Policy change through the lens of private forest owners’ business cooperation

The transition to a market economy in some former socialist countries such as Slovenia and Slovakia have led to a remarkable change in private forest ownership, more specifically to the emergence of a large number of private forest owners (PFOs) with limited knowledge and experience in forest management. Since then, PFOs have posed a challenge for implementing EU and national forest policy goals. To support efficient private forest management and policy implementation, governments have responded by proposing various policy instruments, including PFOs business cooperation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse and compare a PFOs business cooperation as a policy instrument and the role that external events have on forest policy change related PFOs cooperation. Implementing the Advocacy Coalition Framework this study is based on a longitudinal analysis of forest-related policy documents (1993–2024) at three points in time. The results confirm that normative policy core beliefs remain stable over time, while external events such as the restitution process, EU accession and changed socio-economic conditions (e.g., GDP growth, decline in rural population and lower dependence of PFOs on income from agriculture and forestry) have caused changes in secondary beliefs. Financial support from the state budget and EU funds has been provided to encourage PFO business cooperation, but the interest of PFOs to join such cooperation has been limited. While economic support is crucial, it alone is not sufficient to increase the willingness of PFOs to engage in business cooperation. Greater use of informational policy instruments is needed to motivate PFOs to engage.