- University: Technische Universität Dresden
- Place of defence: Dresden
- Hosting institution(s): New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science
- Keywords: Climate change adaptation, Forestry, Governance capacity, Capacity mobilisation, Multilevel governance, New Zealand
Abstract
Although New Zealand’s forestry sector is projected to experience adverse impacts from climate change, adaptation efforts have remained limited to date. In order to better understand the factors underlying this limited adaptation and to identify pathways to advance it, this research examines governance capacities, the factors shaping them, and the mechanisms through which they can be mobilised across multiple stakeholder groups. To gain an in-depth understanding of these processes, a policy analysis of 26 national adaptation policies and 40 semi-structured interviews with experts and key informants were conducted. The results reveal limited consideration of forest adaptation within the analysed policy documents. Governance capacities vary both between and within stakeholder groups and are shaped by power relations, conflicts, competition and mistrust, institutional restructuring, limited interest and entrenched thinking, demographics, organisational flexibility, mutual understanding, and pathdependencies around the dominant management system. Key factors supporting the mobilisation of existing capacities into adaptation action include leadership, incentives, clear accountability, and the values and priorities of individuals able to mobilise capacities. Furthermore, the multilevel governance context can shape capacities, and either enable or constrain their mobilisation through supportive regulatory frameworks, and policy coherence and consistency across temporal and spatial scales. The findings suggest that strengthening governance capacity alone is unlikely to be sufficient to accelerate adaptation. Rather, advancing adaptation requires not only enhancing governance capacities to establish enabling conditions across stakeholder groups, but also fostering the institutional, organisational, and leadership conditions that allow these capacities to be mobilised and translated into action. A more detailed understanding of these mobilisation mechanisms, beyond the assessment of capacities themselves, is needed to support transformative adaptation.
