{"title":"Regional forest green infrastructure planning and collaborative governance: A case study from southern Sweden","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103840","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Green Infrastructure (GI) is a strategically planned network delivering and enhancing diverse ecosystem services whilst preventing further biodiversity loss. Although not mandatory for EU members to implement GI, it is increasingly advocated as a tool for landscape planning. In 2016, the Swedish Government mandated the County Administrative Boards (CABs) to design regional GI plans using a collaborative process. This study explored the GI collaborative process in the region of Scania in southern Sweden, focusing on forest as an important component of Swedish landscapes. We interviewed 14 different stakeholders who participated in the process, and analysed the preconditions, inner workings and outcomes of collaborative GI planning. Despite remarkably different expectations, the perceived outcomes were consistent. Most stakeholders perceived the process as mainly informational rather than deliberative and, in general, use of the GI plan was limited. Despite successful finalisation of the plan, collaboration as a long-term process has not been achieved, which may limit the realisation of activities that foster GI. Scania’s GI planning illustrates the defects of top-down approaches with insufficient resources, failing to address the stakeholders’ trust and positioning. A lack of inclusivity and deliberation undermine the legitimacy of collaborative processes, discrediting the very concept of GI in Sweden. Our analysis indicates that a genuine collaborative process and a long-term commitment to implementing GI is unachievable without sustained and substantial governmental funding, capacity development at the lead agency, thorough consideration of prehistory, and targeted measures to increase trust among stakeholders.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901124001746/pdfft?md5=ab364b4df1d9d1fe6f84c64627390d40&pid=1-s2.0-S1462901124001746-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Science & Policy","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901124001746","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
Green Infrastructure (GI) is a strategically planned network delivering and enhancing diverse ecosystem services whilst preventing further biodiversity loss. Although not mandatory for EU members to implement GI, it is increasingly advocated as a tool for landscape planning. In 2016, the Swedish Government mandated the County Administrative Boards (CABs) to design regional GI plans using a collaborative process. This study explored the GI collaborative process in the region of Scania in southern Sweden, focusing on forest as an important component of Swedish landscapes. We interviewed 14 different stakeholders who participated in the process, and analysed the preconditions, inner workings and outcomes of collaborative GI planning. Despite remarkably different expectations, the perceived outcomes were consistent. Most stakeholders perceived the process as mainly informational rather than deliberative and, in general, use of the GI plan was limited. Despite successful finalisation of the plan, collaboration as a long-term process has not been achieved, which may limit the realisation of activities that foster GI. Scania’s GI planning illustrates the defects of top-down approaches with insufficient resources, failing to address the stakeholders’ trust and positioning. A lack of inclusivity and deliberation undermine the legitimacy of collaborative processes, discrediting the very concept of GI in Sweden. Our analysis indicates that a genuine collaborative process and a long-term commitment to implementing GI is unachievable without sustained and substantial governmental funding, capacity development at the lead agency, thorough consideration of prehistory, and targeted measures to increase trust among stakeholders.
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.