Overcoming social barriers to learning and engagement with climate change adaptation: experiences with Swedish forestry stakeholders

The research examines the role of transformative learning in engaging 24 Swedish forestry stakeholders with climate change adaptation. It identifies that social barriers, such as perceptions of scientific uncertainty, can impede the formation of opinions on adaptation. The study concludes that engagement improves when scientific knowledge is aligned with stakeholders' specific needs, aspirations, and personal experiences with extreme weather.

• Social barriers that hinder climate change adaptation include the perception that climate change is not urgent or irrelevant, the underestimation of adaptive capacity, and a lack of trust in climate science.
• Stakeholders in the Swedish forestry sector found it difficult to develop opinions when they viewed scientific knowledge as contested or uncertain.
• Increasing engagement with climate change adaptation requires scientific knowledge to be relevant to the aspirations, objectives, and needs of stakeholders, as well as their own history with extreme weather and climate change.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2015). Overcoming social barriers to learning and engagement with climate change adaptation: experiences with Swedish forestry stakeholders. https://www.sei.org/publications/overcoming-social-barriers-to-learning-and-engagement-with-climate-change-adaptation-experiences-with-swedish-forestry-stakeholders/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Overcoming social barriers to learning and engagement with climate change adaptation: experiences with Swedish forestry stakeholders. 2015. https://www.sei.org/publications/overcoming-social-barriers-to-learning-and-engagement-with-climate-change-adaptation-experiences-with-swedish-forestry-stakeholders/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Overcoming social barriers to learning and engagement with climate change adaptation: experiences with Swedish forestry stakeholders |date=13 January 2015 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/overcoming-social-barriers-to-learning-and-engagement-with-climate-change-adaptation-experiences-with-swedish-forestry-stakeholders/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2015overcoming, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Overcoming social barriers to learning and engagement with climate change adaptation: experiences with Swedish forestry stakeholders}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2015}, month = jan, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/overcoming-social-barriers-to-learning-and-engagement-with-climate-change-adaptation-experiences-with-swedish-forestry-stakeholders/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }