Landscape Mapping Blue Forests Policy in Norway

4.3 Limitations and drawbacks This report is an initial assessment, allowing future research opportunities to expand upon its findings. The data collected and used to map blue forests projects could potentially be enhanced and the totals should be understood as estimates. Blue forests projects are often indirectly supported by larger coastal or ecosystem management programmes. In some instances, identifying the precise amount of financial support allocated to specific blue forests was not feasible within the parameters of this report. For projects that encompassed different blue forests categories simultaneously, the term “multiple blue forests” was adopted by this assessment. However, this term is limited in its ability to offer a concise breakdown of how much funding each blue forests category received per project.

Since this report is exploratory in nature, only a limited number of participants (11 in total) were interviewed. All participants had previous knowledge of blue forests and many are involved in discussions regarding blue forests policy in Norway, likely skewing responses to value blue forests at a higher rate. A significant limitation of this assessment is that views and perceptions from the fishing industry were not accounted for (though attempts were made to include fishing industry representatives in the stakeholder interview process).

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