The Role of Science in Environmental Governance: Competing Knowledge Producers in Swedish and Norwegian Forestry

Lars H. Gulbrandsen
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Lars H. Gulbrandsen: Lars H. Gulbrandsen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway. He was a visiting scholar in 2007 at Harvard University's Center for International Development, Kennedy School of Government. His research interests include non-state environmental governance, corporate social responsibility, international environmental regimes, and social studies of science. His publications have appeared in journals such as Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Environment, Environmental Politics, Global Environmental Politics, International Journal of Consumer Studies, Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Journal of Environment and Development, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, Organization, and Third World Quarterly.

Global Environmental Politics, 2008, vol. 8, issue 2, 99-122

Abstract: This article explores the influence of scientific knowledge in rule-making processes to enhance environmental protection in Swedish and Norwegian forestry. It examines the mapping and protection of small reserves; the development of plans for protection of large reserves; and rule-setting in voluntary forest certification schemes. The analysis shows that Sweden has enacted more stringent environmental protection policies on all measures examined. Whereas variation in the state of knowledge about environmental protection needs does not explain these differences, variation in the access to the science-policy dialogue and in the distribution of costs and benefits in the forestry sector does help explain the differences in the stringency of Norwegian and Swedish forest policy. I conclude that the influence of knowledge depends on the process by which it is created. Although scientific information usually has little influence when strong economic counter-forces are involved in the decision-making process, this problem can be ameliorated by facilitating processes of coproduction of knowledge among scientific experts, practitioners, and decision-makers. (c) 2008 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Date: 2008
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