Forest Stakeholder Participation in Improving Game Habitat in Swedish Forests

Eugene E. Ezebilo

doi:10.3390/su4071580

Abstract

Although in Sweden the simultaneous use of forests for timber production and game hunting are both of socioeconomic importance it often leads to conflicting interests. This study examines forest stakeholder participation in improving game habitat to increase hunting opportunities as well as redistribute game activities in forests to help reduce browsing damage in valuable forest stands. The data for the study were collected from a nationwide survey that involved randomly selected hunters and forest owners in Sweden. An ordered logit model was used to account for possible factors influencing the respondents’ participation in improving game habitat. The results showed that on average, forest owning hunters were more involved in improving game habitat than non-hunting forest owners. The involvement of non-forest owning hunters was intermediate between the former two groups. The respondents’ participation in improving game habitat were mainly influenced by factors such as the quantity of game meat obtained, stakeholder group, forests on hunting grounds, the extent of risk posed by game browsing damage to the economy of forest owners, importance of bagging game during hunting, and number of hunting days. The findings will help in designing a more sustainable forest management strategy that integrates timber production and game hunting in forests.

Highlights

The increasing population of browsing ungulates such as moose (Alces alces) has consequences for forest ecosystems [1,2,3,4]
This often leads to a conflict of interests between hunters who are more interested in increase in game and forest owners who are more interested in timber production
The findings of this study revealed that the number of day that the respondents were involved in improving game habitat vary widely

Summary

Introduction

The increasing population of browsing ungulates such as moose (Alces alces) has consequences for forest ecosystems [1,2,3,4]. It might contribute toward increasing body weight, survival rate and maintains high population densities as well as helps move ungulates activity away from young forest stands, traffic and habitat of high conservation value [11,13,14,15,16]. In Sweden the legislation regarding the use of forests stipulates that an increase in browsing by game in forests should be balanced with increased game hunting [17]. This implies that a forest owner who is affected by browsing damage by game in forests is not often compensated for loss in revenue in timber production. Game are essential for forest ecosystem processes but their feeding activities (e.g., browsing) lead to costs in timber production [19,20]

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Results

Conclusion