This book gives an introduction in the methodology of social sciences. It is a guideline for all those who are interested in the use and protection of the forest. It shows how to identifying political options for solving issues of the forest. The book builds a bridge between the problems concerning forests to the political process.

Professor Max Krott is director of the Institute for Forest Policy and Nature Conservation at the University of Göttingen, Germany. He is well experienced in forest policy throughout the whole of Europe. He explores the users of the forest and stakeholders comprised of forest owners, associations, political parties, government and administration. The analysis of the informational, economic and regulatory policy instruments covers the formal as well as the informal processes of policy formulation and implementation. The theory based results are highly relevant for forest policy in all European countries whereas the examples are drawn from Germany.