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Forestry or “The Art of Flying Blind”. Sustainability in an Era of Global Change

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Sustainable Forest Management in a Changing World

Part of the book series: Managing Forest Ecosystems ((MAFE,volume 19))

Abstract

Sustainable development has become the most important normative landmark for international environmental policy. In the realm of forestry, the fact that governments, organizations, and business have discovered this concept marks the renaissance of an identical desire for benevolent forest use back in the eighteenth century. Today sustainable forest management (SFM) is still the leading principle in forest management.

The term “sustainability” is so imprecise and ambiguous that in the course of policy discussions it can be easily shaped according to interests and political intentions. For this reason, it is relatively easy to criticise a piece social or scientific analysis with the nebulous accusation that it has failed to take “issues of sustainability” into account.

Against this backdrop, the authors have reflected on the contradiction that, on the one hand, forestry derives strategies for future planning from the traditional approach of “sustainability” while, on the other hand, there are recommendations to address the growing uncertainties and risks related to forest production using adaptive strategies.

In following paper, we describe the relevance of the term “sustainability” for forestry, addressing first and foremost its symbolic meaning to the actors. Further, supported by data from a recent empirical study, we present decisive strategies on how forest enterprises and forest policy can deal with and prepare for future forest use. Based on this analysis, we draw conclusions on how to approach sustainability in forestry and propose suggestions for the further development of the term “sustainability” and the strategies based upon it.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    WCED 1986.

  2. 2.

    Diamond 2005; Constanza et al. 2007.

  3. 3.

    Schanz 1996.

  4. 4.

    Wagner 2004; Suda 2005.

  5. 5.

    e.g. ÖBF 2008.

  6. 6.

    Höltermann and Oesten 2001.

  7. 7.

    Brand and Fürst 2002.

  8. 8.

    Grunwald and Kopfmüller 2006.

  9. 9.

    Volz 2006.

  10. 10.

    Detten 2003.

  11. 11.

    Suda 2005.

  12. 12.

    Beck 1992.

  13. 13.

    Bolz 1997.

  14. 14.

    Bolz 2001, 118ff.

  15. 15.

    Bolz 1997, 78f.

  16. 16.

    Bolz 1997, 16 and 2001, 179ff.

  17. 17.

    in detail see Detten 2001, 15ff.

  18. 18.

    Höltermann 2001, 42ff.

  19. 19.

    Kramer 2000, 131ff.

  20. 20.

    e.g. Mann and Essmann 1998.

  21. 21.

    see e.g Hughes and Brecht 1978; Watzlawick et al. 2000, 171ff or Baraldi et al. 1997, 131.

  22. 22.

    Hoogstra 2008.

  23. 23.

    Hoogstra and Schanz 2008b,c.

  24. 24.

    Hoogstra and Schanz 2008a.

  25. 25.

    Mickler et al. 2008.

  26. 26.

    Various taxonomies address the terms “uncertainty”, “risk”, and “ignorance” (e.g. Ravetz 1990; Jaeger et al. 2001). We therefore use the term “uncertainty” with a rather unspecific meaning, implying a lack of subjective or objective security and the lack of knowledge.

  27. 27.

    Ott 2002, 5ff, Renn 2002, 211.

  28. 28.

    Renn 2002.

  29. 29.

    Daly 1999; Ott 2002.

  30. 30.

    Ott considers knowledge about these factors as necessary preconditions for an effective and efficient investment in natural capital (Ott 2002, 11).

  31. 31.

    Peterman and Peters 1998, 105.

  32. 32.

    Walters and Holling 1990.

  33. 33.

    Stankey et al. 2005, 58.

  34. 34.

    Lindblom 1980, 491.

  35. 35.

    Bolz 2001, 105.

  36. 36.

    Lindblom 1980, 489.

  37. 37.

    Holling 1978; Walters 1986; Peterman and Peters 1998.

  38. 38.

    Nyberg 1998.

  39. 39.

    Stankey et al. 2005, 6.

  40. 40.

    Stankey et al. 2005, 7.

  41. 41.

    Kusel et al. 1996.

  42. 42.

    Stankey et al. 2005, 13.

  43. 43.

    Stankey et al. 2005, 19f.

  44. 44.

    Stankey et al. 2005, 57.

  45. 45.

    e.g. Ladson and Argent 2002.

  46. 46.

    The concept has been coined in reference to the term of “boundary object” which has been originally introduced by Star and Griesemer (1989) to describe objects that serve as an interface between different communities of practice. Boundary objects are entities shared by several different communities but viewed or used differently by each of them.

  47. 47.

    Renn 2002: 27ff

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Ulrich Schraml

  2. Institute of Forest Economics, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Roderich v. Detten

Authors
  1. Ulrich Schraml
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  2. Roderich v. Detten
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Correspondence to Roderich v. Detten .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Forest and Environment, University of Applied Sciences Eberswalde, Alfred-Möller Str. 1, Eberswalde, 16225, Germany

    Peter Spathelf

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Schraml, U., Detten, R.v. (2009). Forestry or “The Art of Flying Blind”. Sustainability in an Era of Global Change. In: Spathelf, P. (eds) Sustainable Forest Management in a Changing World. Managing Forest Ecosystems, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3301-7_13

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