Eva Lieberherr


Last Name

Lieberherr

First Name

Eva

ORCID

0000-0001-5985-0809

Organisational unit

08693 - Gruppe Natural Resource Policy / Natural Resource Policy

Search Results

Publications 1 - 10 of 134
  • Forest clearances, compensatory afforestation and biodiversity offsetting in forests: Balancing flexibility and equivalency in Switzerland
    Item type: Journal Article
    Schulz, Tobias; Ohmura, Tamaki; Troxler, David; et al. (2024)
    Forest Policy and Economics
    The settlement area is expanding at the cost of agricultural land in densely populated regions such as Central Europe. This development is also affecting the forest. Forest clearances due to, e.g. traffic and energy infrastructure development, require afforestation elsewhere but surfaces providing appropriate soil are increasingly scarce. Switzerland is an important case in point. It is densely populated, exhibits a large amount of forest – also in the lowlands – and although it features a strong forest protection law, it recently allowed compensating forest clearances with non-forest related offsets. Based on the results of a Q-methodology survey conducted during a stakeholder workshop, we show that pressure for more flexible forest specific rules largely stems from “outside” the forest sector, i.e. the agriculture and development sector. Only a small group of actors aims at reinstalling the more restrictive regime, whereas the largest group of actors embraces the status quo. This group rejects expansion of more flexible rules and adheres to strengthening the top of the mitigation hierarchy, i.e. prioritizing the mitigation of habitat loss caused by development. This interpretation of biodiversity offsetting aligns with the conviction that development needs to respect the limits of growth. Prioritizing the mitigation hierarchy requires a planning rather than a market coordination approach. We show that in a context with rigid biodiversity offsetting rules, following a multipurpose forest regime and with high land-use competition, stakeholder preferences impede the integration of habitat banking approaches into the planning of compensatory afforestation and biodiversity offsetting in the forest.
  • Information Exchange for Implementing the Agenda 2030 – What is the Role and Potential of Policy Forums?
    Item type: Other Conference Item
    Pärli, Rea; Fischer, Manuel; Lieberherr, Eva (2019)
  • Mapping the research of Forest ecosystem Services in Europe: A review
    Item type: Journal Article
    Truffer, Oliver; Lieberherr, Eva; Van Ruymbeke, Kato; et al. (2025)
    Forest Policy and Economics
    Research on forest ecosystems is abundant, yet the societal needs for forest ecosystem services (FES) remains less examined. Understanding these needs—especially across different societal actors—offers a promising path to ease pressure on the provision of forest ecosystem services and navigate the goal conflicts of forest policy under the EU Green Deal. Using a semi-systematic literature review, we categorize the existing research on the need for forest ecosystem services within distinct European forestry paradigms and investigate how well the literature covers each service and actor type. In 107 assessed articles, we find that cultural ecosystem services are researched most prominently while provisioning services are addressed the least. While the literature in our corpus is inclined towards recreationists and the public, crucial actors such as forest owners or forest managers are examined seldomly. Furthermore, we find several articles that assess the synergies and conflicts fostered by different management approaches. We connect this finding to a qualitative mismatch between the need for forest ecosystem services described in the literature and the provision of these services that is shaped by different ideas on sustainable forest management. By highlighting gaps and shortcomings in the literature we set the stage for future research on the need for forest ecosystem services.
  • Research shaped through context: Lessons from transdisciplinary projects
    Item type: Journal Article
    Schegg, Julia; Pärli, Rea; Fischer, Manuel; et al. (2025)
    Environmental Science & Policy
    Transdisciplinary research (TDR) targets societal challenges through equitable knowledge co-production with non-academic actors for a given case context. Frequently, results of TDR projects are harder to generalize compared to those of non-TD projects, primarily because TD projects are designed to address specific, context- dependent situations. Including context (factors, such as COVID-19, public discourse, and action resources of project actors) when assessing TDR projects is thus important for the transferability of effects of TDR projects to other contexts. This study investigates the influence of context factors on TDR projects and their effects. Empirically, we rely on interviews with 23 researchers and non-academic actors involved in 9 TDR projects in the field of natural resources in Switzerland. We find that, particularly, the effects of knowledge integration into practice and into politics are most affected by context factors. We find the context factors: action resources of political support, organisation and consensus, and the system conditions of private economy and external natural events to be most influential for the achievement of aspired effects in TDR projects.
  • Policy instrument mixes for operating modular technology within hybrid water systems
    Item type: Journal Article
    Pakizer, Katrin; Fischer, Manuel; Lieberherr, Eva (2020)
    Environmental Science & Policy
    Water systems are experiencing dynamic societal demands and extreme environmental changes. The integration of modular water systems into existing centralized infrastructures, creating hybrid systems, could mitigate these challenges by enabling more resilient water management. However, the existence of technological alternatives has not changed the continuous reliance on centralized water infrastructure. Supportive policy instruments are key to foster the operation of modular technology within hybrid water systems. This article focuses on the role of substantive and procedural policy instruments for the successful operation of modular water systems within a hybrid water infrastructure. Based on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), we can confirm the claim in the literature that relying on regulatory instruments is relevant for operating modular technology within hybrid systems. However, we also find combinations of policy instruments where regulatory instruments do not matter. Furthermore, we find that procedural instruments emphasizing stakeholder participation interplay with different substantive policy instruments to support the successful operation of modular systems.
  • Implications of forest ownership changes for forest and biodiversity governance and management.
    Item type: Book Chapter
    Wilkes-Allemann, Jerylee; Lieberherr, Eva (2020)
    How to balance forestry and biodiversity conservation – A view across Europe
    Changing forest ownership in Europe has implications for forest management and biodiversity. Drawing on the results of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action FP1201 FACESMAP (Forest Land Ownership Change in Europe: Significance for Management and Policy) we present the cur-rent ownership structures in four European countries: Austria, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. These countries were selected because the proportion of forested land is at least one-third of the total land area and because they differ in the proportion of forest that is in private ownership. We describe recent changes in ownership structures and discuss the implications that these changes could have on forest governance and management with a special focus on biodiversity.
  • Regulierungen im Waldbereich im Wandel: Gefahrenabwehr, Multifunktionalität und Koordination
    Item type: Journal Article
    Schulz, Tobias; Lieberherr, Eva (2020)
    Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen
  • Waldpolitischer Jahresrückblick 2017
    Item type: Journal Article
    Tschannen, Amadea; Schibli, Beatrix; Lieberherr, Eva (2018)
    Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen
Publications 1 - 10 of 134