Political party difference in forest nature conservation policy of the German Bundeslaender

Abstract

Forest nature conservation is an environmental and climate-relevant policy field that is characterized by strong conflicts between interests on protection and utilization. Based on central conflicts, the article examines the extent to which the policy outputs of the state governments correspond to the conflicting interests of the nature conservation and forestry sectors, and what influence different political parties have on this. In doing so, he makes an empirical contribution to the partisan theory in a field that has not been well researched. The data are collected between 2002 and 2020 according to legislative periods, for each of which a position value is determined based on the interests of the sectors. The comparison of these values makes it possible to identify policy change. Government involvement and departmental responsibilities are used to measure party influence. The result shows that the policy outputs are predominantly forest-oriented, but there is a strong trend towards nature conservation. There has been a nature conservation-oriented policy change in almost all Bundeslaender, in a few cases forest-oriented ones as well, and in all the states there has also been the preservation of the status quo. The Greens have made a decisive contribution to policy change towards nature conservation interests, to a lesser extent the SPD and in some cases the CDU/CSU, which, however, predominantly advocated maintaining the status quo. This shows a clear difference between the parties. In the policy field, which is strongly characterized by ministerial competencies, the measurement of party influence through departmental responsibility has proven its worth. The party affiliation of the ministers proves to be an important factor for the policy orientation.