Browsing by Author "Laine, Henry"

Biodiversity loss is a global environmental problem, which has both its origin and impact on society. In Finland, the issue has been addressed with an attempt to integrate biodiversity considerations from environmental sector to other policy sectors. This practice of collaboration of actors from two or more policy sectors to integrate aims and concerns derived from one policy sector into another is referred to as policy integration. By examining biodiversity considerations in water management practices for agriculture and forestry, the aim of this thesis is to find out what factors contribute to policy integration. The research question is “how have biodiversity considerations been integrated in water management guidelines for agriculture and forestry in Finland?” This question is analyzed with a theoretical framework, where five criteria for policy integration, inclusion, consistency, weighting, reporting, and resources are operationalized in qualitative content analysis. The material of the analysis consists of the policy document “Water management guidelines for agriculture and forestry”, which is complemented with three thematic interviews of water management specialists. The results of the analysis suggest that lack of discussion about inconsistencies between biodiversity and other policy objectives, lack of prioritization for biodiversity when conflicts between objectives take place, absence of precise reporting indicators for biodiversity and insufficiency and incompatibility of resources act as a barrier for policy integration. Furthermore, it is found out that the theoretical framework could be improved by adding criteria for analyzing adequate structures of governance, as well as defining the integrated policy and its goals. The main conclusion of this master’s thesis is that in order to successfully integrate policies, essential concepts and goals of the policy should be defined, efforts to minimize the inconsistencies between policy goals should be based on scientific research, and the structures of governance in the political system should be adequate to promote policy integration.