Adaptation of the regional forestry administration to national forest, climate change and rural development policies in Finland

This paper examines the process of adaptation of the regional forestry administration in Finland to cross-scale socio-ecological changes in national policies and in the forest ecosystem. Self-organisation and knowledge building are the key elements employed in this case study conducted in the Southern Ostrobothnia Forestry Centre to analyse how the knowledge claims and networks are created in order to implement wood energy development projects. The case study method and the theory of adaptive co-management are found to be useful in explaining and understanding policy implementation and outcomes at the regional and local levels. A wood energy project met the forest, climate change and rural development policy targets by facilitating the establishment of a small heating business producing renewable energy from young forest thinnings. The practical outputs at the local level were energy generation from a renewable source; an increase in the area of young forest management; and increased rural entrepreneurship and employment. The unintentional output was that a new wood market arose. As a result of the case study, a two-level network has been introduced as an adaptive policy implementation practice.