Governing forestry: Environmental group influence in British Columbia and the United States Pacific Northwest

Increased societal pressures over the last thirty years for greater eco-forest protection in British Columbia and the US Pacific Northwest appear to be forces for (upward) policy convergence. However, choices regarding forest land use (what to protect; where to log) and forest practices (how to log) have been a tale of policy divergence. The relative power of the state, industry, environmental groups, and other organized interests have also responded to societal pressures in distinct ways. The dissertation seeks to explain these divergent policy responses and the differing influence of environmental groups. Employing a policy community/network approach and drawing from historical institutionalist theory, the dissertation tests the argument that macro-institutional structures, statutory regimes, and level of public land ownership appear to be key explanatory factors for understanding the nature of forest policy and network change.; The dissertation finds that the conjunction of these three variables largely explains the high level of state autonomy in British Columbia, where forest policy and network change is strongly influenced by the actions of the governing party. In contrast, significant changes in the PNW have been primarily the product of organized non-governmental interests (the forest industry in the case of Oregon and Washington State regulations and environmental group litigation in the case of US PNW federal lands policy). At the same time the research finds that this institutional explanation must be accompanied by an understanding of the role and place of each region's forest economy within the North American and international economies. These factors help account for the internationalization of BC's forest policy community in the early 1990s, and the paucity of attention US environmental groups give to private land forest regulations in the Pacific Northwest.