Using the politicized IAD framework to assess integrated forest management decision-making in Slovakia

Abstract

Developments in the past 20 years have changed both the context and the goals of forest management in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in general and Slovakia in particular. One might therefore wonder if introduced “integrative” forestry paradigms on the national level are able to provide assimilation of different forest management claims and what are the drivers behind these developments. Analysis of forest management and its context therefore requires a multilevel approach including decision-making at higher institutional levels down to the decisions of local natural resources users. In this paper, we use a politicized Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework that can link various institutional levels and allows for the simultaneous evaluation of a broad context of forest management decision-making and its outcome. The research problem is addressed by means of case studies and a qualitative methodology. The results of 50 in-depth interviews with forest managers, owners, and other actors revealed that both the role of power and institutional setup are the core drivers of the socioecological outcome. Although the behavior and relationship of forest managers and owners in various networks vary, it is against this background that distinct forest management approaches are employed. Each approach delivers a similar set of ecosystem services. As timber is the main source of income, the provisioning services have primary importance. Thus, an integration of various forest management claims is challenging due to current forestry paradigms and the amount of resources available.