Power-Linked Evaluation of State Forest Organizations
A New Model and International Empirical Evidence
von Ameni Hasnaoui
Datum der mündl. Prüfung:2021-04-12
Erschienen:2021-06-24
Betreuer:Prof. Dr. Max Krott
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Dirk Hölscher
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Abdelhamid Khaldi
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Eduardo Rojas-Briales
Dateien
Name:Dissertation_Ameni Hasnaoui.pdf
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Format:PDF
Description:Dissertation_Ameni Hasnaoui
Zusammenfassung
Englisch
Globally, state forest organizations have a wide scope of tasks. They play a central role in managing state-owned forestlands. In addition, they are responsible for implementing forest law on both private and state-owned forestlands. This task's complexity causes a huge challenge for evaluating state forest organizations. The active role that state forest organizations play in policy processes increases these difficulties because of power, which is considered a crucial factor for achieving forest outcomes. The constitutive publications of this thesis identify a link between state forest organizations' power and forest outcomes in the case of Tunisia. Following the revolution of 2011, the state forest organizations lost power and faced new challenges to achieve sustainability goals. The main objectives of this thesis are (i) to scrutinize the role of power in driving the performance of state forest organizations to achieve specific forest outcomes and (ii) to look for a larger empirical basis to check the relevance of power as a driver of the state forest organizations in different contexts. Theoretically, this thesis develops a new power-linked three-layer model (3L model) based on political evaluation and power theories. The 3L model was selected due to its comprehensive coverage of a broad range of ecosystem services, including timber production, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. The actor-centered power approach was selected because it links power to a specific actor and makes the elements of power well measurable. Within the developed model, actor-centered power is integrated on the theory level and linked with the state forest organization's outcomes in forestry as a driving factor. The link between power and outcomes' achievements by state forest organizations was first explored in the case studies of Tunisia. In addition, a systematic literature review was conducted to extend the empirical basis for the power-linked 3L model. The results show that achieving high outcomes requires both high interest and the strong power of state forest organizations. Furthermore, state forest organizations combine the different power elements of coercion, (dis-)incentives, and dominant information flexibly to implement forest policies effectively. Despite empirical evidence of 49 case studies from the global north and south, this empirical basis remains too limited and selective to check the power-linked 3L model comprehensively. As a practical solution to improve the evaluation of state forest organizations in the future, a new platform is designed to collect consistent data globally. The power-linked 3L model provides a guide for creating the platform's content and specifies the data input enabling a theory-based comparison between different countries. Finally, some policy and management requirements for establishing such a platform are discussed. To conclude, the new power-linked 3L model can significantly improve the evaluation of state forest organizations and support effective reforms in practice.
Keywords: State forest organizations; Evaluation; Actors' power; Forestland policy; Forest governance; Criteria and indicators