The Wicked Problem of Forest Policy

Book excerpt: Forests play an important role in resolving global challenges such as sustainable development, climate change, biodiversity loss, and food and water security. Stopping deforestation is crucial for the future of our planet. Global efforts to curb deforestation, have been partially successful, but have largely fallen short. At the same time, national level efforts to support human development, reflected in the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, aim to increase the welfare and wellbeing of populations living in poverty. Meeting these development goals will inevitably have crosscutting effects on initiatives to address deforestation. In balancing these goals, policy makers are confronted with wicked problems – or problems where there are moral considerations and where limited information is available for policy makers. This book is focused on how wicked forest policy problems have been, and can be, addressed.