Non-industrial Private Forest Owners Research Articles

Developing nudges, nudge+ and boosts to support climate change mitigation in practice – A case study on ash fertilization among Finnish private forest owners

Forests are crucial for climate change mitigation as they absorb and store large amounts of carbon dioxide. In Finland, ash fertilization of drained peatland forests has been identified as part of the climate change mitigation strategy, yet it is implemented notably less than it could be. Therefore, this study aimed to identify most effective nudges, nudge+ and boosts that could steer Finnish non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners to adopt ash fertilization in their forest. Semi-structured interviews with 19 NIPF owners were analyzed using the Behaviour change wheel to identify key factors influencing owners’ willingness to engage in ash fertilization. Most factors raised by forest owners were related to reflective motivation encompassing both drivers and barriers to practicing ash fertilization. We also identified possible cognitive biases that were influencing decisions. The suggested nudges, nudge+ and boosts address both the specific concerns of the forest owners and the underlying heuristics. For example, framing ash fertilization as a standard procedure of professional forest management and including it into forest management plans could facilitate overcoming status quo bias that may hinder the adoption of novel forest management practices. These findings are directly applicable for creating nudges, nudge+ and boosts on ash fertilization for experienced, professionally managing NIPF owners with larger forest estates. Our study also offers an approach that can be adapted for broader application in environmental and climate-friendly decision-making, contributing to the growing body of literature on the intersection of behavioral science and environmental management.

Forest Owner Attitudes and Preferences for Voluntary Temporary Forest Conservation

This study explores attitudes and preferences of Finnish non-industrial private forest owners for voluntary temporary forest conservation. The survey data, collected with the best–worst scaling and discrete choice methods, focus on a conservation program that incentivizes forest owners for biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration. Forest owners are willing to conserve simultaneously biodiversity and forest carbon. They prefer non-profit organization as implementer of program, suggesting alternative to current implementation of forest conservation by authorities. Forest owners’ interest in forest conservation program increases with shorter contract and higher payment, both aspects being subject to preference heterogeneity. Forest owners differ in terms of the perceived importance of ecological, economic and social aspects of sustainability of forestry. Heterogeneity in attitudes and preferences stems from the size of forest land, gender, freetime home located on forest site, and place of residence.

Forest management plan pathways for non-industrial private forest owners in Norway: from acquisition to implementation

AbstractForest management plans (FMP) are key decision-support tools for forest managers and a central policy instrument in many countries. Despite its pivotal importance in forest management, there is a lack of studies that analyze the acquisition, familiarity and implementation of the FMP. These steps collectively contribute to making FMP a successful decision-support tool and forest policy instrument. We surveyed a sample representative of the population of Norwegian non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners to quantify the importance of a broad set of factors, including ownership objectives, socio-demographic, property and information sources variables on the FMP pathway, i.e. acquisition of FMP, awareness of its content and implementation of the plans’ proposals. Applying principal component analysis on twelve ownership objectives, we found that most forest owners are multiobjective. We combined conditional classification trees and logistic regression analyses on the FMP pathway to unveil familiarity and use of FMP in forest owner subgroups as well as individual drivers. The results indicate that 37% of Norwegian NIPF owners have a FMP. Among the owners having FMP, 66% have good knowledge of its content and 40% implement its proposals. The strongest variables to predict FMP familiarity and use were previous harvests, productive area, advice about forestry from the public management, knowledge of public support schemes for forestry and perceived relevance of the FMP. We conclude that FMP suppliers, consultants, forestry bureaucracy and policy-makers should emphasize information dissemination and relevance of the FMP to increase its success as a decision-support tool and forest policy instrument.

Non-industrial Private Forest Owners’ Knowledge and Forest Management Preferences Regarding Forest Damage in Northern Sweden

In northern Sweden, large forest areas are affected by extensive damage caused by moose, fungi, beetle and other biological pests. For non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners this leads to large losses of value, not only in economic terms but also in the form of loss of biodiversity and amenity values. Therefore, several research projects are underway to develop new silvicultural methods and other measures to reduce damage. However, a successful implementation of these will often depend on the willingness and knowledge of the forest owners. The objective of this study was, therefore, to elucidate NIPF owners’ knowledge about forest damage and their preferences regarding forest management alternatives that potentially could mitigate the damage situation. Data were collected through a questionnaire that was distributed to a random sample of 1,177 NIPF owners in northern Sweden, and the response rate was 31% (n = 368). The results show that 19% of the NIPF owners did not know the current damage situation in their own forest. In addition, NIPF owners judged that their knowledge to identify damage themselves is quite limited, except for damage caused by moose. Regarding future management options, many were positive towards avoiding clear-cuts in suitable areas, while many were negative towards implementing alternative tree species such as larch and lodgepole pine. The study concludes that there is a clear need to inform and educate NIPF owners about forest damage, but also that there will be challenges in reaching all types of owners.

Maintenance and enhancement of forest ecosystem services: a non-industrial private forest owner perspective

The transition to a fossil-free society in Sweden is expected to cause an increased demand for forest-derived products which may intensify existing conflicts between forest ecosystem services. This study investigated the preferences among non-industrial private forest owners for maintaining multiple forest ecosystem services and their preferences for future forest development. The findings were related to their prioritizations for and knowledge of forest management. The study results were generated through the means of a survey which revealed a consistent high valuation among all respondents of ecosystem services relating to water quality, timber quality, recreation, and biodiversity. A majority of the respondents desired increasing proportions of mixed species and broadleaved stands within the future forest landscape. Certified forest owners who were members of a forest owner association (CMs) prioritized achieving high economic income through roundwood production with strong preferences for the ecosystem services high stand growth and high timber quality. For CMs, carbon substitution was the preferred means of mitigating climate change. Forest owners lacking both certification and membership in a forest owner association ranked the ecosystem services recreation and biodiversity significantly higher, and also preferred retaining more old forest within the landscape. The survey results revealed a higher management activity among CMs, resulting in a more frequent establishment of mixed and broadleaved stands. Forest owners with medium to large scale properties were well-represented within the CM category. The results indicated that while the CMs have stronger preferences for roundwood production compared to owners of small properties, they are also more likely to have taken adaptive measures favoring risk management and biodiversity.

Non-industrial private forest owners' preferences for fuel reduction cost-share programs in the southeastern U.S.

In the southeastern United States, effective large-scale management of wildfire risk, encompassing both fire occurrence and damage to property or assets, requires the participation of non-industrial private forest landowners (NIPFL) to reduce fuel loads on their land. This research utilizes a survey to assess NIPFL's current management practices, history of wildfire on their property, and willingness to participate in a cost-share program to reduce wildfire risk with a choice experiment. We find 80% of NIPFL have already engaged in some type of fuel reduction practices on their property. When offered a cost-share program to conduct prescribed burns and/or create defensible space, landowners selected to enroll 66% of the time. Results indicate that NIPFL prefer cost-share programs administered by government agencies over those administered by non-governmental agencies. They also prefer programs that require the creation of defensible space instead of the use of prescribed fire. These results provide insights into possible incentive programs to increase wildfire risk management and highlight barriers to participation.

Making gender visible: Objectives and socio-demographic differences among women forest owners

Women forest owners represent a large share of non-industrial private forest owners in Western countries. Gender affects many aspects of forest ownership, and women are underrepresented in forestry, forest organisations and forestry practices. The objective of this study is to improve the understanding of women forest owners' objectives and their relationship with socio-demographic attributes. The study reports the results of a subsample of women forest owners (n = 3066) in a survey of Finnish forest owners conducted in 2019 as part of the Finnish Forest Owner 2020 research project. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a new five-dimensional objective structure. In addition to two more traditional economic and income-related dimensions, the analysis also identified the dimensions of recreation and leisure time, heritage, and aesthetics and conservation. This indicates that women forest owners' objectives are more diverse than those of men. Investigation of the impact of socio-economic attributes, education, income, residential area, place of residence and the manner in which the forest was obtained revealed significant differences. The results help us understand women forest owners and their objectives and differences, enabling better designed policies and services that can engage a wider base of forest owners. Engaging all forest owners regardless of gender or the nature of their objectives is important to safeguard the viability and acceptability of the forest sector in Finland and to ensure that Finnish forests are managed in a way that reflects the needs and wishes of society and forest owners.

Risk perception and political leaning explain the preferences of non-industrial private landowners for alternative climate change mitigation strategies in Finnish forests

Understanding landowners’ willingness to act on climate change is important for effective climate policy. This study investigates the determinants of Finnish non-industrial private forest owners’ preferences for alternative climate change mitigation strategies related to forests and wood use. The study tests hypotheses concerning the role of risk perception and political leaning for the support of seven alternative strategies with varying degree of disruption to the current logic of commercial forestry in Finland, which further aligns with the temporal delay in the impact of climate change mitigation strategies that landowners are willing to accept. Based on 887 survey responses from three regions, the study finds that forest owners generally support all but one of the seven strategies: reduced harvest. Results from ordinal logistic regression models further indicate that along with socio-demographic determinants, higher perceived risk and left-wing leaning with a university degree explain support for more disruptive strategies with more immediate mitigation impact (increased conservation, reduced harvest), while lower perceived risk and right-wing leaning without a university degree tend to associate with support for the less disruptive strategies (intensified management, increased harvest), both of which arguably sideline the urgency of climate action. In the highly politicized matter of harvest levels in Finland, the study also finds that right-wing leaning may negate the effect of higher education, which otherwise predicts greater support for more disruptive strategies. Implications for policy at the climate-forest nexus are derived.

Forest carbon incentive programs for non-industrial private forests in Oregon (USA): Impacts of program design on willingness to enroll and landscape-scale program outcomes

Privately-owned forests in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) are important potential carbon sinks and play a large role in carbon sequestration and storage. Non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners constitute a substantial portion of overall forest landownership in productive regions of the PNW; however, little is known about their preferences for non-market incentive programs aimed at increased carbon storage and sequestration, specifically by limiting timber harvest, and how those preferences might impact the outcome of forest carbon programs. We simulated landscape-scale outcomes of hypothetical forest carbon incentive programs in western Oregon (USA) by combining empirical models of NIPF owners' participation with spatially explicit forest carbon storage and sequestration data. We surveyed landowners to determine their willingness to enroll in various hypothetical forest management incentive programs that varied in terms of harvest restrictions, contract length, annual payment and incentive payment amounts, and cost-share percentages, as well as the program framing (e.g., carbon versus forest health). We used multinomial logistic regression to model whether landowners might enroll based on program attributes, landowners' attitudes toward climate change and forest management, past and planned future forest harvest activities, and socio-demographics. We found that 36% of respondents stated that they would probably or definitely enroll in at least one of the hypothetical programs they were shown while 21% of respondents refused all programs that they were offered. Our final model of landowner willingness to enroll indicated that higher annual and higher cost-share payments were the strongest positive predictors of whether landowners would enroll vs. not enroll. Landowners' willingness to enroll was not influenced by program framing as either a “forest carbon” or a “forest health”; however, landowner attitudes toward climate change were the next strongest positive predictor of enrollment after annual and cost-share payments. By simulating landowner enrollment in six policy relevant program scenarios, we illustrate that carefully designed forest carbon incentive programs for NIPF owners could have tangible carbon protection benefits (16.25 to 50.31 MMT CO2e cumulative) at relatively low costs per MT CO2e ($3.60 to $7.70). We highlight tradeoffs between maximizing enrollment in forest carbon incentive programs and providing longer term protection of carbon. This research contributes to the literature on the design of potential forest carbon incentive programs and communication about forest carbon management, as well as aims to aid policy makers and program administrators that seek ways to engage private landowners in carbon-oriented forest management.

The role of personal values and personality traits in environmental concern of non-industrial private forest owners in Sweden

Environmental benefits have become priority objectives for the management of forests, including for private forest owners in many countries. Understanding and promoting environmental-friendly private forest management requires a measure of environmental concern of forest owners and knowledge of factors that influence it. Such a measure allows to explore underlying motivations of forest owners to include environmental aspects in their forest management. This in turn helps in developing and implementing effective pro-environmental forestry policies. In this paper, we assess environmental concern in forest management of 226 non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners in Sweden. In particular, we sought to achieve a two-fold objective: a) to quantitatively explore the content and dimensionality of the environmental concern construct of forestry owners and b) to identify the association between environmental concern of forest owners and their personal values and personality traits. A principal factor analysis resulted in a two-dimensional environmental concern construct encompassing: environmental strategy and environmental orientation. Hierarchical seemingly unrelated regressions (SUREG) showed that personal values and personality traits help to explain environmental concern in forest management of NIPF owners. A better understanding of environmental concern of forest owners and its relation with individuals' attributes will help in better designing, framing and targeting of tailor-made interventions to promote environmental considerations in forest management.

Embedding non-industrial private forest owners in forest policy and bioeconomy issues using a Living Lab concept

International policies have set sustainable development goals that put emphasis on bioeconomy strategies based on renewable resources. The forestry sector, by providing bio-based products, is expected to take part in this bioeconomy with, among other things, the reduction of society's dependence on fossil fuels. Nevertheless, in Europe, the forestry sector is facing an increase in the number of small private forest ownerships, called non-industrial private forests (NIPF), where wood mobilization is difficult due to both ownership fragmentation and the lack of interest of non-industrial forest owners in existing forest-wood chains. Although many policy instruments have been put in place to address this situation, the problem persists for two main reasons. First, a lack of use of policy instruments by forest owners and second, a lack of collaboration between stakeholders. To provide solutions, we propose a methodology to design territorial projects with non-industrial forest owners in the framework of a Living Lab innovation process. This paper presents both the general method developed and analyzed through open and user-centered innovation concepts and its practical implementation in the Vosges department in France. Our results show how the Living Lab approach can improve the acceptance, adoption and use of policy instruments by NIPF owners and how it promotes multi-stakeholder collaborations to design and deploy innovative solutions. The main interest of our study is to provide a methodology to pilot a forestry Living Lab for policy makers and practitioners, based on rigorous concepts of innovation management. Finally, future developments and limitations of our study are discussed in a global research perspective.

A model for the sap yield of birches tapped by citizen scientists

The sap yield of birches ( Roth and Ehrh.) was modelled as a function of tree diameter (girth) at breast height, as well as site and stand characteristics measured and reported by citizen scientists representing mainly non-industrial private forest owners in the South Savo, North Karelia, and Northern Ostrobothnia regions in Finland. Birches (tree species not recorded) growing on both mineral and peatland sites were tapped during the springs of 2019 and 2020. Citizen scientists were mainly voluntary forest owners who received the instructions and equipment (spouts, drop lines and buckets) for collecting sap from three birches of different diameters in the same birch stand. Citizen scientists were instructed to measure and report the sap yield and girth of the trees, as well as stand characteristics from the forest resource data, if available. Based on the linear mixed model fitted to the data, the sap yield increased with the increasing tree diameter and mean stand height, and varied between years, stands, and trees; between-region variation was not significant. In a birch stand, the simulated total sap yield ha–1 was depended on the average tree size and the stem number ha–1 and was at its highest just before the first commercial thinning and again before the second thinning. The sap model can be used to predict the necessary sap yield in profitability analyses for sap tapping.Betula pendulaB. pubescens

Heterogenising forestry value production – Drivers and barriers of entering the non-wood forest products sector

Global trends towards the bio-economy and a rapid change in value production caused by an awareness of climate change and the importance of forests and the environment overall, as well as of the demographical change in modern societies suggests a potential for increasing the role of non-wood forest products (NWFP) in future forest-based natural resources systems. The change of production-based societies to service-based societies has opened opportunities for the growing heterogenic group of forest owners as well. As new value production models have been identified, many forestry sector managers and owners are still in their infancy in seizing opportunities related to the service-based forest value production as well as in the need of conceptual clarity and understanding of the phenomena. This paper aims to study those factors influencing forest owners in diversifying value production into non-wood based products. The focus is on identifying those factors that attribute to the non-industrial private forest owner's decision to engage in NWFP production alongside traditional forestry. The results provide an overall picture of drivers and barriers which forest owners encounter while engaging and operating in the natural products sector. This study was based on in-depth interviews collected from twenty forest owners in Finland. The results revealed that drivers for engaging in NWFPs production are principally internal whereas barriers are mainly external. According to results increased knowledge, more effective communication, cooperation and networking between forest owners, forest professionals and NWFP suppliers are needed to support the supply chain, and consequently to develop the NWFPs production.

Promoting Landscape-Level Forest Management in Fire-Prone Areas: Delegate Management to a Multi-Owner Collaborative, Rent the Land, or Just Sell It?

Forest management at the landscape level is a requirement for reducing wildfire hazard. In contexts where non-industrial private forest ownership prevails, the collaboration among multiple owners has been proposed as the way forward to reach consistent fuel management at that level. The current literature has been focused on identifying the factors that lead to collaboration among owners. In this study we explored other ways to reach landscape-level management in addition to the collaborative way, such as those that may be promoted through land renting or selling. Different contexts and owner types may require different solutions. Thus, we explicitly asked which alternative would be chosen by a given forest owner, from the following set: keeping individual management, entering a multi-owner collaborative arrangement where they delegate management, renting to a pulp company; or selling the land. In a context of small-scale ownership and high recurrence of wildfires in Portugal, a face-to-face survey was carried out to a sample of landowners. Our results suggest that there is not an a priori generalized unwillingness of owners to delegate management, rent or sell the land and thus they seem prone to align themselves with policy strategies to promote management at the landscape level. Multinomial logit regression modelling allowed us to explain and predict owners’ choices among the aforementioned set of alternative management options. We found that choosing multi-ownership collaboration, as opposed to keeping current individual management, is associated with passive management under harsher conditions, by non-residents without bonding capital. The identified factors of owners’ choices show the limited scope of tenancy and land-market mechanisms to promote landscape-level management. The best policy option was found to depend on the owner profiles prevailing in the target area. This suggests that studying the existing context and owner types is required to design effective policies.

Correction: Bashir et al. Determinants of Nonindustrial Private Forest Owners’ Willingness to Harvest Timber in Norway. Forests 2020, 11, 60

We have found some errors in our recently published article [...]

Non-industrial private forest owners’ willingness to manage for climate change and biodiversity

ABSTRACT In boreal commercial forests, carbon sequestration, climate change adaptation, and biodiversity conservation can be promoted through various measures. This study examines the factors affecting non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners’ preferences for such forest management practices. A systematic literature review serves as a reference for the empirical analysis of a survey data on the Finnish NIPF owners’ stated willingness to adopt thirteen distinct forest management practices. Binary logit models reveal socio-demographic factors, site-specific characteristics, previous forest management, and motivations for forest ownership that are associated with the stated adoption of management practices. Especially, environmental and financial motivations play an important role in decisions concerning forest management practices. Statistically significant factors vary depending on the forest management practice, reflecting the NIPF owner heterogeneity. Younger and highly educated forest owners are more supportive for various management practices that promote biodiversity, while older forest owners are reluctant towards deadwood retention. The results underline the importance of accounting for heterogeneous preferences regarding forest management practices when designing and implementing policies and advisory services aiming at enhancing carbon sequestration, climate change adaptation, or biodiversity in boreal commercial forests.

Contingent valuation of landowner demand for forest amenities: application in Andalusia, Spain

Abstract We applied discrete choice contingent valuation to the amenities consumed by non-industrial private forest owners in Andalusia (Spain) in a survey of 765 landowners. The landowners’ median willingness to accept compensation from an alternative investment for giving up land amenity consumption is EUR 387.8 per hectare yearly. The preferred model shows diminishing marginal values of amenity consumption with property size, negative effects of eucalyptus and Aleppo pine presence and positive effects of distance to urban centres. We discuss the performance of the question formats and models employed and recommend the single-bounded format in this valuation context.

Meta-analysis of landowner participation in voluntary incentive programs for provision of forest ecosystem services.

Many voluntary incentive programs for provision of forest ecosystem services (ES) have low participation rates, insufficient enrollment areas, and inefficient ecological outcomes. Understanding participation behavior in such programs has therefore become a crucial part of policy success. We synthesized a large body of literature on the behavior of nonindustrial private forest owners based on surveys of stated (intended) participation or data on actual participation in existing or hypothetical programs. Using metaregression analysis, we examined how methodological, program‐characteristic, and economic‐incentive variables affected participation rate estimates. Participation rates tended to be overestimated when landowner participation was elicited in hypothetical choice situations (compared with real situations) and when dichotomous choice surveys (compared with census data) were used. The marginal effect sizes were quite large, for example, a 31% increase with use of stated choices in hypothetical scenarios, and practitioners should therefore be aware of them. However, use of choice experiment surveys in a modified scenario based on existing programs had no effect on participation when all other determinants were controlled for. Participation rates decreased significantly as length of the contract increased and when there was no withdrawal option. These results suggest that perpetual contracts have a lower negative impact on participation than time‐limited contracts with a duration of over 50 years. We confirmed that as compensation amounts increased, participation increased. One‐time up‐front payments were more effective in increasing initial participation than annual payments for contracts of over 5 years. We identified the robust determinants and the effect sizes of those determinants on landowner participation rate estimates, thereby contributing to a better understanding of forest owner behavior and offering useful insights to enable researchers and resource managers to improve the design and efficiency of new and existing forest ES programs.

Developing the persona method to increase the commitment of non-industrial private forest owners in French forest policy priorities

In Europe, 60% of the forest area is privately owned, with a significant proportion of nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) being highly fragmented with, in particular, low intensity forest management. Numerous typologies have therefore been developed to provide detailed guidance to policy makers for the design of policy instruments to involve these owners in forest management approaches. However, these policy instruments fail to involve all categories of owners and there is no method made by and with people locally in charge of policy implementation to increase the commitment of NIPF owners. The main objective of this study is to adapt the persona method, which is a central user-centered design tool, to design typologies of NIPF owners as future users of policy instruments. We have designed our personas in the Vosges territory (France), in the context of the main French forest policy objective of increasing timber harvesting and NIPF sustainable management. Our results designed eight types of personas as well as a six-part composition of the persona sheet. The main interest is to provide a general methodology to forest policy and forest managers based on rigorous concepts of usercentered design processes and co-creation, to implement operational tools for NIFP management. Finally, both future developments and methodological limitations are discussed in a global research perspective.

Exploring Environmental Attitudes and Forest Program Uptake with Nonindustrial Private Forest Owners in Michigan

Government programs in the United States offer benefits and opportunities to help private landowners manage their forests; however, participation is very low. Currently, little is known about the barriers landowners may face in accessing information about these programs. Using a landowner survey across four counties in Michigan, we investigate this by (1) exploring current participation in forest programs and (2) analyzing if landowners experience barriers to learning more about the programs available. We find that landowners who are older, perceive themselves as active managers, and are members of a land management organization are more likely to participate in forest programs. Our results also indicate that those wanting to learn more about the programs available have more dominant environmental viewpoints (e.g. humans have the right to modify and rule over nature). We argue that targeted approaches, for example, partnering with private landowner organizations, may increase landowner participation in government forest programs.