3.3 Landowners and managers
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Elena, community forest NGO
I help local stakeholders engage in policy development. When a new policy is being developed, I have to be able to explain to my stakeholders and capture their response in a way that will have an impact.
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Peter, policy-maker
I'm not a specialist in forestry! I have to quickly fully pull together briefings on complex topics and use non-technical language. I want to get to the key issues fast, understand the evidence and how reliable it is, hear stakeholder opinions, and find engaging examples from my country.
The people who own or manage the land where restoration is planned are the most important policy stakeholder group, as no restoration will take place without their action. There is huge diversity within this group, including individuals, families, corporations, governments, NGOs and municipalities. Some have organisations (eg. CEPF, ELO) that can represent them, however, many do not, and most will not engage directly in formal consultations.
Given the impossibility of engaging with all landowners and managers who may be impacted, you can adopt other tools and techniques to ensure a good fit between policy design and implementation. Particularly important is to understand motivating and de-motivating factors. These could be examined from an historical perspective (see SP50, SP52), from an economic perspective (see SP36, SP37 and SP38) and from a social / political science perspective (see SP1) As machine learning and AI continues to develop, it is also possible that in future you will be able to infer stakeholder opinion through an analysis of an online debate (see Exploring online engagement with Queen Elizabeth Forest Park in Scotland).
Related resources
A networked forest park: Exploring online engagement with Queen Elizabeth Forest Park
What can the Internet and social media tell us about the life of a forest park? As part of SUPERB, we have studied online engagement to understand more about the social and cultural contexts of forests and forest restoration efforts across Europe. Learn about how the Internet and social media are involved in different to the site known as Queen Elizabeth Forest Park (QEFP) in Scotland.