Towards recognition in governance: an exploratory study of biodiversity protection in Swedish forestry.

Abstract: Loss of biodiversity and interest in the promises of the bioeconomy creates pressure on forests and implications for their governance. In Sweden, forest policy for the protection of biodiversity is known as “freedom with responsibility”, which puts an onus on the many private forest owners in the country to reverse the critical loss of biodiversity. In this thesis, I explore Swedish forest governance through the narratives of private forest owners and highlight possible tensions between the design and implementation of policy for biodiversity. I use concepts from feminist political ecology and environmental justice to form a lens to highlight the experience of forest owners. I combine semi-structured interviews with transect walks to explore the views of private forest owners from Central and Southern Sweden. In doing so, I seek to highlight the partial knowledges and the personal narrative of persons involved in Swedish forestry. I find that current forest governance does not attend to the multilayered and complex emotions and attachments that forest owners have for their forests, which leads to a discrepancy between the design and implementation of policy for biodiversity protection. In accordance with previous research, this thesis highlights how the deregulated Swedish forest policy instead strengthens the narrative of forestry for production. With increasing pressure from both inside and outside Swedish forestry for more close-to-nature forestry management and alignment of multiple values, a remaining question is whether Swedish forest policy will attend to the pressure or continue following the narrative of the bioeconomy.