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Forests 2013, 4(3), 693-709; doi:10.3390/f4030693

Article

How to Influence Forest-Related Issues in the European Union? Preferred Strategies among Swedish Forest Industry

Therese Bjärstig *  and E. Carina H. Keskitalo

Department of Geography and Economic History, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 14 May 2013; in revised form: 21 June 2013 / Accepted: 8 August 2013 / Published: 28 August 2013

Download PDF Full-Text [513 KB, uploaded 28 August 2013 10:33 CEST]

Abstract: Although forestry is not a regulated area in the European Union (EU), numerous decisions in other policy areas are related to forestry. However, its position outside of formal policy-making can result in the fact that actors, such as those within the forest industry, may have a larger role when compared to other policy sectors where the state system has an integrated role. This explorative study reviews the ways in which the forest industry in Sweden, one of the EU states with the most forest land, tries to protect and promote its interests on an EU-level. It concludes that a main way to influence decision-making in the EU is through lobbying, through its own organisations and through the transnational trade association, The Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI). The study shows that collectively conducted lobbying is largely preferred which means that internal communication is important since lobbying at the EU-level is potentially limited by the diverging positions of trade association members as well as among the different trade associations themselves.

Keywords: Swedish forest industry; transnational trade associations; European Union; communication theory; lobbying

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