Risk governance, legitimacy and social learning in the handling of the forest fire in Västmanland

 This project investigates the post-fire dynamics of the forest fire in Västmanland; how organisations evaluate the situation, which strategies they develop, and how they act in order to influence decision-making and regulation of how to handle the burned area, including the long-term use of it. How this disaster is handled – what decisions are made, rules created and knowledge learned  – is of central importance, both its direct effects (effects on the affected area and the recovery work) and indirect effects (effects on forest policy in general, for example in the form of regulatory change, adoption of new  of policy instruments and general views on fire). Three aspects are in focus; regulation, legitimacy and learning. Regulation concerns how organisations try to influence the governance of the postfire situation, legitimacy how stakeholders conceive the post-fire dynamics, and learning how and what they have learn from the forest fire in terms of knowledge gained, routines changes, competences included. This project will gain broad as well as deep knowledge on the postfire dynamics. Furthermore, the result from this study will be compared with results from the ongoing study on forest storms, which concerns how forest actors in Sweden deal with risk and uncertainty in the aftermath of storm fellings and the possibility and importance of creating a less storm-sensitive forest.