Private Forest Owners Research Articles

The importance of timber prices and other factors for harvest increase among non-industrial private forest owners

Increased harvest is high on the forestry and climate policy agenda in several countries. By carrying out a national-wide survey of forest owners, we explored to what extent private non-industrial forest owners in Norway are willing to increase harvest due to elevated hypothetical prices. The results indicate that owners who have not harvested timber for sale in the last 15 years do not respond to large price shifts. Instead, ownership objectives and knowledge of a key policy instrument predict willingness to enter the timber market among these owners. The willingness among owners who have sold timber the last 15 years depends on these factors, in addition to price, forest area, income, and gender. Female owners were significantly less willing than male owners to increase harvest. Once the decision to harvest was taken, the stated timber supply volume per area unit decreases with productive forest area among both active and inactive owners. With regard to sources of information, owners who have not harvested timber the last 15 years use the information sources to a lesser extent than other owners do. Forest policies and extension services should acknowledge that for stimulating forest owners outside the timber market to supply wood, factors other than price are important and that alternative information pathways should be explored for reaching these owners.

Are non-industrial private forest owners willing to deliver regulation ecosystem services? Insights from an alpine case

As non-industrial private forest owners own a large share of forests in Europe, their management choices can largely affect the delivery of forest ecosystem services of different types: provisional, regulation and cultural. The literature is rich in studies exploring the delivery of both provisional services (timber or wood products) and cultural ones (recreation or amenity). However, fewer researches have addressed the delivery of regulation services like regulation of climate, carbon sequestration or preservation of habitats. The paper intends to contribute to this scarce literature with a Southern European case study. It analyses whether non-industrial private forest owners from an Italian alpine region would be willing to deliver additional (i.e. beyond legal requirements) quantities of regulation forest ecosystem services, whether they would do so with or without payment, and what affects such willingness. Three services are analysed: habitat improvement, soil conservation and carbon sequestration. Three multinomial logit models are estimated on a sample of 106 non-industrial forest owners. The results show, among others, that the willingness to deliver regulation forest ecosystem services is enhanced when the service impacts also on the property scale: this result concurs with the literature which shows that non-industrial private forest owners very often maximise not only their profit but also their overall utility by considering the self-consumption of services. The paper concludes by providing indications for targeting and tailoring active forest management policies focused on non-industrial forest owners of Italian alpine regions.

Potential Economic Impacts of Allocating More Land for Bioenergy Biomass Production in Virginia

The growing attention to renewable energy and rural development has created greater demand for production of biomass feedstock for bioenergy. However, forest growth rates and the amount of land in most existing forests may not be sufficient to sustainably supply the forest biomass required to support existing forest products industries and the expanding bioenergy industry. Additionally, concerns about agricultural land use competition have dampened expansion of biomass production on agricultural land base. One of the ways to meet the growing forest biomass feedstock demand for bioenergy production is by allocating currently marginal non-forested land for growing bioenergy feedstocks. In Virginia, about 80% of forestland is under nonindustrial private forest ownership. The land use allocation decisions of these private owners are critical for the supply of the forest biomass feedstock to support bioenergy production. We apply a computable general equilibrium model to assess the economy-wide impacts of forestland owners’ willingness to plant pine on non-forested land for woody bioenergy in Virginia. We consider three counterfactual scenarios of biomass feedstock supply increase as intermediate demand for bioenergy production based on forestland owners’ willingness to accept biomass bid prices to set aside more non-forested land for biomass production in Virginia under general equilibrium conditions. Overall, the results show an increase in social welfare and household utility but a marginal decline in GDP. However, increased demand of biomass from logging sector depressed the manufacturing sector (the wood manufacturing sub-sector particularly), which also relies on the logging sector for its intermediate inputs. Results from this study provide insights into the bioenergy land use competition debate, and pathways towards sustainable bioenergy feedstock supply.

How willing are different types of landowner to supply hardwood timber residues for bioenergy?

Among bioenergy feedstocks, timber and crop residues offer low marginal cost of production and low risk of indirect land use change that can boost greenhouse gas emissions. The potential economic supply depends on the willingness of producers to make residues available. Previous studies show that willingness to supply annual crop residues depends upon prices, attitudes toward bioenergy, biophysical setting, and demographic traits. For timber residues, a smaller literature on non-industrial private forest owners found similar results, but little is published about what drives the availability of timber residues from large public and commercial forests.Combining survey data on small-scale forest owners with interview data on managers of large-scale commercial, public and conservancy-owned forests, we find that willingness to provide timber residues varies by landowner type. At prices of $4-11 Mg−1, most commercial forest managers are willing to permit residue removal at timber harvest. At higher prices of $13-26 Mg−1, up to half of non-industrial private forest owners are also willing. However, among managers of large-scale public and conservancy forests, environmental conservation rules and/or insufficient motivation largely prevent the removal of timber residues at harvest. Future projections of timber residue supply should explicitly account for differences in the willingness of each type of forestland owner to supply residues as a bioenergy feedstock.

Planning On a Wider Scale – Swedish Forest Owners’ Preferences for Landscape Policy Attributes

A tax-fund system has been proposed to advance Swedish forest conservation. We present a choice experiment with Swedish private forest owners on preferences for attributes of a tax-fund system. Focusing on three aspects: (i) freedom to choose set-asides, (ii) equity issues, and (iii) frequency of nature inventories, we find two groups of forest owners. The first is opposed to interventions that could curtail liberty and oppose frequent nature inventories, while a smaller group would derive positive utility from joint decision-making. A tax-fund system would need to be designed in a participatory manner to reconcile forest owners, forest industry, and conservationists.

Unlocking the potential of private forests in Madhya Pradesh, India

ABSTRACTTrees outside state-owned forests have the potential to meet local and national needs for timber, pulp and allied industries, reduce imports, and increase carbon sequestration. An analysis of the operation of private forestry in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, indicates that the realization of this potential involves a liberalization of existing legislation and specified changes in regulatory procedures that at present result in delays in seeking permission to fell timber, transport it and receive payments, which cause private forest owners to lose interest in tree planting and to shift towards alternative uses of their land.

Perspectives of Private Forest Owners toward Investment in Forest Carbon Offset Projects: A Case of Geumsan-Gun, South Korea

Understanding and promoting South Korean private forest owners’ investment in the Forest Carbon Offset (FCO) scheme is crucial for enhancing carbon sequestration using forests in South Korea. This study aims to identify the factors of private forest owners associated with the investment decision in FCO projects. A total of 132 forest owners in Geumsan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do responded to a mixed-method survey. A chi-square test on the respondent groups shows that a forest management contract has a positive correlation with the forest owners’ willingness to invest in FCO projects. We also developed a logistic regression model for each forest owner group to estimate the effects of forest characteristics, experience of financial support, forest owner characteristics, and management characteristics on the forest owners’ willingness to invest in FCO projects. The results indicate that beliefs in climate change, size of forest holdings, tree species, stand age, experience in cost-sharing for forestry operations with public agencies, and timber harvest experience were significantly associated with the likelihood of a forest owner’s willingness to invest in FCO projects. Therefore, forest policies should take account of the factors influencing the likelihood of forest owners’ investment in FCO projects. We also found that the forest management contract scheme can be used as a policy instrument for promoting private forest owners’ action for climate change in South Korea.

Feeling at Home from A Distance? How Geographical Distance and Non-Residency Shape Sense of Place among Private Forest Owners

Out-migration from rural areas and generational shifts create conditions whereby increasing numbers of private forest owners live at a distance from their forestland. Geographical distance and non-residency have been raised as issues that may possibly weaken these owners’ relationships with their properties. Drawing on the “sense of place” concept as a frame of analysis for 51 qualitative interviews with resident and nonresident private forest owners from two areas in Sweden, this study provides in-depth understanding of how geographical distance and place of residency shape owners’ feelings about their forest properties. The study shows that sense of place is constructed in complex and multifaceted ways over time and that social and historical contexts and processes beyond the forest environment can make owners feel closeness to their distant properties. Thus, geographical distance or residency alone does not explain variations in these forest owners’ feelings of distance or closeness to their properties.

The participation of non-industrial private forest owners in forest certification programs: The role and effectiveness of intermediary organisations

Group forest certification programs are a relatively new policy tool designed to enhance the inclusion of small-holder foresters in forest certification systems. However, our understanding of the institutional arrangements that facilitate the participation of small-holder foresters in certification programs is limited. We assessed the role and effectiveness of intermediary organisations in promoting the participation of Non-Industrial Private Forest Owners (NIPFOs) in a forest management certification program. We focused on the Eastern Ontario Model Forest (EOMF) – an intermediary organization in Canada – which facilitates the certification of NIPFOs in a group certification program. We employed a mixed method approach involving questionnaires, document review, semi-structured interviews, and direct observations. Our findings show that the EOMF's role in the certification of NIPFOs falls under three broad categories and program implementation phases. These are program design and implementation (early-phase), routine administrative and organisational work (take-off phase), and organisational and financial sustainability (long-term phase). Across the different phases of the program, attributes of the EOMF that enhanced its effectiveness were its capacity to (a) build social capital and run the certification at relatively low cost, (b) optimize the program to provide services required by landowners, and (c) innovate to respond to stakeholder demands. However, poor market benefits, instability in donor funding and perceived inequity in group dynamics limit the EOMF's effectiveness. Intermediaries are important not only to reduce the challenges that limit the participation of small-holders in certification but also in optimizing certification to better respond to the needs and interests of small-holder operators.

Protecting or destructing? Local perceptions of environmental consideration in Lithuanian forestry

Environmental consideration is an important facet of modern forestry. However, its perceptions by those who own and manage the forest are seldom investigated. After reviewing the evolution of pertinent legislative requirements, this study scrutinizes the attitudes towards environmental consideration, based on qualitative interviews of Lithuanian private forest owners (PFOs), state forest managers, forest management planners and other local forest stakeholders. We find a considerable increase of environmental consideration since 1990, with emphasis on forestland zoning at landscape level. Most of the interviewed forest managers and PFOs are aware of and compliant with the legal demands, however, their judgement of environmental consideration appears to be strongly affected by the degree of the faced restrictions. Informants who manage forest areas with a high share of non-commercial forest zones assess the current restrictions as excessive.Though the Lithuanian forestland zoning overall can be seen as a successful example of implementing multiple use forestry at landscape level, deep qualitative interviews expose several critical issues. Hastily performed zoning entails many mistakes, where the forest or landscape characteristics do not match the intended purpose. Even more critically, severe forest management restrictions around the nests of rare birds lead to widespread destructions of nests in private forests. The most important recommendations of our study are: (i) introducing a fair system of compensations for the economic losses inflicted on PFOs; and (ii) gradual rezoning of forestland, with radically improved consideration of local specifics, including on site assessments and genuine involvement of the local stakeholders.

Risk management activities of a non-industrial private forest owner with a bivariate utility function

In this paper, we propose to analyse the choice of risk management activity made by a non-industrial private forest owner who derives utility from consu mption and from the sentimental value of the forest that bears a risk of disaster. We consider a bivari ate utility function depending on consumption and sentimental value of forest. In this context, we an alyse insurance and/or self-insurance decisions. We show that, under fair premium, full insurance is op timal only if the cross derivative of the utility function equals zero. Under-insurance and over-insu rance may also be optimal depending on the sign of this cross derivative. We also show that, under a positive loading factor, optimal partial insuranc e is validated only if the cross derivative is positive; otherwise full insurance may be optimal even with a loading insurance. We also observe that risk aversi on increases the level of insurance demand and self insurance activity, extending this standard result obtained with an univariate utility function to a bivariate utility function. Moreover, when the forest owner can simultaneously insure and invest in self-insurance activity, full insurance is never optimal if the cross derivative is positive. Finally, we prove that insurance and s elfinsurance may be substitutes, and if preferences ar e separable and exhibit decreasing absolute risk aversion, then insurance and self-insurance are alw ays considered as substitutes.

Factors Hindering Forest Management Among Engaged and Detached Private Forest Owners: Slovenian Stakeholders’ Perceptions

Small-scale properties are the prevailing ownership category in Slovenian private forests. Owners are becoming increasingly diverse with predominant multifunctional management orientation which has led to underutilisation of wood potentials over the past decades. We surveyed forest-related stakeholders (24) to understand their perceptions on factors affecting private forest management. We used their perceptions, as opposed to the actual barriers, to understand what needs to be changed in forest policy. This study is based on the latest (private forest owners) PFOs typology conducted in Slovenia which resulted in types of engaged and detached forest owners. A typology based framework for data collection and analysis was performed using six pre-set categories from operational environment. We followed the Simple Multiple-Attribute Rating Techniques method to evaluate the most important private forest management hindering factors. The results showed that stakeholders perceived only minor differences between owner types according to hindering factors. The psychological factors were perceived as the crucial category separating the two types, suggesting that detached owners are more substantially driven by personal decisions, which follow recent societal changes. The group of economic factors was recognized as the most important category for both types suggesting that forest policy should prioritize profit-oriented management strategies. The results imply that owner-specific forest policy may not be the priority for stakeholders and that the problems of private forest management can be solved with the implementation of innovative and active policy measures, which take into account multifunctional forest management orientation of PFOs, their characteristics and ownership trends.

Experiences and emotions among private forest owners versus public interests: Why ownership matters

By adopting a qualitative approach and considering the case of Sweden, the aim of the paper is to investigate and analyse how private forest owners’ experiences and emotions related to their private forest ownership manifest themselves in their relationship to public use of their forests and public planning for recreation and biodiversity on their land. The study incorporates and elaborates upon a conceptual framework related to the dimensions of property rights, feelings of ownership, and sense of place in its analysis of the private forest ownership context. Fifty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with forest owners owning land in two geographically different areas. The results demonstrate the important role of the ‘social contract’ of rights and responsibilities, which are associated with the concept of property rights, and are embedded in the relationship between private ownership and the Swedish custom of the Right of Public Access to nature in the broad acceptance of public use of private forestland. The forest owners’ relationships with public planning are diverse and complex, illustrating the various dimensions of private forest ownership, the heterogeneous forest owner corps, and the different geographical contexts. The dimensions of ownership feelings and sense of place, and the interplay between them, are shown to contribute to enhanced sentiments linked to forest ownership, expressed in ambivalence or lack of conviction about public planning. An important point of resistance to public interests is owners’ identity as stewards or long-term custodians of their particular forestland. The article ends with a set of recommendations for public policy and planning processes regarding public interests related to private forest ownership.

Private forest owners and property tax incentive programs in the United States: A national review and analysis of ecosystem services promoted, landowner participation, forestland area enrolled, and magnitude of tax benefits provided

Forest ecosystems provide services that can be promoted by state property tax incentive programs. A 50-state review in 2014–2015 determined that such programs were used to foster services such as protection of soil and water resources, habitat for fish and wildlife, aesthetically pleasing landscapes, and the production of timber and wood fiber. The review determined that nearly 210 million acres (85 million hectares [ha]) were enrolled in 58 different state property tax programs, an estimated 44% of private forest area eligible for enrollment. Over 3.85 million participants benefited from the programs and collectively received more than $1.61 billion in reduced annual property taxes. The average annual value of the reduction was $7.68 per acre ($19.00 per ha).

What influences European private forest owners' affinity for subsidies?

This study analyses the linkages between private forest owners' perceptions of forest management, and their affinity for subsidies, in a range of European countries. Society increasingly requires the provision of ecosystem services from forests, but the willingness of forest owners to redirect management goals from wood production to the provision of public goods is crucial for sustaining ecosystem services. EU incentives in the forestry sector are still mainly oriented towards an anthropocentric vision of forest management. Forest owners and managers are diverse, and although many efforts have been made to understand the role of forest subsidies in private forest management, it is still necessary to analyse the different perspectives on forest subsidies with a regional comparative approach. This paper explores European private forest owners' affinity for subsidies – through survey data at European level—and estimates an ordered probit model to (i) analyse how private forest owners in Europe respond to subsidies in forestry, including regional differences in terms of affinity for subsidies, (ii) characterize the factors that influence these responses and (iii) discuss lessons learned related to forest owners' attitudes on subsidies and the implications for introducing similar kind of incentives such as payments for ecosystem services. Simulations were conducted to examine the potential effects of changes in property fragmentation or the time allotted to forest activities. Forest owners with an utilitarian view of forest management, bigger forest holdings, full or part-time farmers and forest owners from East Europe are most in favour of forest subsidies. Property fragmentation and absenteeism decreases affinity for subsidies.

Service Marketing Phenomena in the Context of Private Forest Owners—a Service Dominant Logic Perspective on Scholarly Literature

This paper seeks to make an inquiry into the state-of-the art scholarly research of service marketing phenomena in the context of non-industrial private forest owners (NIPF). Its aim is to find out how service marketing issues have been approached in scholarly papers and what kinds of separate research approaches exist towards service marketing challenges. The core purpose of this paper is to use the most recent literature from (service) marketing to evaluate the scholarly research existing in forestry that discusses service marketing and related phenomena. In forestry, lot of scholarly research has centered on constructing different types of NIPF typologies. While the aim in some papers has been to either serve as tools for policy making or forest management planning, others have delved deeper into trying to understand NIPF communication, values, objectives, etc. Simultaneously, there has been a radical new development in (service-) marketing theory on how to rethink economic exchange. The core of this service dominant logic (SDL) is that we should move from seeing economic exchange as an exchange of products or product-like services. Instead, we should ask what core “service” this exchange provides for the different exchange parties—i.e., what (strategic) benefits the engagement provides to the actors involved in the exchange relationship. While the two might at first seem disconnected, this paper aims to show that the SDL view could be very useful in explaining the future of the services aimed at NIPF. The new view could be used to explain why some NIPF groups are not reached by traditional service marketing tools. Further, it can also provide light into what type of new service businesses might be needed for the future NIPF service sector. This paper constructs a theoretical continuum from a product-centric view of services to the abstract service dominant logic (SDL) view of services. This continuum provides light into the value creation potential of the sector but also possible value creators—i.e., new businesses and economic activities. Results suggest that while new services can be gauged by the developed theoretical view, and while NIPF value creation is a part of some disciplinary explanations of NIPF behavior, the literature is still quite product dominant in its ways to view NIPF behavior.

An assessment of the impact of silviculture and forest management regimes to forest cover change in the Churia region during 1992 to 2014

A study was conducted in the Churia region in 2014 to assess the change in forest cover as an outcome of the performance of various forest management regimes and silvicultural practices with the main objective to find the gap between those two. Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) were used to compare the satellite imageries for the period of 1992 to 2014 in order to analyse the state of forest cover change. The demarcation of community forest boundaries was conducted based on available boundary maps and transferred to Google earth and GIS platform. Results showed that overall forest cover in the Churia region was increased by 7500 ha (1%) in 22 years, i.e. 1.35 million ha (76%) in 1992 to 1.36 million ha (77%) in 2014. The rate of deforestation in the Churia region was reduced as compared to the national average. However, degradation of landscape was visible at riverbeds and cultivation lands close to the riverbeds. It was also found that the area of dense forest was increased by 42,000 ha, whereas the area covered by bushes and grassland was reduced by 39,000 ha. The study further showed that there was a decline in cultivated land by 20,000 ha. Comparing the forest cover change in community forests with that of other management regimes, silvicultural practices in community forest areas have brought relatively better positive changes in the forest condition. It may be due to periodic silviculture operations carried out collectively by local communities. In the assessment, however, various elements of tenure rights and responsibilities of community, government and private forest and tree owners were identified and key silvicultural practices adopted by these regimes were highlighted as the drivers of positive or negative outcomes of forest cover change. Banko JanakariA Journal of Forestry Information for Nepal Special Issue No. 4, 2018, Page : 36-44

Skepticism of state action in forest certification and voluntary set-asides: a Swedish example with two environmental offsetting options

ABSTRACTNon-industrial private forest owners in Sweden are encouraged to mitigate environmental damages from forestry on their properties under a principle of “freedom with responsibility,” although the level of mitigation is generally left to the owners’ discretion. One voluntary measure private forest owners are encouraged to take is setting aside a part of their productive forests for conservation. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how non-industrial private forest owner beliefs concerning both their own and the Swedish state’s responsibility for nature protection differ among owners of certified forests, who automatically leave a set-aside, and those who have stayed out of forest certification but have decided to leave a set-aside. Results of a Heckman selection bivariate probit model show that the more a respondent believes the state is responsible for fulfilling environmental goals compared to private forest owners, the less likely it is that an owner of a non-certified forest will leave a set-aside for conservation. Beliefs about responsibility do not, however, differ among owners of certified and non-certified forests. From a policy perspective, Swedish government agencies may have difficulty steering specific measures taken by private forest owners who are interested in conservation but have stayed out of forest certification regimes.

Incentivising Participation and Spatial Coordination in Payment for Ecosystem Service Schemes: Forest Disease Control Programs in Finland

This paper considers the problem of designing PES-type contracts to encourage participation and spatial coordination amongst private forest owners in Finland. The aim of the policy is to increase efforts to mitigate risks from invasive forest pests and diseases. Such control actions yield spill-over benefits to other landowners and to wider society, meaning that the level of privately-optimal disease control is likely to be less than the socially-optimal level. The policy designer may wish to encourage spatial coordination in the uptake of such PES-type contracts, as spatial coordination delivers an increase in the effectiveness of control measures on disease risks. We conducted a choice experiment with private forest owners in Finland in October 2016. The study elicited the preferences of woodland owners with respect to the design of forest disease control contracts, and gauged their willingness to cooperate with neighbouring forest owners within the framework of such programs.

Perceptions of ownership among new forest owners – A qualitative study in European context

Private forest owners possess a major part of Europe's forests. Therefore, their behaviour plays a significant role in the development and management of European forest resources. At the same time, forest owners' values and objectives are becoming more versatile. There is a need for further understanding of elements affecting forest owners' management behaviour. One aspect of potential impact is how forest ownership is perceived by the forest owners themselves. Understanding how they experience the ownership, especially on the psychological level, can provide new insights into forest owners' management behaviour and aid in planning better services to meet their needs.This paper aims to describe the new NIPF owners' perceptions of forest ownership by qualitative analyses drawn from 23 in-depth interviews covering different contextual settings in Europe. The theory of psychological ownership is used as a theoretical background. The aim is to examine, how psychological ownership is expressed and the ownership feelings are manifested in different forest owning contexts. The results illustrate what kind of ownership values new forest owners set for their forests and discuss how these affect their forest management behavior. At the same time the paper illustrate the potential of the social science approach in forest ownership research.