Cultural entrenchment: Explaining gaps between ecosystem-based management policy and practice in the forests of Newfoundland

• Forest policies in Newfoundland have transitioned to ecosystem-based management
• Forest practices have remained entrenched in timber-based management
• This is attributed to negative feedback loops as a result of cultural entrenchment
• Insights are offered into ways to overcome cultural entrenchment to implement EBM

Forests in North America have been managed, or unmanaged, under a number of different policy regimes, most recently ecosystem-based management (EBM), which has emerged in response to perceived widespread ecological degradation. But as policy regimes shift, links between stated objectives and the tools or mechanisms to achieve those objectives need to be forged. This case study of forestry on the island of Newfoundland provides an illustration of the gaps between EBM policy and practice, and insights into why EBM can be difficult to implement. Though the case of Newfoundland is unusual because of its isolation, narrow set of economic options, and weak ENGO sector, its adherence to a traditional timber regime offers lessons for the ways that policies move from agenda setting to implementation. In this case, the role of cultural entrenchment—a commitment to timber-based management and to a provincial model of economic support for large-scale industry—created a negative feedback loop that undermined new policy objectives. But a window of opportunity has emerged as a result of pulp and paper industry decline, and so overcoming cultural entrenchment and building a new forest management regime centered on EBM is possible through clearly articulated policy mechanisms and the integration of new forms of expertise.