Tapio Rantala Savonlinna 10.9.2001
Department
of Forest Economics
University
of Helsinki
The
contemporary forest policy should not be assessed in isolation from societal
affairs. In the project ‘Sustainable
use of forests – a social scientific and ethical analysis’ forest policy and
its relationship to environmental questions are investigated on the basis of
social scientific and ethical analysis.
Liberalism
with its emphasis on the primacy of individuals and neutrality of public
institutions is the prevailing societal ideology of contemporary western
countries even though its nature as such is not often realised. To understand and analyse the recent
developments as well as the possible future directions of contemporary western
forest policy, it is essential to reflect this ideological nature of
liberalism, its basic principles and its implications at the level of the
political theory and applied philosophy.
The
character of Finnish forest policy cannot be understood without referring to
these liberal tendencies, which have challenged the exceptionally strong
state-directness of the past decades.
Finnish forest policy has always been a major part of the national
consensus concerning the methods, goals and purposes of the Finnish society at
large, based on a number of paternalistic political doctrines and a vision of
Finland standing on wooden legs. In
forest sector this consensus has been crystallised in the maximal use and
production of forest resources in the subsequent debate of the distribution of
ensuring economic benefits. This
pattern has been, however, challenged by contemporary environmentalist groups
not sharing this framework and these goals but who instead emphasise the
intrinsic value of the forests. The
result has been a breakdown in mutual understanding and communication.
Based on
these reflections, a number of important general problems arising in the
liberal framework of forest policy will be discussed: its ability to direct broad-spectrum forest policy, to produce
common goods through its central medium, the markets, or to satisfy the
requirements of sustainability.