Policy process
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Information Portal on Forest Policies, Institutions and Instruments
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Political processes are the chains of activities and events, from the very beginning of raising an issue on the political agenda, to argumentation, possible confrontation, political struggle, coalition, negotiation, compromise, solution and finally to implementation. The policy process can be described by the following steps (Anderson et al. 1984): (1) Problem formulation, (2) Policy agenda, (3) Policy formulation, (4) Policy adaptation, (5) Policy implementation, and (6) Policy evaluation. But in practice policy making is an iterative process, and going from item 6 back to 1 means that desirable changes in policy are recognized and formulated again. Policies are the outcome of politics to be implemented by the state in different sectors of society. Political processes and institutions formulate the policies and make the final decision on the contents, goals and resources for certain policies [1]. Policies usually takes the form of conventions, agreements, treaties, declarations, directives, strategies, programmes, initiatives, forums, conferences, etc.
There is a complex network of international, pan-European, EU, regional and national policy processes which directly and indirectly affects the development of the pan-European forest sector:
Forest policy processes promoting development and sustainable management of the forests in Europe
- Global forest policy processes (e.g.IPF/IFF Process, United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), Agenda 21,Chapter 11 Combating Desertification,ICP Forests: International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air, etc.)
- European Union forest policy processes (e.g. EU Forest Policy, Forest Focus Framework Regulation, EU Forest Strategy,etc.)
- Regional forest policy processes (e.g. FOREST EUROPE, Carpathian Convention, Alpine Convention, etc.)
- National forest policy processes (e.g. National forest programmes/strategies, etc.)
Policy processes related to specific cross-cutting sectors: agriculture and rural development,environmental protection, climate change and energy, sustainable development, transport, trade, tourism,etc
- Global policy processes (e.g.United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNECD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), etc.)
- European Union policy processes (e.g. EU Sustainable Development Strategy, EU Water Framework Directive, European Landscape Convention, etc.)
- Regional policy processes (e.g.Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS))
- National policy processes (e.g. National Rural Development programmes, national climate change strategies, etc)
