsläget omfattas nyckelbio-toper av en samrådsplikt i enlighet med Miljöbalken. För FSC-certifierade skogsägare är det dessutom inte tillåtet att avverka nyckelbiotoper. År 2017 blossade en mediedebatt angående nyckelbiotoper upp, till följd av att Skogsstyrelsen beslutade att pausa inventeringen av nyckelbiotoper i nordvästra Sverige. För att få en bättre förståelse för hur debatten utvecklats över tid ansågs det lämpligt att genomföra en medieanalys. En frameanalys av svensk dagspress genomfördes därför. Denna analys innebar att aktörer och deras inramningar av nyckelbiotoper identifierades och kategoriserades. Studien inkluderade fyra dagstidningar med långa tidsserier. Från dessa inkluderades de artiklar som inramade nyckelbiotoper, vilket totalt resulterade i 293 st. artiklar. Resultatet visade att de vanligaste aktörerna som inramade nyckelbiotoper över tid var journalister, stat eller myndigheter samt miljöorganisationer, men även enskilda markägare eller deras företrädare samt organisationer som äger skog var relativt vanliga. I inramning-arna var de vanligaste offren biologisk mångfald samt nyckelbiotoper, orsakerna var skogsbruk samt stat eller myndigheter och lösningarna var naturvård samt stat eller myndigheter. Frekvensen av artiklar som inramat nyckelbiotoper har varierat över tid, och det fanns två större toppar i debatten. Den första toppen, år 1998/99, var bland annat kopplad till att Miljöbalken skapades och FSC bildades, medan den andra, år 2017/18, var en direkt följd av Skogsstyrelsens beslut om inventeringspaus. Denna topp innebar också att innehållet i debatten ändrades, till exempel vad gäller synen på nyckelbiotoper. Denna studie har skapat en bättre förståelse för hur nyckelbiotopsdebatten utvecklats över tid, men för att förstå varför den utvecklats som den gjort, är ytterligare studier nödvändiga.In 1993, a national inventory of woodland key habitats in Sweden started with the aim of identifying the biologically valuable areas in the forest landscape. At present, woodland key habitats are subject to a consultation obligation in accordance with the Environmental Code. Additionally, for FSC-certified forest owners, it is not permitted to harvest woodland key habitats. In 2017, a media debate on woodland key habitats sparked up, as a result of the decision of the Swedish Forest Agency to pause the inventory of woodland key habitats in north western Sweden. In order to gain a better understanding of how the debate developed over time, it was considered appropriate to carry out a media analysis. A frame analysis of Swedish daily press was therefore conducted. This analysis meant that actors and their frames of woodland key habitats were identified and categorized. The study included four daily newspapers with long time series. From these, the articles that framed woodland key habitats were included which resulted in 293 articles. The result showed that the most common actors that frames woodland key habitats over time were journalists, state or authorities, environmental organizations, but also individual landowners or their representatives as well as organizations that own forests were relatively common. In the frames, the most common victims were biodiversity as well as woodland key habitats, the causers were forestry and state or authorities, and the helpers or solutions were nature conservation and state or authorities. The frequency of articles that framed woodland key habitats varied over time, and there were two major peaks in the debate. The first peak, in 1998/99, was among other events connected to the creation of the Environmental Code and the formation of FSC, while the second, in 2017/18, was a direct consequence of the Forest Agency's decision on an inven-tory pause. The second peak also lead to a change in the debate for example regarding the view on woodland key habitats. This study has contributed to a better understanding of how the debate about woodland key habitats has developed over time, but to understand why it developed as it did, further studies are necessary

The spectrum of knowledge: integrating knowledge dimensions in the context of forests and climate change

Integrated approaches to knowledge that recognize meaning, behavior, culture, and systems as domains of knowledge are increasingly employed in holistic views on sustainability transformation but often remain conceptually driven. In this study, we analyze empirical data from a collaborative process with local forest stakeholders in Sweden through the lens of individual, collective, interior, and exterior knowledge dimensions. We show that the participants' understanding of knowledge about forests and climate change presents a nuanced picture of how knowledge and acting are connected. Meaning-making, cultural frames, and techno-scientific knowledge conceptions converge, interact, and, at times, replace or diminish each other. The connection and interplay of these dimensions, we suggest, can be understood as a knowledge spectrum. These insights into integrated knowledge, based on an empirical case, must be addressed in the production of knowledge, both to grasp the climate and sustainability issues that face us and to support action in response to them

Transformative change in context-stakeholders' understandings of leverage at the forest-climate nexus

Transformation acquires its meaning within contexts and particular settings where transformative change is experienced, and where people engage in meaning-making. We used the forest-climate nexus in Sweden as an empirical case study, and the leverage-points perspective as an analytical lens. The aim was to investigate contextual leverage for transformative change, and how our use of context and relations shapes our understanding of transformation and leverage for change. The empirical basis was a whole-day workshop, held in both northern and southern Sweden, for local forest stakeholders. To detract from current conflict and barriers to change, we asked the stakeholders to reflect on transformative change in the past and in the future, and the spatio-temporal relations that form the forest-climate nexus. Our analysis suggests that leverage associated with a transformative change in the future is commonly seen as universal and detached from context, reflecting, for example, national and global discourses on forests and climate change. Regarding transformative changes in the past, however, contextual leverage is linked to the community values and pluralism that drove the change in particular situations. Focusing on the complex spatio-temporal relations and meaning-making helps identify how leverage emerges from context, and how leverage also acquires a richer meaning for people experiencing transformative change

Bringing "Climate-Smart Forestry" Down to the Local Level-Identifying Barriers, Pathways and Indicators for Its Implementation in Practice

The theoretical concept of "climate-smart forestry" aims to integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation to maintain and enhance forests' contributions to people and global agendas. We carried out two local transdisciplinary collaboration processes with the aim of developing local articulations of climate-smart forestry and to identify barriers, pathways and indicators to applying it in practice. During workshops in northern and southern Sweden, local stakeholders described how they would like forests to be managed, considering their past experiences, future visions and climate change. As a result, the stakeholders framed climate-smart forestry as active and diverse management towards multiple goals. They identified several conditions that could act both as barriers and pathways for its implementation in practice, such as value chains for forest products and services, local knowledge and experiences of different management alternatives, and the management of ungulates. Based on the workshop material, a total of 39 indicators for climate-smart forestry were identified, of which six were novel indicators adding to the existing literature. Our results emphasize the importance of understanding the local perspectives to promote climate-smart forestry practices across Europe. We also suggest how the concept of climate-smart forestry can be further developed, through the interplay between theory and practice

Managing existing forests can mitigate climate change

Planting new forests has received scientific and political attention as a measure to mitigate climate change. Large, new forests have been planted in places like China and Ethiopia and, over time, a billion hectares could become available globally for planting new forests. Sustainable management of forests, which are available to wood production, has received less attention despite these forests covering at least two billion hectares globally. Better management of existing forests would improve forest growth and help mitigate climate change by increasing the forest carbon (C) stock, by storing C in forest products, and by generating wood-based materials substituting fossil C based materials or other CO2-emission-intensive materials. Some published research assumes a trade-off between the timber harvested from existing forests and the stock of C in those forest ecosystems, asserting that both cannot increase simultaneously. We tested this assumption using the uniquely detailed forest inventory data available from Finland, Norway and Sweden, hereafter denoted northern Europe. We focused on the period 1960 - 2017, that saw little change in the total area covered by forests in northern Europe. At the start of the period, rotational forestry practices began to diffuse, eventually replacing selective felling management systems as the most common management practice. Looking at data over the period we find that despite significant increases in timber and pulp wood harvests, the growth of the forest C stock accelerated. Over the study period, the C stock of the forest ecosystems in northern Europe increased by nearly 70%, while annual timber harvests increased at the about 40% over the same period. This increase in the forest C stock was close to on par with the CO2-emissions from the region (other greenhouse gases not included). Our results suggest that the important effects of management on forest growth allows the forest C stock and timber harvests to increase simultaneously. The development in northern Europe raises the question of how better forest management can improve forest growth elsewhere around the globe while at the same time protecting biodiversity and preserving landscapes

Managing existing forests can mitigate climate change

Planting new forests has received scientific and political attention as a measure to mitigate climate change. Large, new forests have been planted in places like China and Ethiopia and, over time, a billion hectares could become available globally for planting new forests. Sustainable management of forests, which are available to wood production, has received less attention despite these forests covering at least two billion hectares globally. Better management of existing forests would improve forest growth and help mitigate climate change by increasing the forest carbon (C) stock, by storing C in forest products, and by generating wood-based materials substituting fossil C based materials or other CO2-emission-intensive materials. Some published research assumes a trade-off between the timber harvested from existing forests and the stock of C in those forest ecosystems, asserting that both cannot increase simultaneously. We tested this assumption using the uniquely detailed forest inventory data available from Finland, Norway and Sweden, hereafter denoted northern Europe. We focused on the period 1960 - 2017, that saw little change in the total area covered by forests in northern Europe. At the start of the period, rotational forestry practices began to diffuse, eventually replacing selective felling management systems as the most common management practice. Looking at data over the period we find that despite significant increases in timber and pulp wood harvests, the growth of the forest C stock accelerated. Over the study period, the C stock of the forest ecosystems in northern Europe increased by nearly 70%, while annual timber harvests increased at the about 40% over the same period. This increase in the forest C stock was close to on par with the CO2-emissions from the region (other greenhouse gases not included). Our results suggest that the important effects of management on forest growth allows the forest C stock and timber harvests to increase simultaneously. The development in northern Europe raises the question of how better forest management can improve forest growth elsewhere around the globe while at the same time protecting biodiversity and preserving landscapes.Peer reviewe

Framing woodland key habitats in the Swedish media : how has the framing changed over time?

The concept of woodland key habitats is well-established in northern Europe, denoting sites in the forest landscape with particularly high biodiversity. In Sweden, woodland key habitats have been inventoried on individual forest owner’s land by the Swedish Forest Agency since 1993. Recently, various actors have questioned the woodland key habitat concept and its policy implications. To investigate how framing of the concept has changed over time we conducted a media analysis based on theories of collective action frames. The analysis covered the period 1991–2018 and a total of 293 articles in daily newspapers. Our results showed that, over time, woodland key habitats have mostly been framed by government agencies, journalists and environmental organizations as suffering as a result of forestry practices and that nature conservation is the solution to this problem. Actors presenting other or conflicting frames are not as common and they occur mostly when the frequency of articles is high. However, it is noteworthy that individual forest owners sometimes framed themselves as suffering economically from the woodland key habitats, which contrasts with the dominant framing. There were no large differences between national and regional newspapers in the framing of woodland key habitats