Political Drivers of Forest Management in Mediterranean Countries: A Comparative Study of Tunisia, Italy, Portugal and Turkey

Attachments:

Volume spécial - CIRS2017, Article14

[Volume spécial - CIRS2017, Article14]

574 kB

Abstract - The ecological basis of forests in Mediterranean countries is quite similar, but the management of ecosystem services differs substantially. The question is which political factors drive the different forest management concepts. Our political analysis looks on private and public actors and their power and interests which shape the management of the ecosystem services of the forests in Tunisia and compares the results with Italy, Portugal and Turkey. We apply an analytical study of interests, conflicts and actor-centered power with a triangulation of qualitative data (document analysis, qualitative interviews and observations) in 2016-2017. We compare our results with the results of ALTERFOR project covering European countries.Thestudy shows that in all cases the key actors are the state institutions, whereas the importance of other actors varies between the countries.In Tunisia and Turkey all forests are state-owned and the governmental institutions dominate forest management. However, in Portugal, actors from timber sector are considerably strong by providing incentives. A particularity of Tunisia is the noticeable impact of international organizations in forest management by the means of incentives and dominant information. In all cases, the shift from government to governance did not happen, but some indicators and previous experiences from other developing countries show the potential in Tunisia.

Keywords: actor-centered power, interests, forest governance, ecosystem services, Mediterranean countries.