The world(s) we live in – Inter-agency collaboration in forest management

Carolin Maier and Kristina Wirth

Forest Policy and Economics, 2018, vol. 96, issue C, 102-111

Abstract: Academics and politicians alike have argued for greater inter-agency collaboration to address sector-crossing policy issues, such as health care, policing, or natural resource management. Nevertheless, in reality, it remains a rare occurrence. We examine local-level (street-level) collaboration in the context of public forest management in Germany where, historically, public forests were solely under the forest management agency's authority. With the establishment of a nature conservation agency and subsequent legislative changes, responsibilities and authorities were increasingly distributed among both agencies. Today, the two agencies are connected through a system of approval procedures and expected to collaborate to further nature conservation objectives. We aim to understand how the mandate to collaborate is put into practice, and find a diversity of local level agency relationships. While the literature suggests the benefits of inter-agency collaboration stems from including a diversity of disciplines and compensating for limited resources, we find these aspects to pose significant challenges in local level practices. Aside from actor-related factors, we also found systemic and societal actors to be a strong influence on inter-agency exchange.

Keywords: Nature conservation; Forest; Policy implementation; Inter-agency collaboration; Collaborative public management; Street-level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:96:y:2018:i:c:p:102-111

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2018.08.014

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