From government to governance? Investigating municipality-led steering in urban forestry: the case of the Amsterdamse Bos, The Netherlands

Successfully establishing and managing urban forests require governance modes that create enabling environments for the provision of societal benefits. While recent scholarship has increasingly focused on how public institutions rely on collaborative governance arrangements to achieve desired outcomes, less attention has been paid to the dynamics under which municipalities retain power over their urban forests, particularly in times of growing austerity and increasing demands for inclusiveness. This explanatory study addresses this gap by analyzing municipality-led urban forest governance, with the aim of deepening understanding of actors involved, narratives, resource allocation, processes, and power distribution shaping hierarchical approaches in urban forestry. Adopting a qualitative research design, this research analyses the governance characterizing the case of the Amsterdamse Bos, a peri-urban woodland located on the southern edge of Amsterdam. Adopting the Policy Arrangement Approach as analytical lens, findings show that over time the Municipality of Amsterdam has maintained a hierarchical model, supported by consolidated land tenure, political commitment, and resource mobilization capacity. This has secured actors coordination, policy discourse coherence, and the achievement of socio-economic and environmental management objectives. At the same time, the concentration of decision-making authority has entrenched power asymmetries, constrained intermunicipal collaboration, and limited opportunities for inclusive participation, with less powerful actors confined to operational rather than strategic roles. The study highlights both the advantages and limitations of municipality-led urban forest governance, suggesting that while hierarchical arrangements can ensure continuity and coherence, more equitable outcomes require combining municipal steering with mechanisms for shared vision-building.