Climate Policy Integration by Heiner von Lüpke

Author:Heiner von Lüpke
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783031189272
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Involvement of non-state actors in policy discourse

According to most interviewees, non-state actors did not influence the policy discourse much, at least when comparing the activities with the equivalent actors in the agriculture sector, where they are much better organized. A number of reasons were provided as follows:

According to a think tank representative (11), the forest sector is not very well-known to the general population: It would come to most people on the street as a surprise to hear that Mexico has the 11th largest forest cover of nations worldwide. NGOs have not picked up the topic as they potentially could. The same source states that there are ten agriculture lobby groups on the federal level, while there is only one for the forest sector. This also means that the influence on policies is much greater from agriculture and that their concerns are much more reflected in policymaking than in forestry.

According to a high-ranking CONAFOR official of the Calderón term (16), the economic case for forest production is definitely present: The economic analysis of forest management shows a positive cost-benefit ratio in most circumstances. However, not many people are actually aware of the sector and the forestry business is not something that is familiar to many businesspeople.

Another think tank actor mentioned that the reasons for the low priority of the climate change and forests topic is the lack of narrative and political comprehension of the topic (15). This was apparently also due to the errors of the environmental conservation groups: these have communicated the topic poorly and too much emphasis was laid on conservation only. As a result, links were rather created with the stereotype of conserving birds and trees (“pajaritos y arbolitos”) instead of actual development and forests. The same source, however, insists that development per se is a term frequently used in Spanish Mexican politics to mean economic development (ibid). The NGOs and non-state actors did not manage to adapt to the discourse of the elected politicians: If new policies are—by way of example—rather focused on poverty reduction and social equality, then the climate change discourse has to be made compatible in order to be heard and make an impact in sectoral discourses. This was deemed to be important if a convincing narrative is to be established (TT15).

Referring to the general population as the politician’s constituency and thereby influencing which topics are taken up on the political agenda, some important aspects remain obstacles to long-term forestry and climate policymaking:A long-term vision does not exist because people do not feel a need for it (TT15).

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