Abstract
Half of the productive forest area in Sweden is owned by small-scale private forest owners. However, there is a lack of comprehensive information that would allow categorizing small-scale private forest owners according to their management strategy. In this study, we surveyed small-scale private forest owners in Sweden to determine the proportions who applied various management strategies. We analyzed the results using chi-square tests to identify the most relevant factors affecting the management strategy choices of individual forest owners. We found that “soft” factors, such as the importance of income from the forest, membership in a forest owners’ association, certification and an interest in and knowledge of forestry issues, had a stronger impact on the choice of management strategy than most “hard” factors related to the owner or the property, such as gender and distance between the owner’s residence and the property. However, property size was the most important factor and was associated with the importance of income derived from the forest and several other soft factors.
Highlights
Most small-scale private forest owners are not exclusively driven by profit, but instead, have diverse objectives for their forests, including recreation, monetary gain, potential as a residential location, family legacy and nature protection [1,2,3]
Property size was the one most closely associated with management strategy; the association was strong in Southern Sweden and moderate in Northern Sweden (Table 5)
We analyzed the proportions of five different forest management strategies among non-industrial private forest owners and how the strategies are associated with hard factors and soft factors related to forest properties and owners
Summary
Most small-scale private forest owners are not exclusively driven by profit, but instead, have diverse objectives for their forests, including recreation, monetary gain, potential as a residential location, family legacy and nature protection [1,2,3]. In Sweden, half of the productive forest area is owned by small-scale, non-industrial, private forest owners. Private forest ownership is changing, as fewer forest owners are farmers, a greater proportion is female and more are living a long distance from their property. More owners are becoming less financially dependent on their forests and are increasingly separated from their land [3,5,6]. This will probably influence how they choose to manage their forest. The authors conclude that an increase in the share of female forest owners could lead to a change in forest management
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