Forest policy in Nordic countries: Expert opinions on future needs, uncertainties, and recommendations

•Overall, experts demand more multi-functional forest management, inclusive dialogue, and improved policy integration and coherence from future forest policies.•Experts’ views differ when assessing proposals to future-proof their national policies, and in their emphasis of different types of forest ecosystem services.•Uncertainties lie in the ill-undefined prospects of ownership rights, forest-based biofuels, re-regulation of forestry, and the evaluation of Natura2000 areas.•Accommodating a wide range of stakeholders requires policies that motivate forest owners to promote forest policy goals.•Potential areas to meet future demands in Nordic forest policy include optimizing synergies for evidence-based forestry, stakeholder participation, and integrative forest management for multiple ecosystem services. There are broad calls in national and international forest policy processes for basing decision-making on the best obtainable scientific knowledge. Simultaneously, there is also a need to accommodate plural values and objectives people and society in general have associated with forests. An essential step for building an evidence base that accommodates pluralistic understandings is to capture informant views on forest policies and the alternatives they offer to better prepare for future scenarios. This article draws on research experts’ views in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, gathered from interviews between February and May 2023. An existing gap to bridge is understanding to what extent such views differ or correlate across the study countries. By systematizing on the similarities and differences in opinions, we develop a synopsis of future needs and uncertainties in policies across the studied countries, concluding with recommendations for determining the use of Nordic forests. Despite divergence in personal views and uncertainties about the future, most respondents saw a need for inclusive policymaking, policy coherence and integration, and changes in forest management. We find that strengthening evidence-basis, stakeholder participation, adaptive governance, and integrative forest management are challenges for future policy making.