Between Incentives and Action: A Pilot Study of Biodiversity Conservation Competencies for Multifunctional Forest Management in Finland

Abstract

We investigate processes through which organizations engaged in natural resource management pursue conservation innovations—that is, create capabilities that allow them to produce new goods and services or produce goods and services in ways that reduce environmental degradation. Through an accounting of organizational competencies, we conduct an exploratory analysis of investments Finnish forest management service providers—public agencies, private firms, and civil society actors—have made to address demand for biodiversity conservation. From the perspective of theory and method, our pilot study points to opportunities to test, and perhaps advance, hypothesized tendencies toward environmental improvement through assessment of material practices and organizational strategies. This materialist approach is applicable to analysis at the level of organizations, sectors and territories. From an empirical perspective, the research highlights the contemporary coevolution of incentives and patterns of organizational behavior in Finnish forestry in response to social demand for biodiversity conservation and multifunctional landscapes.