Can’t Climb the Trees Anymore: Social Licence to Operate, Bioenergy and Whole Stump Removal in Sweden

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of how the social licence to operate (SLO) of the Swedish forest industry has been developed over time. For many decades, the SLO has been implicitly operating, shaped by dominant discourses of the day. We can see these SLOs through the agrarian, industrial and post-industrial era. During this era, a focus on bioenergy has seen whole stump removal become a more mainstream practice. This practice gained increasingly widespread acceptance when framed as a necessary response to climate change. However, research has identified problems associated with whole stump removal, including decreased biodiversity, nutrient removal, soil acidification and mechanical soil preparation threatening soil carbon stores. In light of these recent developments, this paper examines the role of knowledge production and accepted discourses in the creation and maintenance of an industry’s SLO. By providing an overview of key legislative changes in the history of forest management alongside data from surveys and interviews with key industry stakeholders, we explore the changing nature of the industry’s SLO and the potential conflict that arises when new scientific knowledge and discourses emerge, challenging accepted standards of behaviour and require us to re-examine and renegotiate the terms of an existing SLO.