The rocky path from policy-relevant science to policy implementation - a case study from the South American Chaco

Why does co-produced, policy-relevant, adequately communicated science fail to influence policy implementation? Analysts of the science-policy interface often focus on the societal relevance of the research questions and on the strategies to convey findings to the political sphere. We argue that these conditions are necessary but not sufficient. We analyze a case study from Argentina, the process leading to the Cordoba Provincial Law for the Protection of Native Forests, in the light of two contrasting models of the science-policy interface: the Information Deficit and the Power Dynamics Models, and conclude that the second better describes the process. We propose some broad conditions that should influence the likelihood of a piece of scientific knowledge to be incorporated into environmental policy implementation.