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This book analyses and develops overarching concepts for forest policy and forest governance and includes a detailed investigation into the historical discussion on forests. It examines opportunities and limits for negative emissions in a sector that – like peatlands – appears significantly less ambivalent compared to highly technical large-scale forms of climate geoengineering. The analysis shows that the binding climate and biodiversity targets under international law are much more ambitious than most people assume. Measured against that, the volume critically reviews the potentials of afforestation and reforestation for climate mitigation, which is often presented as the new saviour to fulfil the commitments of the Paris Agreement and to reach climate neutrality in the future. It becomes clear that ultimately only biodiverse and thus resilient forests can function as a carbon sink in the long term.
The volume shows that the existing European and international forest governance approaches fail to comply with these targets and insights. Furthermore, the book develops a bundle of policy measures. Quantity governance systems for livestock farming, fossil fuels and similar drivers of deforestations represent the most important approach. They are most effective when not directly targeting forests due to their heterogeneity but central damaging factors. With regard to the dominant regulatory and subsidy-based governance for forests the authors show that it remains necessary to supplement these quantity governance systems with certain easily graspable and thus controllable regulatory and subsidy regulations such as a regulatory protection of old-growth forests with almost no exceptions; extension of the livestock-to-land-ratio established in organic farming to all farming; far-reaching restriction of bioenergy use to certain residues flanked by import bans; and a national and international complete conversion of all agricultural and forest subsidies to "public money for public services" to promote nature conservation and afforestation in addition to the quantity control systems.
Chapter 1. Problem statement and research issues
Chapter 2. Methods, environmental targets, and governance problems
Chapter 3. Forest history and related ideas in society, economy, and law
Chapter 4. Potential and limits of forest ecosystems on climate and biodiversity protection and implications for the legislative process
Chapter 5. Governance analysis - existing regulations and their effectiveness
Chapter 6. Enhanced governance options for regulatory and economic instruments
Dr Jessica Stubenrauch is a post-doctoral researcher at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Environmental and Planning Law, Leipzig. She is a former member of the Research Unit Sustainability and Climate Policy. Her research focuses on sustainable land use in line with international climate and biodiversity targets from a legal and governance perspective. Her particular interest lies in the implementation of sustainable agriculture and forestry systems. As in her PhD thesis on phosphorus governance from a cross-national perspective, including Latin American Countries and Germany, international linkages and telecoupling effects are considered in her governance research.
Prof. Dr Felix Ekardt, LL.M., M.A., is the Director of the Research Unit Sustainability and Climate Policy in Leipzig which he founded in 2009. Since 2009, he is also Professor of Public Law and Legal Philosophy at Rostock University (Faculty of Law) as well as a member of the Leibniz Science Campus on Phosphorus Research – as well as a member of the Interdisciplinary Faculty (Department Knowledge-Culture-Transformation). His scientific focus as a lawyer, philosopher and sociologist lies in issues around human science sustainability studies (transformation, governance, ethics, law).
Dr Beatrice Garske, M.Sc., LL.M. oec., is a member of the Research Unit Sustainability and Climate Policy. She mainly works on the governance of phosphorus, soil and land use as well as agricultural policy and digitalisation. Her special focus is on economic governance instruments and integrated solutions for interlinked environmental problems. Her PhD thesis was on regulatory and economic governance instruments of phosphorus governance taking into account the interlinkages with soil, water, biodiversity and climate. Besides, she is involved in policy consulting projects in the field of governance research on plastic.
Katharina Hagemann, M.A., LL. B., completed her master's degree in "Ethics - Business, Law and Politics" at the Ruhr University in Bochum with a thesis on environmental ethics and environmental law. Afterwards, she worked in the fields of business, human rights and environment. She currently contributes to the research group "Scientific Assessments, Ethics and Policy" at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change. Katharina is a former member of the Research Unit Sustainability and Climate Policy.
