Assessing policies from a systems perspecitve — Experiences with applied innovation systems analysis and implications for policy evaluation

Systemic approaches to the analysis of empirical phenomena are not new, but have gained renewed attention by many disciplines over the last decade. While ecological systems and their dynamics are well established in forestry sciences, forest policy research has hardly made attempts to use a systemic approach in analysis. The objective of the paper is to show the feasibility and limitations in applying a systems-based approach to the evaluation of forest policy. Empirical data from Austria on forestry related innovation policy is used as an example. In Austria surveys of the innovation and entrepreneurial behaviour of forest holdings and different levels of the institutional systems as well as case study analyses have been conducted. The results show that the approach allows mapping policy actor networks active in implementation of policies and their interactions, policy outcome at different institutional levels (international to local) as well as perceived impacts on the target groups.The main strength of the systemic policy evaluation approach is the ability to deal with complex structures and non-linear, iterative processes which are typical in policy making. The approach does not work with pre-defined delineations of policy fields and procedural models but empirically studies the relevant networks of actors and their interactions. At the same time this quality reveals the difficulties in delineating policy systems and the systems' functions even when employing a systems perspective. In conclusion it can be said that a systems approach is well suited to evaluate a policy but the methodological toolbox still needs to be sharpened.