{"title":"When Brussels watch from the sky: Negotiating sovereignty over data and forest in Europe","authors":"Jędrzej Niklas","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104033","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article examines how the proposed European Forest Monitoring Law (EFM) reconfigures sovereignty and governance in the European Union’s pursuit of climate and digital ovjectives. The EFM aims to harmonize forest data collection through satellite imagery, ground sensors, and big data, reflecting the EU's \"twin transition\" . Yet, it has provoked concerns over national competences and local management traditions. Drawing on critical data studies and political ecology, this research analyzes policy documents, public consultations materials, and interviews. Findings show that once-perceived \"neutral\" forest data can quickly transitions into a political domain, revealing divergent interests over who own and controls information. The study underscore the politicization of data and the evolving concept of sovereignty, which now encompasses governance of digital infrastructures and information flows. This work highlights the tensions between EU centralization and local autonomy, offering new insights into how digitalization shapes environmental governance and sovereignty in contemporary Europe.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"167 ","pages":"Article 104033"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Science & Policy","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901125000498","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article examines how the proposed European Forest Monitoring Law (EFM) reconfigures sovereignty and governance in the European Union’s pursuit of climate and digital ovjectives. The EFM aims to harmonize forest data collection through satellite imagery, ground sensors, and big data, reflecting the EU's "twin transition" . Yet, it has provoked concerns over national competences and local management traditions. Drawing on critical data studies and political ecology, this research analyzes policy documents, public consultations materials, and interviews. Findings show that once-perceived "neutral" forest data can quickly transitions into a political domain, revealing divergent interests over who own and controls information. The study underscore the politicization of data and the evolving concept of sovereignty, which now encompasses governance of digital infrastructures and information flows. This work highlights the tensions between EU centralization and local autonomy, offering new insights into how digitalization shapes environmental governance and sovereignty in contemporary Europe.
期刊介绍:
Environmental Science & Policy promotes communication among government, business and industry, academia, and non-governmental organisations who are instrumental in the solution of environmental problems. It also seeks to advance interdisciplinary research of policy relevance on environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity, environmental pollution and wastes, renewable and non-renewable natural resources, sustainability, and the interactions among these issues. The journal emphasises the linkages between these environmental issues and social and economic issues such as production, transport, consumption, growth, demographic changes, well-being, and health. However, the subject coverage will not be restricted to these issues and the introduction of new dimensions will be encouraged.