Forestry

Illegal logging. About the getting of the problem in the institutional agenda

The study, focused on the problem of illegal logging, aimed to identify prospectively what were the main social problems associated with the field of forestry activity before Romania's accession to the EU and which was the document that represented the first Public Policy Proposal formulated in order to solve the problem. Methodologically, the content analysis and the documentary analysis of a sample from the written press of 2006 and of some programmatic documents elaborated in the organizational practice were used. The conditions were verified that the problem of illegal logging could qualify from the public agenda to the formal agenda and the main stakeholders who intended to include public policy on the Government's working agenda were identified. The position of the media regarding social problems and the competent authorities in the forestry field was quantified and the main limits of the National Plan for Combating Illegal Logging were noted.

Keywords: forestry policies, content analysis, documentary analysis, media, illegal logging.

Focused on illegal logging in Romania, the current study intends to redefine the problem by employing public poliy knowhow. Both objectives of the studies relate to this phase:
A. identification the illegal logging activities and
B. identification and validation of stakeholders specific to Romania.
The following methodologies were employed: documentary analysis and the interview technique (for A) and the “snowball” technique applied on online media resources (for B). For stakeholder analysis a new model was proposed “The Typology of the Proposed Role in the Project” which allows the public policy proposer to connect the stakeholder roles to their most important traits: the power and the interests, an essential
fact in the measurement implementation phase. Secondly, some limits of the National Plan Against Illegal Logging, the first (and the only) public policy proposal developed by the central authority responsible for forestry were identified.
Keywords: Illegal logging, public policies, forestry programs, documentary analysis, content analysis, stakeholder analysis.

Romanian forest strategies. A brief analysis
The current study aims to analyse how Romanian forestry strategies are constructed (elaborated and stated), with an emphasis on the way the phenomenon of illegal logging is treated. The employed methodology is the social document analysis: six plans and strategies developed at the national level are investigated. The results highlight the fact that for 20 years, Romania did not have a national strategy in the field of forestry, either because it did not elaborate one, or because it did not exceed the phases of elaborating, approving and implementing it. In the timeframe 2001-2010 Romania had a formally developed and approved forestry strategy, but its result has not been evaluated: its impact is not known. The current strategy was developed in 2012 with some phrasing and
structure deficiencies. It is currently in the plan and program evaluation phase with respect to the environmental impact.
Keywords: forestry strategies, public policies, social document analysis, illegal logging.

This study analyses the extent to which the Romanian National Plan Against Illegal Logging (Planul Național de Combatere a Tăierilor Ilegale de Arbori (PNCTIA) fulfils the conditions of a functional public policy proposal; the degree of knowledge specialists (forestry staff, policemen, prosecutors); and the general public have about it; what efficiency they attribute to it; and the need for a new strategy. The main limitations of PNCTIA with respect to defining and formulating the public policy issue were identified using the document analysis technique. Moreover, the questionnaire technique was employed to evaluate the specialists and the public view towards the plan. Over 40% of the interviewees consider PNCTIA to be inefficient, while 33% were undecided. 77% wished for the adoption of a new public policy; 85% highlighted the matter as urgent. The low level of efficiency of PNCTIA was correlated with the need to have another intervention plan and with high urgency to implement the measures. The perspective of having a new programme correlates positively both with institutional involvement and with urgency level of the actions. The study highlights the importance of participatory processes in the development of public policies.

The aim of this study is to describe the current situation of forest management in Romania, with a focus on the evolution of private forest districts, by perusing the literature. The restitution process of forests was initiated in 1991 in the absence of a proper institutional framework since Law 26 (the forest code post-communist) only appeared in 1996, and the first regulation concerning the private forest management, which is Law 141, even later on, in 1999. The thumb-up for forest owners to associate in private forest districts in order to manage their properties came through the Government Order 116 of 2002, and shortly afterwards the first associations were authorised. Thus, ever since the first private forest district was founded in 2002 in the Caras-Severin County, the number and surface of the state-owned forest districts gradually decreased inasmuch as by the end of 2012 there were 139 private forest districts managing in excess of 1733 thousand hectares of forests. Nowadays the management of the national forest fund is done mainly through the state-owned forest districts, but with regard to the forest fund other than that owned by the state, the private forest districts became the main managing tool.

"Dincolo de gard" este titlul unui proiect studențesc și al unei expoziţii de sociologie vizuală. Studenții fac o primă incursiune în metodologia cercetării sociologice, utilizând tehnica interviului „Life story”, interviu non-directiv specific cercetării de tip calitativ care ulterior poate fi analizat și interpretat. Maniera etnometodologică este implicată pentru ca tinerii cercetători să poată realiza un transfer facil între realitatea socială și concepte, să debuteze în utilizarea noțiunilor și definițiilor furnizate de teoriile sociologice, să fie capabili să poată ,,opera” cu aceste noțiuni și concepte în practicile cotidiene de viață.

The study analyzes the aspects of trust within the existing relations between the 34 stakeholders involved in solving the phenomenon of illegal logging, which is treated as a public policy issue. Conceptually, trust is modeled as a multifaceted construct, with 6 distinct types, based on what generates it. The employed instrument (a questionnaire) measures the level of trust/distrust and the incidence of each type, through a series of verbal descriptors (phrases) which reflect the trust behaviors perceived when the subjects experience situations of cooperation/conflict in the
interaction with the phenomenon. The methodology involves statistical analysis: frequency, cluster, correlation study and variance analysis for correlated data. The study sample, stratified on the criterion of belonging to a stakeholder, has national representation. The results indicate trust/mistrust levels (cumulative values), cluster grouping and their relation to other known attributes (power, interest). The stakeholders are analyzed and classified according to the types of trust they exercise
(calculative vs. relational), reflecting how each trust type facilitates the mechanism of producing the cohesion of the involved organizations and the accumulation of trust capital. The results argue that a consequence of involvement in solving the problem from functional positions (of authority,
with assigned roles) is the generation of a sufficient „amount” of trust in groups, where the types of „trust by identification” dominate. In the interpretive register, trust is connected to the role played by the stakeholder in the program (Mertonian paradigm). Practically, this research offers a new perspective upon the involved actors: who are the stakeholders that matter and what is the lever to increase their credibility and strengthen cohesion, who opposes solving the problem and who is
interested in maintaining it to trade it at the imagological level.
Keywords: trust, stakeholder analysis, public policies, illegal logging, deforestation
Résumé: Notre étude examine les différentes formes de la confiance dans les relations entre les 34 stakeholders impliqués dans l’intervention contre la déforestation illégale en tant que politique publique. La confiance est considérée comme une élaboration multidimensionnelle, ayant six types
distincts. Le questionnaire utilisé dans le cadre de notre enquête mesure le niveau de confiance/ méfiance et l’incidence de chaque type concerné à travers un certain nombre d’indicateurs (propositions) qui correspondent aux comportements de confiance des sujets en situation de coopération ou de conflit. Nous avons procédé à des analyses statistiques et l’échantillon étudié est représentatif au niveau national. Les résultats font apparaitre les niveaux de confiance/méfiance, le regroupement
cluster et leur rapport à d’autres propriétés connues (pouvoir, intérêts). Les stakeholders qui font l’objet de l’analyse sont classés selon les types de confiance manifestée (rationnels ou relationnels) afin de comprendre le mécanisme qui assure la cohésion des organisations et l’accumulation d’un capital de confiance. Les résultats obtenus font état du lien entre les positions d’autorité et l’imposition de la „confiance par identification” dans certains groupes.
Mots-clés: confiance, analyse des stakeholders, politiques publiques, déforestation illégale