Social Psychology

This study focuses on the values, fairness, and legitimacy of forest-related decision-making in Finland. This context of study can be described with the opposing values of the intensive use of forests and biodiversity conservation. Further, the legitimacy of decision-making processes in the field has been questioned by various stakeholder groups. The purpose of forest policy in Finland is to enhance the sustainable production of material and immaterial benefits derived from forests to serve the needs of all citizens. To meet this purpose, citizens ’ opinions concerning forests and decision-making are crucial. The first aim of this study is to investigate how forest values make their way into the decision-making process in this specific political field; as such, the forest values of citizens, Members of Parliament (MPs) and forest professionals are compared. The second aim is to suggest speed of decision-making as one principle that people use when evaluating the fairness of an overall decision-making process. The third aim is to develop a model of legitimacy for a hypothetical political sector and test it in th