Sharing economy in the forestry sector: Opportunities and barriers

Abstract

In the past years, the popularity of a sharing economy has increased, frequently in relation to accommodation and car sharing. There are many positive aspects to sharing, especially in cost reduction. The subject of our research was to find out whether a sharing economy and its principles have their place in the forestry sector, using the example of the Czech Republic. Three research questions were set to evaluate the potential of the sharing economy. To answer them, a mixed approach of quantitative and qualitative methods was used. These were represented by an online questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews with representatives of the management of forestry companies. The data were further evaluated and analysed statistically. The main findings are that the representatives of companies from forestry are aware of the sharing economy from different economic fields. The principles of a sharing economy are perceived positively; however, there are barriers that currently prevent implementing such principles in forestry in the Czech Republic. This is primarily due to time and regional factors, salvage logging processing, ownership structures and the outsourcing of the main forestry operations. The great potential of a sharing economy lies in solving crises in forestry (bark beetle outbreak, lack of workforce and resources, etc.). The research results may bring changes in support for the forestry sector from European funds, especially in the planned area of cooperation between companies.