Globally, in recent decades, forest industry has come under increased scrutiny, often led by environmental non-government organisations (ENGOs). The present paper analyses the strategies used by the ENGOs in different forest conflicts involving forest industry. The main aim is to determine if there is a relationship between forest industries' partners (shareholders, financiers and customers) and the location of the ENGOs campaigning against them. Fourteen forest conflicts are used as case studies, representing different geographical regions. A detailed screening of the different actors and relations was performed for each case study based on existing academic literature, publications from relevant ENGOs and companies. The results reveal a strong correlation between the location of the ENGOs involved and the companies' financial and economic partners. We put forward, and test, a theoretical framework to explain the mechanisms used by the ENGOs to apply pressure on the companies involved in conflicts. The blanket nature of the campaigns by ENGOs illustrates that the movement has globalised in response to the global nature of the industry. The present research contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between forest industry and ENGOs, including the strategies employed by the ENGOs, and in assisting forest industry in its interactions with stakeholders, including ENGOs.
Keywords: Blanket campaigns, environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs), forest conflicts, globalisation of forest industry and ENGOs
David Gritten and Blas Mola-YudegoAcknowledgements: The authors would like to express their thanks to the various academics, ENGOs and forest companies that helped providing some of the information for the conflicts. Our gratitude also goes to the School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland and the Finnish Cultural Foundation for the financial support provided. Additionally, the authors would like to thank Prof. Paavo Pelkonen and Ms. Mari Selkimäki and Mireia Vilaplana Rojas for their invaluable input to earlier versions of this paper. We would also like to thank the three reviewers for their invaluable suggestions on an earlier version of this paper.