Contributing a new South American case study, this paper seeks to advance the research agenda on processes of policy integration by developing a better understanding of how nascent subsystems become integrated into mature ones and the role that changing beliefs of advocacy coalitions play in fostering policy integration. The paper examines environmental policy integration in Uruguay’s forestry sector since the 1990s and is based on an inductive qualitative analysis of policy documents, sector reports, parliament hearings and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. This demonstrates that environmental policy integration has increased continuously since the 1990s, accelerating particularly during the 2000s. We can derive three insights that specifically address this path of integration: a change in the policy beliefs of the dominant advocacy coalition, international salience of the minority coalition`s beliefs and participatory policy processes that foster interactions between opposing coalitions. Despite this, the two advocacy coalitions have crystallized with fundamentally different deep core beliefs about what a sustainable forestry sector should be. While one coalition argues that commercial tree plantations are sufficiently regulated in environmental terms, the other coalition maintains that the way that the pulp industry has developed in Uruguay is fundamentally unsustainable and therefore seeks to change the forestry sector as a whole.

本文提供了一项新的南美案例研究，旨在通过更好地理解新生子系统如何融入成熟子系统以及倡导联盟信念的变化在促进政策一体化中所发挥的作用，来推进政策一体化进程的研究议程。本文研究了自 20 世纪 90 年代以来乌拉圭林业部门的环境政策整合情况，并基于对政策文件、部门报告、议会听证会和对主要利益相关者的半结构化访谈的归纳定性分析。这表明环境政策一体化自20世纪90年代以来不断加强，特别是在2000年代加速。我们可以得出专门解决这一一体化道路的三个见解：占主导地位的倡导联盟的政策信念的变化、少数联盟信念的国际显着性以及促进对立联盟之间互动的参与性政策进程。尽管如此，两个倡导联盟对于可持续林业部门应该是什么样子却有着根本不同的深刻核心信念。虽然一个联盟认为商业树木种植园在环境方面得到了充分的监管，但另一个联盟则认为乌拉圭纸浆工业的发展方式从根本上是不可持续的，因此寻求改变整个林业部门。