Social innovation is recognised for its potential to turn societal challenges into opportunities and develop sustainable solutions for people and nature. We identify and examine challenges that Ukrainian forestry is facing and apply an “action arena” conceptual approach to explore whether and how social innovation can enhance the sustainable development of forestry. We develop a framework to analyse the reconfiguration of social practices by using research methods that focus on the use of documentation of the institutional contexts and interviewing forest policy experts, as well as stakeholder evaluation of the challenges and ways forward for Ukrainian forestry. We apply the Q-method to identify stakeholder attitudes and examine the role of people in the reconfiguring of social practices and promoting sustainable development of the forest sector. Implications for changing the rules of the game and institutional perspectives on forestry are identified, with examples of social innovation initiatives presented. Results show that to emerge, develop, and be transformative, social innovation must have supporting institutional conditions to create new norms, rules, and social practices. Relevant stakeholders need to envision alternative futures, reshape places, and become more actively engaged in decision-making processes. We identify the key directions for changing the rules of the game and the opportunities that social innovation has to offer.
In this paper, we elaborate an Institutional Analysis and Reconfiguration Framework centered around the ‘action arena’ theoretical approach. We develop this framework to analyze institutional reconfiguration to enhance sustainability, and operationalize it using research methods which focus on documentation of the institutional contexts through an extensive literature review and interviews of experts in forest policy. We apply the Institutional Analysis and Reconfiguration Framework to examine forestry institutions, address forest governance, and investigate their effect on socio-economic and environmental performances in forestry of Ukraine. The paper draws on the state of affairs in post-transition forestry, its difficulties, and new prospects for economic and institutional reforms. We examine challenges and opportunities in forestry and suggest key remedies and prospective ways forward. Results show that a combination of path dependency with the rigidity of institutions and a slow pace of economic and political reforms is the major obstacle to implementing decisions regarding sustainable forest policy. A reconfiguration of social practices is required, as well as the development of capabilities and awareness raising amongst relevant stakeholders, to realize the problems, envision alternative futures, challenge existing institutions, shift power relations and create new norms, rules, and decision-making arrangements. The way towards sustainability in forestry largely goes through changing institutions, and a human dimension of institutional changes reflected in the uptake of social innovation.
Climate smart forestry (CSF) is considered as a promising approach for climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies as highlighted in several European policy documents. This paper describes a prospective approach to introducing an incentive-based scheme to facilitate the implementation of CSF through a case study in Iceland. It is argued that the payments for ecosystem services (PES) scheme allows for effective CSF management and long-term sustainability if introduced in compliance with local, cultural and social values. In a case study of an Icelandic afforestation programme, we conducted an institutional analysis of the PES scheme and assessed its effect on forest ecosystem services provision on long-term sustainability. We provide preliminary findings on the application of CSF in the 30-year-old Icelandic afforestation programme scheme. The perspectives of forest and policy experts, as well as local farmers participating in the scheme, were crucial for assessing the effectiveness of PES scheme performance in Iceland.
As European mountain forests are a significant world carbon stock and sequester, they have a prominent position in climate policies and climate smart forestry (CSF) implementation. However, forest ecosystem services (ES) that are public or common goods (i.e., of carbon sequestration) face a traditional social dilemma of individual versus collective interests, which often generate conflicts, and result in the overuse of ES and resource depletion. In this article, we elaborate a conceptual analytical framework and use it in case studies selected in European mountain areas to analyse the potential of socio-ecological systems to develop CSF. Collective self-organized forestry regimes, as a form of social innovation, are the main focus, compared with centrally governed state regimes and forest management practices in municipal forests. A conceptual framework to analyse collective self-organized regimes and compare these with other CSF-applicable forestry regimes is elaborated using a mixed-method approach, centered around the estimation of carbon sequestration potential. The results indicate that collective self-organized forestry regimes can play a role in fostering the transition of European forestry towards CSF.
In this volume, the concept of climate-smart forestry (CSF) has been introduced as adaptive forest management and governance to address climate change, fostering resilience and sustainable ecosystem service provision. Adaptive forest management and governance are seen as vital ways to mitigate the present and future impact of climate change on forest. Following this trajectory, we determine the ecosystem services approach as a potential adaptive tool to contribute to CSF. Ecosystem services as public or common goods face the traditional social dilemma of individual versus collective interests, which often generate conflicts, overuse, and resource depletion. This chapter focuses on the ecosystem servicegovernance approach, especially on incentive tools for behavioral change to CSF in the long term, which is a basic precondition for the sustainability of ecosystem integrity and functions, as well as ensuring the continuous delivery of ecosystem goods and services, as per the CSF definition. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are seen as innovative economic instruments when adding a social dimension by involving local communities and their values to ensure the long-term resilience and adaptation of forest ecosystems to climate change. We argue that tackling climate changeadaptation requires the behavioral change of ecosystem service providers to a collaborative and integrated PES approach, as also emphasized by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda 2030.
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