Forest transition conflicts in Europe
Lessons from the failure of the EU's three billion trees pledge
Dados Bibliográficos
| ID | 24218873 |
|---|---|
| Autores | Alice Ludvig (0000-0003-1323-2276), Aron Buzogány (0000-0002-9867-3742) |
| Ano | 2026 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Páginas | 100365 |
| Data de publicação | 2026-12-01 |
| Open Access | Sim |
| Tipo | ARTICLE |
| Periódico | Earth System Governance (JOURNAL) |
| Identificadores do periódico | ISSN: 2589-8116 • E-ISSN: 2589-8116 |
| Editora | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.esg.2026.100365 |
| OpenAlex | W7214482942 |
| Idioma | EN |
| Referências citadas | 51 |
The sustainability transitions literature is often biased towards successful cases where policy feedback from win-win solutions stabilizes or reinforces change-minded coalitions. However, understanding policy failures where conflicts and tradeoffs do not result in mutually shared synergies and lead to vicious circles is equally important. Inspired by Richard Scott's classic organization theory, we introduce a threefold typology of sustainability conflicts that includes regulative, normative, and cognitive dimensions. The contribution then probes this typology to forest transitions where conflicts arise about how forests should be best treated in times of climate change. We examine the failure of the EU's Three Billion Tree's pledge, which faced criticism from both environmentalists due to its neglect of biodiversity considerations and forestry groups because of misinterpretation of forest management practices. Through an analysis of policy documents and focus group discussions, we capture key dimensions of sustainability conflicts and identify several trade-offs. We find a broad agreement among stakeholders about prioritizing climate change in general, but show that their differing regulative, normative, and cognitive perspectives hinder a shared understanding of policy issues.
Biodiversity · Climate change · EU climate policy · Forest management · forest transition · policy failure · policy trade-offs · stakeholder conflict · sustainability conflicts · Forest Management and Policy · Policy Transfer and Learning · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
Power in Sustainability Transitions
The use of focus group discussion methodology
A Review of Forest Carbon Sequestration Cost Studies
Shades of green
Six policy intervention points for sustainability transitions
The next phase of the energy transition and its implications for research and policy
The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions
From innovations to exnovations. Conflicts, (De-)Politicization processes, and power relations are key in analysing the ecological crisis
Focus group method and methodology
From crisis to transformation
Moving beyond disruptive innovation
Challenges in the acceleration of sustainability transitions
Three billion new trees in the EU’s biodiversity strategy
Creating forests with words — A review of forest-related discourse studies
Focus group methodology
Biodiversity policy integration in five policy sectors in Germany
Disruption and low-carbon system transformation
Struggles in European Union energy politics
Backlash to Climate Policy
Depicting the peril and not the potential of forests for a biobased economy? A qualitative content analysis on online news media coverage in German language articles
Forest protection in the EU's renewable energy directive and nature conservation legislation in light of the climate and biodiversity crisis – Identifying legal shortcomings and solutions
Unpacking the network discourse
European forests show no carbon debt, only a long parity effect
Climate-Smart Forestry
The challenge of financing the implementation of Natura 2000 – Empirical evidence from six European Union Member States
Increasing climate-related resilience in the forest-based value chains? A policy perspective
A social science perspective on conflicts in the energy transition
Understanding private forest owners’ conceptualisation of forest management
Coherent at face value
Mechanisms to exclude local people from forests
Power to, over and with
Minimising the relative regret of future forest landscape compositions
Transition conflicts
Evaluating sustainability transitions pathways
Transition tensions
| Altamente citado | Não |
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