Browsing by Author "Pietarinen, Niina"

Bioeconomy is expected to play a key role in achieving resource-efficient, sustainable societies globally. With its vast forest resources, Finland aims at being a global forerunner of forest-based bioeconomy, which is ought to result in increased welfare of Finnish citizens, while being ecologically sustainable. Given these expectations, it is important to understand the relationship between Finnish forestry and sustainability. The aim of this master’s thesis is to provide an analysis on how the concept of sustainability is framed and translated in Finnish forest policies. Two research questions were drawn: 1. How is sustainability framed and understood in the Finnish forest policies? and 2. How the “Spirit of Rio” is transferred into the existing legislation? In this context, “the Spirit of Rio”, originating from the Rio Conference held in 1992, means the ambition to take care of environmental issues with a bottom-up approach with the participation of groups that are most affected by the decisions. Discourse analysis was chosen as approach as it can reveal meanings within texts. The analysis followed Backstränd and Lövbrand (2006) and investigated specific elements of environmental discourses (ecological modernization, green governmentality and critical civic environmentalism) in the analysis of selected national forest policy documents. ATLAS.ti software was used in analyzing and processing the research data. A code book was developed in order to help in structuring the analysis and the material was coded in four different levels, starting from the broadest topics and proceeding to less visible details. The research results indicate, that although the language used in the policies refers widely to sustainability, the consideration of ecological aspects of sustainability is weak and rhetoric whereas economic values have a dominant role, and are defined and translated towards action and practices. The Spirit of Rio was addressed in the analyzed policies in the form of co-operation of stakeholders and a participative writing process. However, the importance noticeably decreased over time. The research findings demonstrate, that in the analyzed policies the “brand” of sustainability is to some extent used as a marketing tool and hence risks to legitimize an industry friendly agenda with bioeconomy acting as an opportunity to commercialize natural resources. This thesis aims to provide relevant reflections to policymakers and the forest sector on whether and to which extent sustainability has been included in the Finnish forest policies. Understanding sustainability framings and dominant discourses in the past and present forest policy documents will help to inform ongoing and future forest policy revisions. Revealing the dominant discourse increases transparency and can start a process towards problem solving.