Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Project Leadership: Prof. Dr. Diana Panke, Prof. Dr. Daniela Kleinschmit

Research Assistants: Alex B. Onatunji, M.Sc. , Tainá E. Siman, M.A.

 

Abstract

Globalization, internationalization and an increasing number of transboundary environmental challenges such as climate change and biodiversity have led political actors to recognize the need for forest policy beyond the national level. This is also reflected in research with an increasing number of studies on the international forest regime. These works have shown that the international regime is fragmented and contributes only to a limited extent to effective forest governance. While the international level is frequently studied, we know less about the governance performance of regional regimes dealing with forest governance, although there are a total of 76 different regimes at the regional level, of which the European Union or Congo Basin Forest Partnership are prominent examples. 

 

Given the limited effectiveness of the international forest regime, the comparative and comprehensive study of different regional forest governance regimes and their differences and similarities in performance becomes all the more important. Through a comparative approach, this project contributes to closing knowledge gaps on regional regimes. 

 

To this end, three research questions on three dimensions of performance, output, outcome and impact of forest governance in regional regimes are examined. These are: 

1. Do regional regimes differ in terms of the type and amount of forest governance outputs they produce (number of policies, decisions, etc. that a regional regime adopts), and how can observed differences be explained? 
2. Do some regional regimes perform better in terms of forest governance outcomes (activities based on regional regime outputs) and why? 
3. When do regional regimes achieve high impact in forest governance (problem solving) and how can differences in this regard be explained?