Biodiversity Protection in Private Forests: An Analysis of Compliance

Compliance is a precondition for a regulatory system to be effective. This article analyses the drivers behind non-compliance and ways of enhancing compliance by empirically investigating the assumptions of compliance theories in the regulation of biodiversity conservation in private forests in Finland. The article shows that institutional factors, such as the characteristics of the decision-making procedure and the roles professional forest organisations, as well as market pressure on large corporate actors, explain to a large extent the identified low level of non-compliance. Knowledge, information and coordination are identified as the most important bottlenecks in the enhancing the implementation of regulation on habitat conservation. We propose the following combination for the promotion of compliance: building on a cooperative strategy by improving the knowledge base and sharing; following a responsive regulation strategy by maintaining existing deterrence tools; and applying true smart regulation through more ambitious institutional arrangements for engagement with new third parties.