The purpose of forest policy is to enhance the sustainable production of benefits of forests to serve the needs of all citizens. Theory of system justification claims that low status groups are the most likely to support, defend and justify existing social systems. This study explores how various aspects of forest related competencies affect satisfaction with the political system and the desire to influence decision making. The effect of competence on system satisfaction and the desire to influence outcomes, is evaluated using survey data on Finnish citizens' attitudes on forest policy. The results were in line with system justification theory: Competence decreases system satisfaction and increases the desire to influence outcomes. The dissatisfaction with the system becomes possible only if people have adequate knowledge. Forestry competent people tend to be satisfied with the system, while people with conservation knowledge tend to be dissatisfied. The challenges to the inclusion of citizens' views in political processes are addressed.

This paper describes the cost-benefit analysis of digital long-term preservation (LTP) that was carried out in the context of the Finnish National Digital Library Project (NDL) in 2010. The analysis was based on the assumption that as many as 200 archives, libraries, and museums will share an LTP system. The term ‘system’ shall be understood as encompassing not only information technology, but also human resources, organizational structures, policies and funding mechanisms. The cost analysis shows that an LTP system will incur, over the first 12 years, cumulative costs of €42 million, i.e. an average of €3.5 million per annum. Human resources and investments in information technology are the major cost factors. After the initial stages, the analysis predicts annual costs of circa €4 million. The analysis compared scenarios with and without a shared LTP system. The results indicate that a shared system will have remarkable benefits. At the development and implementation stages, a shared system shows an advantage of €30 million against the alternative scenario consisting of five independent LTP solutions. During the later stages, the advantage is estimated at €10 million per annum. The cumulative cost benefit over the first 12 years would amount to circa €100 million.

Islam, Development, Ecology,

Nicodemus is an enigmatic literary character who is wavering in no man's land in John's narrative between Jesus' opponents and his true disciples. Some scholars have taken Nicodemus as an example of someone of inadequate faith who remains an outsider throughout the narrative, while others have traced his development from initial and tentative faith to open and public commitment to Jesus. The present article, however, agrees with those who have acknowledged that no single trait determines Nicodemus's portrait, but, in the end, this portrait remains ambiguous. In the article, a text-centered approach to Nicodemus is complemented by asking how this ambiguous literary character may have functioned as a symbol for those who shared John's dualistic tendencies. The article draws upon the social identity approach in order to explain how Nicodemus's ambiguity may have helped the Johannine Christians to accept the uncertainties in their social environment without abandoning the stereotyped and fixed thrust in their symbolic world.