Pub Date : 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103687
Laqiqige Zhu, Martha O'Hagan-Luff
Afforestation is a key strategy for climate and biodiversity goals, yet uptake in Ireland remains low. This study uses a Choice Experiment to quantify Irish farmers' willingness to accept afforestation incentives under varying contract conditions. Employing Random Parameter Logit and Latent Class models, we find strong resistance to afforestation, primarily driven by two factors: legal irreversibility, captured by mandatory replanting obligations, and financial insecurity, linked to the short duration of support payments. Farmers demand significantly higher compensation for contracts with replanting requirements and for shorter payment terms compared to longer, more secure alternatives. Farmers prefer native over spruce-dominated forests, though preferences vary across segments. Our results reveal substantial preference heterogeneity, indicating farmers differ markedly in their motivations and sensitivities to contract attributes. These findings suggest that improving afforestation uptake will require moving beyond uniform incentives toward tailored contract structures that enhance land-use flexibility, extend support over longer timeframes, and accommodate diverse farmer profiles.
{"title":"Investigating barriers to afforestation in Ireland: Insights from a choice experiment survey","authors":"Laqiqige Zhu, Martha O'Hagan-Luff","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103687","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103687","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Afforestation is a key strategy for climate and biodiversity goals, yet uptake in Ireland remains low. This study uses a Choice Experiment to quantify Irish farmers' willingness to accept afforestation incentives under varying contract conditions. Employing Random Parameter Logit and Latent Class models, we find strong resistance to afforestation, primarily driven by two factors: legal irreversibility, captured by mandatory replanting obligations, and financial insecurity, linked to the short duration of support payments. Farmers demand significantly higher compensation for contracts with replanting requirements and for shorter payment terms compared to longer, more secure alternatives. Farmers prefer native over spruce-dominated forests, though preferences vary across segments. Our results reveal substantial preference heterogeneity, indicating farmers differ markedly in their motivations and sensitivities to contract attributes. These findings suggest that improving afforestation uptake will require moving beyond uniform incentives toward tailored contract structures that enhance land-use flexibility, extend support over longer timeframes, and accommodate diverse farmer profiles.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 103687"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145823351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103692
Wahyu Wulandari, Testriono, Moch Faisal Karim
How did the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II encourage the Indonesian government to implement a moratorium policy for the palm oil industry? Specifically, this study investigates how the RED II regulation pressured the Indonesian government to adopt a moratorium policy for palm oil and why this happened. RED II is a continuation of the previous RED policy implemented by the European Union to regulate the use of renewable energy and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This study uses a qualitative approach to explore the factors that influence Indonesia's decision-making in responding to global demands for the sustainability of the palm oil industry, especially after the emergence of RED II. Using Spalding's policy adoption approach, the results show that the adoption of the moratorium policy in Indonesia was influenced by significant pressure from the European Union, especially the RED II policy, which limits palm oil imports due to its impact on deforestation and climate change. However, these factors are not sufficient to explain how Indonesia adopted the moratorium and why it happened. There are internal factors, namely socio-economic conditions and bureaucratic aspects in Indonesia that have encouraged the massive expansion of oil palm plantations. This study concludes that these external and internal factors influence each other, thus encouraging Indonesia to adopt the moratorium policy as an effort to overcome difficulties and challenges related to the sustainability of the palm oil industry.
{"title":"Adopting the Palm Oil Moratorium Under External Pressure: Indonesia's Response to the EU’s RED II","authors":"Wahyu Wulandari, Testriono, Moch Faisal Karim","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103692","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103692","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How did the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II encourage the Indonesian government to implement a moratorium policy for the palm oil industry? Specifically, this study investigates how the RED II regulation pressured the Indonesian government to adopt a moratorium policy for palm oil and why this happened. RED II is a continuation of the previous RED policy implemented by the European Union to regulate the use of renewable energy and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This study uses a qualitative approach to explore the factors that influence Indonesia's decision-making in responding to global demands for the sustainability of the palm oil industry, especially after the emergence of RED II. Using Spalding's policy adoption approach, the results show that the adoption of the moratorium policy in Indonesia was influenced by significant pressure from the European Union, especially the RED II policy, which limits palm oil imports due to its impact on deforestation and climate change. However, these factors are not sufficient to explain how Indonesia adopted the moratorium and why it happened. There are internal factors, namely socio-economic conditions and bureaucratic aspects in Indonesia that have encouraged the massive expansion of oil palm plantations. This study concludes that these external and internal factors influence each other, thus encouraging Indonesia to adopt the moratorium policy as an effort to overcome difficulties and challenges related to the sustainability of the palm oil industry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 103692"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145921072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103688
Yan Huang , Hanting Yu , Zhelin Liu , Jin Zhang , Jinhuang Lin
The conservation-utilization conflict between carbon sinks and timber production in forest resource use remains the central constraint on sustainable forestry, while the expanding adoption of digital technologies offers new opportunities to address this challenge. Against this backdrop, this study evaluates carbon sinks and timber production across 31 provinces in China from 2012 to 2022. This study first employs a non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) under an overall technology framework to develop a dynamic time-series classification of forestry development modes. It then introduces a “digital input utilization” indicator to measure the utilization of digital input in the two forestry outputs. Finally, digital input is integrated into a decomposition framework for carbon-sink growth to systematically determine how various factors drive changes in carbon sinks. The results indicate that: (1) Temporally, China's forestry can be categorized into three modes: win-win development, carbon-sink improvement and timber-production improvement. Observed changes in forest carbon sinks within regions corresponding to each mode closely match the characteristics of that mode. (2) The utilization of digital inputs in the two forestry outputs differs significantly across development modes, often contradicting the characteristics of their corresponding modes. (3) The dominant drivers of carbon-sink growth vary across modes, and the marginal contribution of digital inputs to enhancing the coordination between carbon sinks and timber production exhibits diminishing returns. Overall, this study enhances understanding of how digital investments influence sustainable forestry outcomes and offers guidance for developing differentiated forestry policies.
{"title":"Decomposing the drivers of forest carbon sink changes from the perspective of digital input: Balancing timber utilization and ecological conservation","authors":"Yan Huang , Hanting Yu , Zhelin Liu , Jin Zhang , Jinhuang Lin","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103688","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103688","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The conservation-utilization conflict between carbon sinks and timber production in forest resource use remains the central constraint on sustainable forestry, while the expanding adoption of digital technologies offers new opportunities to address this challenge. Against this backdrop, this study evaluates carbon sinks and timber production across 31 provinces in China from 2012 to 2022. This study first employs a non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) under an overall technology framework to develop a dynamic time-series classification of forestry development modes. It then introduces a “digital input utilization” indicator to measure the utilization of digital input in the two forestry outputs. Finally, digital input is integrated into a decomposition framework for carbon-sink growth to systematically determine how various factors drive changes in carbon sinks. The results indicate that: (1) Temporally, China's forestry can be categorized into three modes: win-win development, carbon-sink improvement and timber-production improvement. Observed changes in forest carbon sinks within regions corresponding to each mode closely match the characteristics of that mode. (2) The utilization of digital inputs in the two forestry outputs differs significantly across development modes, often contradicting the characteristics of their corresponding modes. (3) The dominant drivers of carbon-sink growth vary across modes, and the marginal contribution of digital inputs to enhancing the coordination between carbon sinks and timber production exhibits diminishing returns. Overall, this study enhances understanding of how digital investments influence sustainable forestry outcomes and offers guidance for developing differentiated forestry policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 103688"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145880112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-20DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103672
Pisca A. Tias , Constance L. McDermott , Mari E. Mulyani
This study utilizes the concepts of “legal pluralism” and “institutional fit” to examine how rural communities in Aceh, Indonesia, navigate legal pluralism in forest governance involving adat (customary) and state (i.e., Social Forestry) legal systems. Comparative case studies in four community-managed forests (Lutueng, Bale Redelong, Kunyet, and Paloh) reveal that both the strength of adat institutions and the degree of social cohesion (i.e., a homogeneous ethnic composition and shared adat practices) influence a community's capacity to negotiate governance systems that reflect local socio-ecological realities. This variation in capacity illustrates that “fit” is not merely an issue of institutional or policy design; it depends on the social foundations that either facilitate or restrict customary institutional negotiation and innovation. For policymakers implementing Social Forestry (SF) programs within pluralistic legal systems, this study highlights two imperatives. First, it is important to ground interventions in an in-depth evaluation of local institutional contexts, as well as the strength of customary governance structures and the historical dynamics between state and customary institutions. Second, SF must be designed in ways that empower communities to adapt governance approaches to their specific socio-ecological contexts. This includes integrating the administrative and legal requirements as stipulated in the SF ministerial regulations with existing customary practices, rather than relying on uniform state-driven frameworks that risk undermining local realities.
{"title":"Navigating the nexus between customary norms and state laws in shaping rural forest governance: A case study in Aceh Province, Indonesia","authors":"Pisca A. Tias , Constance L. McDermott , Mari E. Mulyani","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103672","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103672","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study utilizes the concepts of “legal pluralism” and “institutional fit” to examine how rural communities in Aceh, Indonesia, navigate legal pluralism in forest governance involving <em>adat</em> (customary) and state (i.e., Social Forestry) legal systems. Comparative case studies in four community-managed forests (Lutueng, Bale Redelong, Kunyet, and Paloh) reveal that both the strength of <em>adat</em> institutions and the degree of social cohesion (i.e., a homogeneous ethnic composition and shared <em>adat</em> practices) influence a community's capacity to negotiate governance systems that reflect local socio-ecological realities. This variation in capacity illustrates that “fit” is not merely an issue of institutional or policy design; it depends on the social foundations that either facilitate or restrict customary institutional negotiation and innovation. For policymakers implementing Social Forestry (SF) programs within pluralistic legal systems, this study highlights two imperatives. First, it is important to ground interventions in an in-depth evaluation of local institutional contexts, as well as the strength of customary governance structures and the historical dynamics between state and customary institutions. Second, SF must be designed in ways that empower communities to adapt governance approaches to their specific socio-ecological contexts. This includes integrating the administrative and legal requirements as stipulated in the SF ministerial regulations with existing customary practices, rather than relying on uniform state-driven frameworks that risk undermining local realities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 103672"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145785178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-20DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103686
Tamaki Ohmura , Eva Lieberherr , Leonard Creutzburg
Different policy instruments can pursue the same policy goal, such as climate change mitigation, while serving very different individual interests. The question of how carbon should be stored, e.g. as a standing stock (forest sink) or in timber for material use (timber sink) is a prime example of such a goal that can be pursued with different policy options and instruments. What is more, for stakeholders and policymakers there is no clear evidence-based recommendation for which sink to prioritize, which leads to diverging preferences for a policy. We argue that the differences in preferences are not based on the effectiveness of the policy instrument in achieving the (environmental) goal, but on two other factors: 1) the existence of an instrument constituency promoting one specific policy option and related policy instruments, and 2) the degree of governmental intervention associated with an instrument. We use the concept of an instrument constituency to explain the preference for one policy option with different instruments over another in the absence of an evidence-based recommendation for a solution. Using the case study of the Swiss constituent state (canton) of Lucerne, we analyse interest groups, politicians and public-administrative actors' core beliefs in relation to nature conservation and nature-use, their policy preferences regarding forest versus timber sink as well as their preferences for different policy instruments to promote the forest and/or timber sink. Using data from an online survey conducted in 2020, we find two coalitions of actors: one holding the core belief that nature conservation takes priority over nature-use, the other prioritizing nature-use and assuming that these objectives can be pursued simultaneously. In sum, we observe an instrument constituency forming around a timber sink instrument in the form of a certification scheme in this Swiss case. The instrument which was developed by the timber industry, is integrated into the national compliance carbon market and supported by a broad range of respondents both holding nature conservation and nature-use core beliefs. Whether our application of the instrument constituency concept can explain international cases where the certification for forest sinks has gained ground during the last years, is a question to be addressed in future research.
{"title":"Sinking into standing forests or timber for climate change mitigation: Instrument constituencies and policy preferences","authors":"Tamaki Ohmura , Eva Lieberherr , Leonard Creutzburg","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103686","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103686","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Different policy instruments can pursue the same policy goal, such as climate change mitigation, while serving very different individual interests. The question of how carbon should be stored, e.g. as a standing stock (forest sink) or in timber for material use (timber sink) is a prime example of such a goal that can be pursued with different policy options and instruments. What is more, for stakeholders and policymakers there is no clear evidence-based recommendation for which sink to prioritize, which leads to diverging preferences for a policy. We argue that the differences in preferences are not based on the effectiveness of the policy instrument in achieving the (environmental) goal, but on two other factors: 1) the existence of an instrument constituency promoting one specific policy option and related policy instruments, and 2) the degree of governmental intervention associated with an instrument. We use the concept of an instrument constituency to explain the preference for one policy option with different instruments over another in the absence of an evidence-based recommendation for a solution. Using the case study of the Swiss constituent state (canton) of Lucerne, we analyse interest groups, politicians and public-administrative actors' core beliefs in relation to nature conservation and nature-use, their policy preferences regarding forest versus timber sink as well as their preferences for different policy instruments to promote the forest and/or timber sink. Using data from an online survey conducted in 2020, we find two coalitions of actors: one holding the core belief that nature conservation takes priority over nature-use, the other prioritizing nature-use and assuming that these objectives can be pursued simultaneously. In sum, we observe an instrument constituency forming around a timber sink instrument in the form of a certification scheme in this Swiss case. The instrument which was developed by the timber industry, is integrated into the national compliance carbon market and supported by a broad range of respondents both holding nature conservation and nature-use core beliefs. Whether our application of the instrument constituency concept can explain international cases where the certification for forest sinks has gained ground during the last years, is a question to be addressed in future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 103686"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145785179","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-19DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103683
Detlef F. Sprinz , Max Krott
Will a new government potentially formed in 2025 pursue different forest policies as compared to its predecessor? Using the German government formation in spring 2025 as an example, we employ a negotiations prediction model to forecast specific forest policies ahead of their coalition agreement. As compared to predictions about the policies of the immediately preceding government as of 2022, the scope for remuneration of forest carbon will be very mildly increased, the remuneration for forests adapted to climate change somewhat increased, and the predicted remuneration for forest conservation substantially reduced. We demonstrate that short-term policy predictions based on numeric negotiations models are feasible and outline the implications for the forest sector and science-based policy advice.
{"title":"Faster than politics – Policy forecasting ahead of government formation?","authors":"Detlef F. Sprinz , Max Krott","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103683","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103683","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Will a new government potentially formed in 2025 pursue different forest policies as compared to its predecessor? Using the German government formation in spring 2025 as an example, we employ a negotiations prediction model to forecast specific forest policies ahead of their coalition agreement. As compared to predictions about the policies of the immediately preceding government as of 2022, the scope for remuneration of forest carbon will be very mildly increased, the remuneration for forests adapted to climate change somewhat increased, and the predicted remuneration for forest conservation substantially reduced. We demonstrate that short-term policy predictions based on numeric negotiations models are feasible and outline the implications for the forest sector and science-based policy advice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 103683"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145785180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103685
Sofia Mpekiri, Konstantinos G. Papaspyropoulos
The purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic literature review on the regional and thematic evolution of research around the Faustmann natural resource economic model. The Faustmann model, originating from capital theory, was developed to maximize forest land expectation value (LEV). Since its formulation, it has become a cornerstone of forest economics, particularly in studies on optimal rotation age. This study employs text analytics and co-citation mapping using VOSviewer, with bibliographic data sourced from Scopus to produce two types of analysis: a country co-citation map and a term co-occurrence map based on records from 1962 to 2025, examining how the model has been applied, extended, and modified to address specific challenges corresponding the forest economy characteristics of geographical regions and contemporary forestry concerns, including risk assessment, climate change, carbon sequestration, and sustainable forest management. Article inclusion was determined following the PRISMA guideline, ensuring relevance and methodological rigor. The results provide insight into how the model has been diversified due to national research priorities and ecological characteristics, as well as it's thematic evolution into four major thematic areas: (1) carbon sequestration, plantation forestry, and economic incentives; (2) theoretical extensions of the Faustmann model; (3) storm risk, timber market uncertainty, and opportunity cost; and (4) climate change, fire and pest risk, and adaptive management strategies. An overlay visualization was also generated to examine the model's evolution through time.
{"title":"Citation dynamics, thematic structure and temporal evolution of research on the Faustmann Forest Economics model (1962–2025)","authors":"Sofia Mpekiri, Konstantinos G. Papaspyropoulos","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103685","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103685","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic literature review on the regional and thematic evolution of research around the Faustmann natural resource economic model. The Faustmann model, originating from capital theory, was developed to maximize forest land expectation value (LEV). Since its formulation, it has become a cornerstone of forest economics, particularly in studies on optimal rotation age. This study employs text analytics and co-citation mapping using VOSviewer, with bibliographic data sourced from Scopus to produce two types of analysis: a country co-citation map and a term co-occurrence map based on records from 1962 to 2025, examining how the model has been applied, extended, and modified to address specific challenges corresponding the forest economy characteristics of geographical regions and contemporary forestry concerns, including risk assessment, climate change, carbon sequestration, and sustainable forest management. Article inclusion was determined following the PRISMA guideline, ensuring relevance and methodological rigor. The results provide insight into how the model has been diversified due to national research priorities and ecological characteristics, as well as it's thematic evolution into four major thematic areas: (1) carbon sequestration, plantation forestry, and economic incentives; (2) theoretical extensions of the Faustmann model; (3) storm risk, timber market uncertainty, and opportunity cost; and (4) climate change, fire and pest risk, and adaptive management strategies. An overlay visualization was also generated to examine the model's evolution through time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 103685"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145731252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Promoted as a strategy to reduce emissions, the use of forest biomass for renewable energy requires cross-sectoral policy integration between the forest and energy sectors. In this paper, integration is examined through coherence and consistency of policies. Policy coherence refers to alignment of policy objectives of the focal sectors with the goal of reducing carbon emissions. Consistency is assessed by looking at: 1) conformity with stated objectives, 2) consistency across regulations, 3) unaddressed trade-offs, and 4) regulatory gaps. We used those indicators to assess 18 key thematic areas. An initial analysis shows a coherence of the policy objectives of both sectors, centered around the overarching national goal of reducing emission through forest biomass utilization. However, findings on the consistency of regulatory instruments are more nuanced. While the indicator of regulatory alignment is largely fulfilled, we found several inconsistencies of rules and unaddressed trade-offs in several thematic areas, mainly related to the absence of prioritization by and formal commitment of the forest sector to supply biomass due to issues related to fair prices and tariffs. In addition, there is a great deal of regulatory vacuum governing the utilization of biomass for energy. Overall, we conclude the cross-sectoral policy integration is largely symbolic, driven by higher-level pressures, rather than the result of genuine cooperation. While this study focuses on Indonesia, the identified challenges such as sectoral silos and top-down alignment appear common in forest-based biomass initiatives in many countries, where institutional fragmentation often impedes coherent energy transitions.
{"title":"Cross-sectoral policy integration of forest biomass for renewable energy in Indonesia","authors":"Sukasno , Nunuk Supriyatno , Johanes P.G. Sutapa , Ahmad Maryudi","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103684","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103684","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Promoted as a strategy to reduce emissions, the use of forest biomass for renewable energy requires cross-sectoral policy integration between the forest and energy sectors. In this paper, integration is examined through coherence and consistency of policies. Policy coherence refers to alignment of policy objectives of the focal sectors with the goal of reducing carbon emissions. Consistency is assessed by looking at: 1) conformity with stated objectives, 2) consistency across regulations, 3) unaddressed trade-offs, and 4) regulatory gaps. We used those indicators to assess 18 key thematic areas. An initial analysis shows a coherence of the policy objectives of both sectors, centered around the overarching national goal of reducing emission through forest biomass utilization. However, findings on the consistency of regulatory instruments are more nuanced. While the indicator of regulatory alignment is largely fulfilled, we found several inconsistencies of rules and unaddressed trade-offs in several thematic areas, mainly related to the absence of prioritization by and formal commitment of the forest sector to supply biomass due to issues related to fair prices and tariffs. In addition, there is a great deal of regulatory vacuum governing the utilization of biomass for energy. Overall, we conclude the cross-sectoral policy integration is largely symbolic, driven by higher-level pressures, rather than the result of genuine cooperation. While this study focuses on Indonesia, the identified challenges such as sectoral silos and top-down alignment appear common in forest-based biomass initiatives in many countries, where institutional fragmentation often impedes coherent energy transitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 103684"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145734347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Finland’s state-owned forests provide multiple public values, including timber production, biodiversity conservation, and recreational use, often leading to trade-offs between conflicting objectives. The use of multiobjective optimization (MOO) helps navigate these trade-offs, but its effectiveness depends on how well the problem is formulated. While MOO studies in forest management typically focus on solving optimization models, they often overlook the crucial problem structuring phase. This study addresses that gap by identifying the key components required to formulate an MOO problem, based on perspectives from stakeholders and decision makers involved in Finnish state-owned forest management.
Using semi-structured interviews with 20 participants, we identified six essential themes for MOO formulation: objective functions, decision options, constraints, available data, evaluation of objective functions, as well as uncertainty and risks. These themes reflect both commonly modeled components, such as timber production and economic returns, and less frequently integrated considerations, including biodiversity, recreational values, and risks associated with climate change and forest disturbances.
Our findings contribute a replicable participatory approach for eliciting MOO components through the engagement of stakeholders and decision makers. By highlighting the importance of problem structuring, the study supports the development of more transparent, context-sensitive, and acceptable MOO models. Engaging participants in this early phase reveals a broader range of forest management priorities than typically represented in conventional MOO models, offering opportunities for improved decision support in public forest governance.
{"title":"Identifying key components for multiobjective forest management decisions: A case study of state-owned Finnish forests","authors":"Bekir Afsar , Johanna Silvennoinen , Kyle Eyvindson , Kaisa Miettinen , Otso Ovaskainen","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103681","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103681","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Finland’s state-owned forests provide multiple public values, including timber production, biodiversity conservation, and recreational use, often leading to trade-offs between conflicting objectives. The use of multiobjective optimization (MOO) helps navigate these trade-offs, but its effectiveness depends on how well the problem is formulated. While MOO studies in forest management typically focus on solving optimization models, they often overlook the crucial problem structuring phase. This study addresses that gap by identifying the key components required to formulate an MOO problem, based on perspectives from stakeholders and decision makers involved in Finnish state-owned forest management.</div><div>Using semi-structured interviews with 20 participants, we identified six essential themes for MOO formulation: objective functions, decision options, constraints, available data, evaluation of objective functions, as well as uncertainty and risks. These themes reflect both commonly modeled components, such as timber production and economic returns, and less frequently integrated considerations, including biodiversity, recreational values, and risks associated with climate change and forest disturbances.</div><div>Our findings contribute a replicable participatory approach for eliciting MOO components through the engagement of stakeholders and decision makers. By highlighting the importance of problem structuring, the study supports the development of more transparent, context-sensitive, and acceptable MOO models. Engaging participants in this early phase reveals a broader range of forest management priorities than typically represented in conventional MOO models, offering opportunities for improved decision support in public forest governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 103681"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145731820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-05DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103682
Dario Schulz , Johanna Coenen , Mairon Bastos Lima , Laila Berning , Jan Börner , Mathias Cramm , Cecilia Fraccaroli , Gustavo Magalhães de Oliveira , U. Martin Persson , Metodi Sotirov , Sven Wunder
Demand-side trade regulation is promoted as a policy tool to reduce negative environmental and socioeconomic footprints associated with global commodity supply chains. We present a theory of change (ToC) that explains how the economics of pro-environmental trade regulation can be expected to work, using the recent EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products (EUDR) as a topical illustration. Along this complex ToC, we review and characterize multiple factors that might either constrain overall policy effectiveness or enhance it. Evidence suggests that, in addition to land-use leakage (the displacement of environmental pressures to unregulated domains), predictably strong market-segregating responses might rearrange sourcing and trading patterns, especially where EU commodity import shares are low. Lacking observable and attributable land-use changes, segregation spillovers are harder to document. We outline an economically informed interdisciplinary research agenda around the potential impact pathways of demand-side trade regulations. However, our ex-ante conceptual policy assessment also cautions of potential functional shortcomings in reaching the desired global forest-protective goals.
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