Government policies relate to a wide range of varied but interconnected goals - social, economic and environmental. The multiple use attributes of plantation forests mean that their management can be both instruments of policy, and can be indirectly affected by a wide range of policies concerned with either economic efficiency, social equity, or environmental and economic sustainability factors.
For this reason, effective policy development needs to be holistic in approach by taking account of these linkages and the “policy ecology” relating to particular circumstances. Policy development that does otherwise, by the pursuit of a narrow agenda such as economic efficiency, runs the risk of not achieving policy goals, or even working against their achievement.
There are further complications for the policy makers to consider. The agents through which plantation forestry is established and managed include individuals, communities, governments themselves, and corporate entities. To this complication is added the differences in background conditions both within countries and between countries. These conditions relate to human factors (social preferences and attitudes), the infrastructure of the socio-political and economic environment, and the natural environment conducive - or otherwise - to plantation forestry.
The differences among and between countries make the transferability of policy difficult. Country-specific and even locally specific policies are advisable. The rise in public participation is part of this realisation in action.
A useful policy analysis framework from which to appraise policy options is offered by Porter’s analysis of competitive advantage, augmented by the developing analysis and importance of social capital (a sociological component). To this framework should be added an understanding of decision-making of the various agents who affect forestry management; especially an understanding of their motivations (a psychological component). Simple assumptions of rational economic man without reference back to real people are too narrow a basis for policy.
The emerging trends in forestry policy affecting plantation forestry include:
