Exploring enablers and obstacles to policy‐oriented learning in Swedish marine national park planning

Abstract

This article deepens our understanding of the preconditions for policy‐oriented learning in conflictive marine conservation, provides an analytical framework for further studies and formulates recommendations for practitioners on what to consider when establishing protected areas. Our seas are under increasing pressure but lag behind in protection. Climate change, intensifying use and biodiversity loss challenge current practises and imply trade‐offs between conservation and use. While nature conservation ranks high internationally, national protection attempts often result in controversies, with actors aligning in opposing advocacy coalitions—for and against the proposals. Policy‐oriented learning is one way to overcome controversies. It involves processes whereby actors gain new knowledge and experiences, leading to changed beliefs about the problems and possible solutions. We aimed to explore and explain policy‐oriented learning through a comparative longitudinal case study of two Swedish national park planning processes with different outcomes: Koster Sea national park, established 2009, and Sankt Anna archipelago remaining without park. Which characteristics related to context, actors and processes influence policy‐oriented learning in conflictive marine conservation processes? The results suggest that a set of complementary factors explain the different outcomes. First, learning is facilitated by contexts where actors from both coalitions depend on the resource and its protection and have experience of collaboration, and where conservation planning is well integrated with other governance processes. Second, engaged key actors with moderate views facilitating interactions and able to identify common interests and deescalate conflicts are important — supported, third, by various forums allowing exchange of knowledge and learning across coalitions.

The Circular Economy in European Union Policy: Explaining an idea's success through policy learning

“…Other scholars have also identified how idea framing plays a key role in how groups of policy actors interact with policy ideas and concepts, either adopting them or disagreeing with them (Ballew et al, 2019; Lakoff, 2010; Liou et al, 2021; Sanderson et al, 2018). Others, such as Kingdon (2013), and Jenkins‐Smith et al (2018), highlighted the important role of ideas in policy and the coalitions of policy actors who carry these ideas forward into policy, findings consistently identified by other learning scholars (Grönholm & Jetoo, 2019; Morf et al, 2023). Popp et al (2011) and Smith (1990) also describe how idea empowerment can influence and pressure policy‐makers to raise awareness about a specific topic and create an acceptance or rejection of a specific idea, how powerful actors can inhibit learning (Johannessen et al, 2019) and how nonstate actors can empower learning (Nath & van Laerhoven, 2021).…”

“…(2018), highlighted the important role of ideas in policy and the coalitions of policy actors who carry these ideas forward into policy, findings consistently identified by other learning scholars (Grönholm & Jetoo, 2019;Morf et al, 2023). Popp et al (2011) and Smith (1990) also describe how idea empowerment can influence and pressure policy-makers to raise awareness about a specific topic and create an acceptance or rejection of a specific idea, how powerful actors can inhibit learning (Johannessen et al, 2019) and how nonstate actors can empower learning (Nath & van Laerhoven, 2021).…”

“…Di Giulio and Vecchi (2019) adopted a deductive approach to policy learning by focusing on the relationship between experts and policy‐makers. Other scholars have focused on how networks of experts can enhance their ability to bring knowledge to policy actors through expert certification (Polman, 2018) and how the ideological biases of policy actors can force them to renegotiate and reframe policy ideas (Leipold, 2021; Morf et al, 2023).…”

Beyond the Ecological Boundary: A Quasi-Natural Experiment on the Impact of National Marine Parks on Eco-Efficiency in Coastal Cities

“…According to Denny, C. and Babcock, R. [17], there should be stringent limitations on productive endeavors within the NMP region, including a complete ban on all fishing activities. However, the closure of the core area of the NMP may cause partial transfer of marine exploitation activities to adjacent sea areas [18], and may also generate conflicts among various stakeholders [19].…”