Regional International Organisations as Shapers of Forestry Policy? The Puzzling Relationship between Forest Cover and Forest Policy Output

In research on the international forest regime complex, Regional International Organizations (RIOs) as institutionalized organizations of at least three member states from a geographic area, are often overlooked. This is striking, given that RIOs engage in a broad variety of different forest policies. In other words, RIOs are potentially crucial forest policy makers. A study of all 15 RIOs with forestry competencies reveals that in the period between 2006 and 2023, they differ in the number of outputs passed. Most strikingly, it is puzzling that some organizations with high shares of forest cover in their member states’ territories hardly have any forestry policies (e.g. the Economic Community of Central African States, Central American Integration System, the Organization of American States) while others have passed numerous policies (the European Union). Likewise, it is puzzling that some RIOs with limited forest cover have passed few policies (e.g. Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Caribbean Community, the Pacific Islands Forum) while others are considerably more active despite a limited proportion of forests cover in their member states’ territories (e.g. the Economic Community of West African States). Thus, this paper addresses the following research question: Why are some RIOs more active in passing forest policies than the forest cover of their member states would suggest, while other RIOs are less active even though their member states have high shares of forest cover? To answer this question, the paper draws on RIO and environmental politics literatures in order to develop hypotheses accounting for the observed variation in the forestry policy outputs of RIO. Subsequently, the paper sheds light on the plausibility on the expectations. To this end, it utilizes a series of qualitative case studies including RIOs from Africa and the Americas. Preliminary findings indicate that next to forest cover, which influences the demand for governance, RIO policy output in the forestry domain is affected by the political and financial capacities of the RIOs and their member states as well as the configuration of economic and environmental interests.