The development of governance innovations for the sustainable provision of forest ecosystem services in Europe: A comparative analysis of four pilot innovation processes

In the past decades, novel governance and management approaches that support the provision of non-marketable Forest Ecosystem Services (FES) have emerged throughout Europe. However, it remains unclear under which circumstances such modes of FES governance develop and which sets of social-ecological parameters, management formats, and interests enable or constrain these processes. In this paper, we aim to shed light on the development processes of such governance innovations. We combine approaches from natural resource governance with insights from innovation studies to identify the close interrelations between designing governance approaches and the inherent innovation dynamics in their development. Empirically, we apply an adapted innovation journey approach to reconstruct the development history of four governance innovations in Europe. We analyse key turning points and crucial influencing factors of the innovation processes, focussing on interests, resources, and values of actors, biophysical and technical conditions of the forest resource systems, institutions and governance arrangements, and features of the innovation management. Our findings show that often individual actors became mainstays of the innovation developments, whereas governmental organisations took up an important role in managing the innovation development process, without being the main change agents. Further, in cases with a reliable legal environment and existing funding schemes innovation development was fostered effectively. While various natural disturbances negatively impacted upon innovation development, most crisis-related interruptions provided an opportunity for radically changing pathways. We conclude that to cope with these uncertain development dynamics, conditions for innovation development need to be created that allow for continuous monitoring and adaptation of innovation processes along their development. For future governance innovation development processes, this calls for the setup of protected spaces that allow for stakeholder participation and open deliberation of interests and expectations regarding FES provisioning as preconditions for governance co-design work based on mutual learning and reflection.