Global forest governance — Bringing forestry science (back) in

The progressive internationalization of forest politics poses a considerable challenge for forestry science as a non-state actor that aims for inserting its expertise into political processes. Rather than finding a coherent entity, one discovers a diversity of forest related processes on the international level. The paper examines central forest relevant processes on the international level, their effects on the policy field, and their repercussions for forestry science by using two different theoretical models of internationalized forest politics.It will be argued that an understanding in terms of ‘governance’ that is based on a reflexive understanding of the policy field's set-up and emerging state- and non-state actors is better suited than a ‘classical’ conceptualization of interest-led intergovernmental politics. Drawing upon this diagnosis, the paper offers some propositions about the possible role(s) of forestry science within processes of ‘forest governance’.