Exploring the conditions for a shift to Continuous Cover Forestry in Sweden

This thesis investigates the adoption of Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) in response to mounting environmental concerns stemming from conventional forestry in Sweden. Utilising a social practice-based approach with qualitative interviews and observations of forest managers who engage in CCF “on the ground”, the study uncovers a complex of practices connected to CCF, encompassing policy and regulation, research, advice, services, and forest ownership. By investigating the elements and interlinkages of these practices, the study finds key enabling factors and challenges within the intricate web of CCF practices. Emphasised challenges are; lack of competencies in CCF, predominant advice advocating conventional forestry, scarcity of CCF service providers, entangled timber contracts, insufficient research and concerns of forest expropriation due to high nature values attributed to CCF-managed forests. Enabling factors include knowledge-sharing interactions in networks and collaborations with diverse stakeholders, including independent CCF companies, forest owners, foresters, entrepreneurs, service workers, researchers and non-governmental organisations. Additionally, recreational activities, environmental stewardship, and improved workplace conditions motivate forest managers to embrace CCF practices. The research highlights the need to re-evaluate the division between conservation and production forests, urging the extension of CCF promotion into productive forests. Furthermore, the study underscores the importance of diverse perspectives in advisory practices and advocates for increased, nuanced, and collaborative research on CCF's viability within Sweden's evolving forestry landscape

Vem ansvarar för klimatkrisen? En studie om hur svenska nyhetstidningar gestaltar olika aktörers ansvar för klimatkrisen

Den här studien undersöker nyhetstidningarnas del i kontexten för hur ansvar för klimatkrisen formas i det svenska samhället. Detta görs genom att studera hur två av de största nyhetstidningarna i Sverige, Dagens Nyheter och Aftonbladet, framställer olika aktörers ansvar för klimatkrisen i sina nyhetsartiklar. Det är relevant att studera nyhetstidningarnas ansvarsbeläggning för klimatkrisen då tidigare forskning har visat att nyhetsmedier kan påverka både uppfattningen om ämnen i samhället samt attityder och beteenden i relation till de ämnena. Studiens avsikt är därför att bidra till förståelse för hur nyhetstidningarnas ansvarsbeläggning av klimatkrisen kan påverka uppfattningen om ansvar och således hanteringen av klimatkrisen i samhället. Materialet analyseras utifrån gestaltningsteorin och miljökommunikationsforskningens syn på miljökommunikation som formande av miljön. Resultatet visar på att artiklarna till störst del ansvarsbelägger politiska aktörer, att företags ansvar förskjuts till politiska aktörer eller fördelas mellan politiska aktörer där företagen då får minst ansvar, samt att individers ansvar knappt gestaltas. Slutsatsen är att nyhetstidningarna inte ansvarsbelägger väsentliga aktörer i klimatkrisen lika mycket, vilket kan ses som problematiskt då klimatforskning menar att alla aktörer i samhället måste agera.This study examines the part that Swedish newspapers play in the context of constructing responsibility for the climate crisis in Swedish society. This is done by studying how two of the biggest newspapers in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet, portray different actors’ responsibilities in the climate crisis in their news articles. It is of high relevance to study newspapers’ distribution of responsibility since previous research has shown that news media can affect both the perception of events and topics in society, as well as attitudes and behaviours in regards to those events and topics. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to a better understanding of how the newspapers’ distribution of responsibility can affect the perception of responsibility as well as the management of the climate crisis in the Swedish society. The material is analyzed through the theory of framing and the environmental communication research’s view that communication about the environment shapes the perception and therefore the form of the environment. The result shows that news articles mainly give responsibility to political actors, that companies’ responsibility is pushed over to political actors or placed between both companies and political actors where companies get the lesser responsibility, and that individuals are given a minimal amount of responsibility. The main conclusion is that the newspapers do not distribute responsibility evenly among the essential actors, which can be seen as problematic since climate research mean that all actors in society must act to solve the climate crisis