Research on forest policy in Sweden - Review

The aim of this review paper is to provide a structured overview on the state-of-the-art of research on Swedish forest policy over the last two decades. An additional aim is to identify major trends and blind-spots within this research area. To achieve this aim, 34 peer-reviewed journal articles and Ph.D. theses on forest policy in Sweden published between 1990 and 2009 have been reviewed and analyzed. The categories used comprise the date of publication, the affiliation of the author, theories and methodologies used, as well as major conclusions drawn. One major result of the review is that there is a continuous increase in the studies on Swedish forest policy, not the least due to the fact that an increasing number of authors are affiliated with non-forest research organizations. The shift of authors from forest scientists to political scientists is also linked to the theories used in these studies, e. g. neo-institutionalism. The main focus of the reviewed studies is on small-scale forestry as well as on governance, in particular on certification. Analysis of the linkage between Swedish forest policy and political processes beyond the nation state are an exception in the reviewed papers.