Bioenergy from the forest – a source of conflict between forestry and nature conservation? : an analysis of key actor’s positions in Sweden
Bioenergy from the forest has been heavily debated in Sweden for several decades due to the interest of society to decrease dependence upon fossil fuels and limit the effects of climate change. The actual use of bioenergy from the forest has shifted over the years but increased during the last decad...
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| Formato: | H2 |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés sueco |
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SLU/Dept. of Forest Products
2012
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| Sumario: | Bioenergy from the forest has been heavily debated in Sweden for several decades due to the interest of society to decrease dependence upon fossil fuels and limit the effects of climate change. The actual use of bioenergy from the forest has shifted over the years but increased during the last decades. Private actors within forest and nature conservation sectors play an important role for the development of bioenergy from the forest as well as for the debate and the implementation of political goals. Forestry in Sweden is characterised by ‘freedom under responsibility’ for private actors and the perspective of governance is valuable for studying actors and discourses. Actors have their own interests and goals and the study focuses on three key actors representing ownership, industrial and environmental interests respectively. The aim of the study is to describe how the key actor’s positions concerning bioenergy from the forest have developed between years 2000-2010. Positions and dominating discourses were identified by text analysis.
All the key actors in the study agree that the Swedish forest has to contribute more to the energy supply. The key actors however continue to have opposing positions regarding the implementation and the main conflicts are regulations and restrictions. The results of the study confirm earlier scientific findings that representatives of the forest industries and forest owners might argue in a new way but they are still mostly interested in power and the freedom to control the forest resource. At the same time, for large parts of the environmental movement, the profitability and production factors cannot motivate risking the protection of the ecosystem and biodiversity. For decision makers there are limited possibilities of finding synergies and practical solutions concerning the realization of the potential and the increased extraction of biomass from the forest for energy purposes.
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