The current study is an illustrative example of intersectoral land conflicts in a highly populated region that resulted in the non-implementation of an already agreed-upon policy. More specifically, it evaluates the implementation of the forest expansion policy in Flanders (Northern Belgium) and...

This paper aims to assess the emergence of the concept of forest governance in the field of forest policy analysis. This assessment is mainly theoretical in nature. The various meanings and main criticisms of forest governance will be dealt with. In so doing, the paper applies the so-called...

‘Forest governance’ refers to new modes of regulation in the forest sector, such as decentralized, community-based and market-oriented policy instruments and management approaches. Its main theoretical basis consists of two mainstream models: rational choice and neo-institutionalism. Since...

A new generation of woodfuel studies focuses on the political dynamics behind access to the woodfuel trade, providing better insights into patterns of inclusion and exclusion and options for resource management. Institutional mechanisms that govern access are difficult to untangle in the context...

The use of theory in forest policy studies has given a new face to forest policy science, as it matured from an applied academic field to a specialized sub-discipline. In addition to doing science to support policy, forest policy academics engage in research to expand policy sciences. The link...

The current study investigates with a multiple case study the relation between instrument design and policy success. The conclusion is that the instrument mix matters. The Flemish interventionist approach, which focuses more on traditional instruments, was not as effective as the Dutch...

Governance and sustainability are important topics of debate in global forest policy. It is however crucial to understand how these ideas have impacted national and local forest policy and management. The case of Vietnam is interesting and relevant because since the late 1980s, Vietnam's state...

Governance is one of the most frequently discussed issues in contemporary policy science literature, and this has led to a wide variety of conceptualisations. However, few of these offer a typology that can be used to actually analyse governance. In this paper, we present such a typology. We...

Over the past thirty years, forest policy in the Netherlands has almost entirely been integrated into nature policy. This process of 'de-institutionalisation' is surprising in view of widely accepted theories of institutional stability and 'path dependency'. The process is investigated in this...