Is a sustainability transition possible within the decision-support services provided to Finnish forest owners?

• Published in: Forest policy and economics 2023-05, Vol.150, p.102940, Article 102940
• Main Authors: Takala, Tuomo, Tanskanen, Minna, Brockhaus, Maria, Kanniainen, Teija, Tikkanen, Jukka, Lehtinen, Ari, Hujala, Teppo, Toppinen, Anne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Critical discourse analysis; Decision aid; Environmental literacy; Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling; Strong sustainability; Weak sustainability
• ISSN: 1389-9341; 1872-7050
• DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2023.102940

North-European decision-support service providers have been advised to look beyond wood production to respond to the diverse needs of forest owners, to maximise business opportunities and to fulfil the pluralist goals of society. However, change in the service sector has remained limited to date. Here, we applied a mixed-method critical discourse analysis to examine whether the discourses produced by Finnish forest owners (n=12) and consulting professionals (n=12) recognise the need for decision-support services that deviate from current production-centred thinking and promote more sustainable forest use. We identified four discourses of service development. The juggling discourse welcomed new service innovations for sustainable forestry on condition that these continue to support high-quality forestry and are in demand by forest owners. In the productivist discourse, a strong focus on wood production has made it impossible to envisage any reason for change. The loyal discourse, produced only by forest owners, was more open to change but was still satisfied with the existing services. Together, these three discourses ensured a service interaction that effectively excluded all forest-related contradictions and sustained the production-centred business-as-usual approach. The environmentally focused critical discourse advised that decision-support services should adopt a strong sustainability view that highlights human responsibility for nature, although these ideas remained outside of everyday service interactions. Our results illustrated that the current discursive conditions effectively suppress any ideas that deviate from production-centred thinking within the mainstream decision-support services provided to Finnish forest owners. To facilitate change, service providers require concrete and economically attractive best practice examples of new service products that follow a strong-sustainability view. •The possibility of a sustainability transition within forestry services was studied.•Strong discursive resistance to the change was detected.•The transition was only demanded outside forestry services.•Concrete examples of strong-sustainability service products are needed.