Involving private forest owners in the sustainable use of forests: a case study for Flanders, Belgium

Abstract

The main features of the forest landscape in Flanders (Belgium) are the relative small area forested (only 10% of the land), the large proportion of privately owned forests (70%) and the high degree of fragmentation of these forests (average owned area of 1 ha). This situation makes the implementation of a policy aiming at the promotion of sustainable management and conservation of natural values in Flemish private forests extremely difficult. The Flemish forest administration prepared a concrete strategy towards a close to nature type of management in public forests. It was decided to promote this type of forest management also in private forests, but without making it compulsory. As a consequence, other strategies had to be found to involve private forest owners into a more sustainable forest management. The aim of this paper is to show some examples of such strategies, their success and their failure. The findings might be inspiring for regions with recently privatized forest resources. In this regard, the specific opportunities of both private and public initiatives should be stressed. Effective sustainability of forest resources will be reached in those circumstances where initiatives are based on trust, communication and stakeholder management. Valuable bottom-up approaches arising from the private owners themselves should be especially strenghtened.