This study focuses on the role of external events – in the form of climate change and climate-induced disturbance – for policy forest development. The aim is to explore the evolution of European forest policy through a longitudinal analysis of Germany, Poland, Slovenia, and Sweden, assessing how climate change and climate-induced disturbances are considered in policy goals, problem perceptions, governance approaches, and preferred management solutions. First, we map and analyze policy development within each country over a period of two decades. Second, we discuss how these findings relate to climate change and climate-induced disturbances. Third, and finally, we reflect on the similarities and differences of the four countries. The empirical results provide an overview of forest policy development and show how responsive the governance systems have been to the new challenges posed by a rapidly changing climate. While much stability has characterized European forest policy, revisions and substantial changes, partly motivated by increasing climate change and climate-induced disturbances, are evident in different ways and to varying degrees in the countries studied. The magnitude and consequences of these disruptive events, existing institutional structures, and present advocacy coalitions are suggested as explanations for variations among countries. The lessons about past responsiveness may predict the pace of implementation of new forest policies and adaptation to disturbances in the future.

Our study explores governing of European eel in Sweden. The paper aims to analyze and tentatively explain the degree of policy coherence between different political levels and discuss implications for management. The study focuses on the Advocacy Coalition Framework and a qualitative methodology. Results show that EU and Swedish eel fishery policies are based on partly different beliefs about prioritized groups, problem descriptions, and policy preferences. Swedish policy is more considerate of fishery, attentive to the problems of hydropower, and hesitant toward fishery closures, than is the EU. These differences can be understood by the positions and power of the two advocacy coalitions competing for influence at the national level. National decisions align more with the coalition that includes fishery organizations, the Swedish Board of Agriculture, and coastal municipalities than with the beliefs of the coalition involving environmental-and sport fishing organizations and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

Biodiversity, including genetic diversity, is the foundation of ecosystems and supports the well-being of all organisms, including humans. Determining how the marine environment shapes genetic diversity and developing best practices to conserve it requires a multi-disciplinary approach that incorporates genomic and environmental information. Seascape genetics and genomics combine spatially resolved ecological, genomic, and environmental data, coupled with modeling to explore past, present, and future patterns of diversity and connectivity. Seascape genetics and genomics provide scientists and managers with a multi-faceted tool that can be applied across a wide range of species and incorporated into marine spatial management. Despite the proven importance of genetic diversity for species resilience, the incorporation of genetic and genomic data is grossly underrepresented in policy, decision-making, and conservation measures. Here, we aim to support the understanding and access to information on seascape genetics and genomics for conservation and environmental management practitioners. We explain how integrating environment, space, traits, and genetics or genomics can advance marine spatial management. We use two advanced case studies to outline methodology and concepts of seascape genomics and the respective policy context, although management uptake is still pending. Lastly, we review the present status of seascape genomics research and discuss challenges, strengths, and future opportunities by providing a road map. We present a successful management uptake case study that could aid the integration of seascape genomics into biodiversity management. 

This article explores the role of park rangers’ social networks in two national parks in Sub-Saharan Africa and suggests that the way that actors connect shape conservation outcomes. We do this against the backdrop of how conservation worldwide has moved away from state-centric top-down approaches towards management structures that includes a wide range of stakeholders spanning multiple administrative levels and sectors. This trend entails challenges as well as opportunities for conservation management. The theoretical framework of the study is given by social capital theory and the notion that the structure of social networks – more specifically the three network features of bonding, bridging, and linking – relate to the presence of institutional trust and rule compliance. The findings indicate that the structure of social networks, in particular the different forms of social capital in those networks, matters for the way they function. The result indicates that bridging and linking ties positively relate to institutional trust and rule compliance. These social networks form a basis for building institutional trust in areas where trust towards government tends to be low. Managers should think about these structures when they implement conservation policy. We recommend to 1) foster structures where park rangers connect to a wide range of actors and thus resources, information, and knowledge 2) include park rangers in the decision making for a more efficient and sustainable management, and 3) build bridges that reach the local communities to facilitate institutional trust and encourage voluntary compliance.

Database for the wildlife research project 'Adaptiva, effektiva och legitima förvaltningsystem?En inventering av aktuell kunskap om viltförvaltningen i Norden', funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket).

Database for the wildlife research project 'Adaptiva, effektiva och legitima förvaltningsystem?En inventering av aktuell kunskap om viltförvaltningen i Norden', funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket).

This article deepens our understanding of the preconditions for policy-oriented learning in conflictive marine conservation, provides an analytical framework for further studies and formulates recommendations for practitioners on what to consider when establishing protected areas. Our seas are under increasing pressure but lag behind in protection. Climate change, intensifying use and biodiversity loss challenge current practises and imply trade-offs between conservation and use. While nature conservation ranks high internationally, national protection attempts often result in controversies, with actors aligning in opposing advocacy coalitions—for and against the proposals. Policy-oriented learning is one way to overcome controversies. It involves processes whereby actors gain new knowledge and experiences, leading to changed beliefs about the problems and possible solutions. We aimed to explore and explain policy-oriented learning through a comparative longitudinal case study of two Swedish national park planning processes with different outcomes: Koster Sea national park, established 2009, and Sankt Anna archipelago remaining without park. Which characteristics related to context, actors and processes influence policy-oriented learning in conflictive marine conservation processes? The results suggest that a set of complementary factors explain the different outcomes. First, learning is facilitated by contexts where actors from both coalitions depend on the resource and its protection and have experience of collaboration, and where conservation planning is well integrated with other governance processes. Second, engaged key actors with moderate views facilitating interactions and able to identify common interests and deescalate conflicts are important — supported, third, by various forums allowing exchange of knowledge and learning across coalitions.