Close(d) to Nature - Modifying Work in Swedish Forestry

Abstract

This thesis explores the discursive formation and modification of close-to-nature forestry (CNF) as an issue in the Swedish forestry debate. While forests are important for recreation, culture, and economy in Sweden, they are also a source of controversy and polarised debates – predominately so in the environmental debate. Clear-cutting is used in 90 per cent of Sweden’s productive forests and is considered the most beneficial management for the forestry industry. The EU Commission’s New Forest Strategy (EUFS) released in 2021 however criticised clear-cutting due to the release of CO2 and negative consequences for biodiversity. What instead was endorsed and has gained attention in recent years is CNF, a practice that preserves the biodiversity and continuity of forests. With clear-cutting dominating Swedish forestry, such a shift would alter the industry at the core. By asking how CNF is shaped as an issue by the state and forestry industry in Sweden; what strategies to modify CNF take place; and how the dominant forestry framing is affected and protected in relation to the CNF issue, this thesis covers how CNF has been shaped and modified in Swedish documents between 2004–2023. Combining the theoretical tools of ‘issue formation’, ‘modifying work’, and ‘framings and overflowings/leaks’, the thesis broadens the understanding of how dominating framings of forests and forestry are sustained. The modifying strategies of diversion, displacement, detachment, and this study’s additions of delay, delegitimization, and duplication, are found to be used by state and industry to protect their forestry practices. Their strive to transform CNF into a non-issue makes visible increasingly occurring leaks in their framing. This knowledge of how modifying work can be used to protect dominating framings is useful to understand by which means power is maintained through certain small, discursive tools.