Forestry and Environmental Democracy: The Problematic Case of the South Wales Valleys

Kitchen, Lawrence Charles, Milbourne, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3346-885X, Marsden, Terry Keith ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0503-2039 and Bishop, K. 2002. Forestry and Environmental Democracy: The Problematic Case of the South Wales Valleys. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 4 (2) , pp. 139-155. 10.1002/jepp.106

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Abstract

Academic arguments present a critique of representative democracy and suggest that enhanced participation of communities in the management, governance and regulation of their local environments is required. Similarly, theorists of environmental democracy suggest the possibility and desirability of community involvement. In this paper, we argue that theories of environmental democracy lack the explanatory power to address real-life relations between people and their environment. Drawing on empirical material from recent research in the forested communities of the former coalfields of the South Wales Valleys, we identify significant rigidities, inertia and barriers that stand in the way of community participation in environmental democracy. We do this by constructing a framework for critical analysis that postulates a connection between recent shifts towards post-productivism in British forestry policy and theories of environmental democracy. Our findings point to a dissonance between, on the one hand, post-productivist forestry policy and theoretical discourses of governance, participation and environmental democracy, and, on the other hand, the actual situation of people living in the communities of the Valleys forest in South Wales.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Sustainable Places Research Institute (PLACES) Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	environmental democracy; Forestry Commission; community participation; forestry policy; south Wales valleys; post-productivism
ISSN:	1522-7200
Last Modified:	17 Oct 2022 09:12
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/2391

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