Abstract
Despite the socioeconomic and ecological significance of the 10.4 million acres of forestland owned by nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners across Arkansas (approximately 58% of forestland in the state), only 5% of this land is certified through the American Tree Farm System. As such, understanding how to improve the reach and content of communications to NIPF landowners is vital for expanding certification participation and subsequent improvement of forest management in Arkansas and throughout the southern United States. To explore current and optimal communications to increase NIPF participation, we employed Berlo’s source–message–channel–receiver (SMCR, 1960) model to analyze survey data collected from Arkansas NIPF landowners regarding their familiarity with, interest in, and information sources for forest certification programs. Our results indicate that NIPF landowners have a relatively low familiarity with certification programs and a low interest in adopting a certification program regardless of personal involvement throughout the certification process, the transparency of on-sight inspections to the public, and the requirements of forest management plans. However, positive correlations were found between self-reported familiarity with certification programs and the perceived usefulness of various information sources, indicating that communications to NIPF landowners have the ability to be influential. Furthermore, the results showed that the greatest perceived benefits to landowners were improved timber growth and health, better management actions, and environmentally-friendly timber harvesting, whereas the most concerning perceived drawbacks were increased record-keeping and paperwork as well as management costs. These findings will offer actionable insights into future messaging campaigns and provide directions for new approaches of reaching NIPF landowners to increase their participation in forest certification.
Highlights
Forest certification is a voluntary, market-based approach to recognize and encourage sustainable forest management; approximately 430 million hectares (1.06 billion acres) of forest lands are certified globally [1]
A total of 562 nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners responded to the survey, where the majority (69.93%, n = 393) were male and the average age was 61 years old
He concluded that public recognition benefits were a powerful motivator of certification among Washington NIPF landowners, whereas our respondents did not agree with recognition as a benefit
Summary
Forest certification is a voluntary, market-based approach to recognize and encourage sustainable forest management; approximately 430 million hectares (1.06 billion acres) of forest lands are certified globally [1]. The FSC and SFI programs are primarily for industrial landowners, and they provide landowners with financial incentives and social recognition for promoting sustainable forest management to achieve economic, environmental, and social needs of society. Newsom et al [13] documented NIPF landowners’ lack of knowledge regarding forest certification programs, which serves as an additional obstacle to enrollment. In doing so, they hinted at the importance of communications ( with forestry professionals) and outreach in generating support for and enrollment in certification programs [4,13]. Given the revealed significance of communications on program enrollment [4,13], research that expands on how messaging can promote enrollment would be helpful in increasing enrollment rates
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