Forest Science and Forest Policy in Europe, Africa and the Middle East: Building Bridges to a Sustainable Future

Abstract

Making forest policies that help to bridge from the current situation to a sustainable future requires sound scientific information. Too often, scientific information is available, yet policy makers do not use it. At a workshop in Denmark, attendees reviewed case studies where forest science influenced forest policies and identified six major reasons for success. Three reasons related to the role of people in protecting, managing and using forests, and ways in which they worked effectively with researchers and policy makers. Three reasons related to the nature of the interaction between the science and policy arenas and the way in which those arenas were organized and functioned. The scientific process is often considered to promote rational thought and exploration of the unknown. An assumption that the policy-making process is equally rational may be unwarranted. Values are central to the policy change process. Thus, scientists who hope to be more effective in spanning the boundaries between the scientific arena and the policy arena constantly have to remember that scientific information in itself is not the primary driver of policy change.