Conservation perspectives of small-scale private forest owners in Europe: A systematic review

AbstractPrivate forest owners are the main forest ownership group within Europe, and important conservation values have been found on their land. Yet, small plot sizes, societal heterogeneity, and structural changes impede developing and implementing effective conservation programs in private forests. We present a systematic literature review focusing on small-scale private forest owners and their perspectives on nature conservation by synthesizing research approaches, social-ecological drivers, and policy recommendations. Conservation perspectives were positively related to female gender, higher levels of education, formalized forest management, an active relation to the forest, and ecological values of the property. In contrast, high age, rural orientation, economic forest management factors, large parcel size, and economic and sentimental property values negatively influenced conservation perspectives. Applying a natural resource conflict management framework, we synthesized recommendations covering three dimensions: substance, procedure, relationship. Considering perspectives of small-scale private forest owners in current forestry decision-making has great potential to strengthen sustainable forest management that integrates nature conservation and resource use.

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

Silva Gandavensis ◽

10.21825/sg.v65i0.810 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 65 ◽

Author(s):

B. Van der Aa ◽

P. Huvenne ◽

B. Muys ◽

N. Lust

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Sustainable Forest Management ◽

Stakeholder Management ◽

Sustainable Use ◽

Forest Resources ◽

Private Forest ◽

Private Forest Owners ◽

Forest Owners ◽

Private Forests ◽

Private And Public

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.

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Pengelolaan Hutan Rakyat Oleh Kelompok Pemilik Hutan Rakyat Di Desa Bandar Dalam Kecamatan Sidomulyo Kabupaten Lampung Selatan

Jurnal Sylva Lestari ◽

10.23960/jsl2399-112 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 99

Author(s):

Slamet Budi Yuwono ◽

Rudi Hilmanto

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Descriptive Analysis ◽

Simple Random Sampling ◽

Private Forest ◽

Private Forest Owners ◽

Forest Owners ◽

Private Forests ◽

The Social ◽

Private Forest Management ◽

Evaluation And Monitoring

The private forest is one of the alternative solutions to the pressure of forest resources. The benefits to be gained from private forests management includes fulfill the needs of wood, increase public revenues, and increase the productivity of land. The benefit has received by the public depends on the management carried out by private forest owners. The purposes of this study were to determine the social and economic characteristics of people who participate in managing private forests, and to determine the level of private forest management covers all aspects of planning, organizing, actuating, evaluation and monitoring. The research was conducted on August till September 2014 in Bandar Dalam village Sidomulyo District of South Lampung. The numbers of samples were 38 respondents by simple random sampling method. Data analysis methods used qualitative descriptive analysis. The results,were it can be concluded that: (1) the social and economic characteristics of the people who manage private forests mostly included in the productive age work and have a second job, amount of family burden is only a bit, and private forests land that they manage quite extensive so that their income quite high, although most low level of education; and (2) private forest management consisted of the planning aspect in medium category, organizational aspect in medium category, planting implementation aspect in both category, implementation of maintenance aspect in medium category, harvesting implementation aspect in both category, marketing implementation aspect in poor category, and monitoring-evaluation aspect are in medium category. Overall level of private forest management is medium category. Key words: Private forest, forest management, private forest owners

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Open geo-spatial data for sustainable forest management: Lithuanian case

10.22616/rrd.26.2020.005 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Daiva Tiškutė-Memgaudienė ◽

◽

Gintautas Mozgeris ◽

Algis Gaižutis ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Forest Management ◽

Spatial Data ◽

Sustainable Forest Management ◽

Forest Monitoring ◽

Private Forest ◽

Forest Land ◽

Private Forest Owners ◽

Forest Owners ◽

Privately Owned

In Lithuania, forests are managed by Lithuanian State Forest Enterprise, municipalities, ministries, etc. and private forest owners. About 50% of all forest land is State importance, privately owned forests cover 40% of forest land, and about 10% of forest land belongs to forests reserved for restitution. Forest management of private ownership force many challenges, because private forest owners are people, who have purchased or received the property after restitution, and often lacks knowledge about forest resources, its dynamics and sustainable forest management. As remote sensing is a valuable source for forest monitoring, because it provides periodic data on forest resource and condition status, these methods are gaining increased attention worldwide. In this context, more scientific efforts are made at developing remote sensing derived geo-spatial data services for sustainable forest management through a web service platform, which would integrate geo-information into daily decision making processes and operation for private forest owners. This article presents a review of privately owned forests’ statistics, questionnaire-based survey about GIS usage and demand for forest owners in Lithuania and links available sources of open geo-spatial data useful for sustainable forest management.

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Small-scale private forest owners and the European Natura 2000 conservation network: perceived ecosystem services, management practices, and nature conservation attitudes

European Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1007/s10342-021-01415-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Malin Tiebel ◽

Andreas Mölder ◽

Tobias Plieninger

Keyword(s):

Nature Conservation ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Management Practices ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Small Scale ◽

Private Forest ◽

Private Forest Owners ◽

Forest Owners ◽

Conservation Attitudes ◽

Conservation Network

AbstractThe systematic designation of protected areas is a key strategy in modern biodiversity conservation. As for now, the Natura 2000 system of the European Union (EU) is the largest coordinated network of conservation areas worldwide. Since this scheme has a focus on forests, its effectiveness substantially depends on small-scale private forest owners who represent the largest forest ownership group in Europe. We conducted a quantitative survey (n = 1671) in Northwest Germany focusing on the perceived importance of ecosystem services, the performance of management practices, nature conservation attitudes, as well as stand characteristics of small-scale private forest owners with and without Natura 2000 sites. Forest owners perceived regulating and cultural services as more important than provisioning ecosystem services while having a multifunctional perspective on their forest. Owners with Natura 2000 sites had a stronger focus on resource use and, with the exception of habitat-tree protection, did not perform conservation measures more frequently than those without. Moreover, we found more negative nature conservation attitudes among this ownership group. In conclusion, the Natura 2000 scheme needs to be more strongly adapted to the demands of small-scale private forest owners, for example by increasing profound participation and establishing a results-based incentive scheme for conservation measures. The perspectives of small-scale private forest owners have to be considered comprehensively to ensure the effective and sustainable implementation of the Natura 2000 conservation network.

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Private Forest Owners’ Social Economic Profiles Weakly Influence Forest Management Conceptualizations

Forests ◽

10.3390/f10110956 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 956 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Andrej Ficko

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Latent Variables ◽

Social Economic ◽

Small Scale ◽

Forest Owner ◽

Full Time ◽

Private Forest ◽

Private Forest Owners ◽

Forest Owners ◽

Management Concepts

Although several private forest owner studies have dealt with how private forest owners understand forest management, little is known about the determinants of specific forest management concepts. The study expands previous latent variable models of the perception of forest management by European private forest owners by looking at how age, income, education, annual cut, and holding size and type influence specific understandings of forest management. We applied a multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) structural equation model on a representative sample of 754 private forest owners from Slovenia. The MIMIC model confirmed the influence of six covariates on three concepts of forest management: the maintenance concept, the ecosystem-centered concept, and the economics-centered concept. The strongest determinants of perception were education and holding type. The maintenance concept was predominantly associated with less educated older full-time or part-time farmers working on smaller family farms and doing regular cuts. The perception of forest management as an economics-centered activity increased with increased education and dependence on income from intensive cuts. The ecosystem-centered concept was most strongly associated with younger, better-educated owners with smaller holdings and, surprisingly, not to non-farmers but to small-scale family farmers. However, the proportion of the variance of latent variables explained by the six covariates was low, ranging from 2.4% to 5.1%. Taking into account the influence of education and holding type on private forest owners’ perception of forest management, by increasing the level of education and raising the proportion of absentee owners in Europe, we expect a shift from the maintenance concept toward either an economics-centered or ecosystem-oriented concept for forest management. Despite the weak influence of private forest owners’ social economic profiles on forest management conceptualizations, governments should be aware of the trend and actively seek to prevent the polarization of forest management concepts.

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Basel-Stadt und seine Wälder | Basel-Stadt and its forests

Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Forstwesen ◽

10.3188/szf.2007.0216 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 158 (7) ◽

pp. 216-220 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Guido Bader

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Nature Conservation ◽

Forest Management ◽

Forest Service ◽

Private Forest ◽

Private Forest Owners ◽

Forest Owners ◽

Significant Challenge ◽

Management Measures ◽

Vital Element

The canton Basel-Stadt is forested on about 12% of its area. The broadleaved dominated stands cover an area of 429 hectares, of which 90 hectares are the property of 330 private forest owners. The forest has great importance to Basel-Stadt and its people. In respect to nature conservation, the forest accommodates several treasures but for 190 000 people, it also serves as a highly valued area for recreation and as a vital element of the landscape. At the Langen Erlen reservation, approximately half of the drinking water for the canton Basel-Stadt is produced. By redirecting water from the Rhine into forested recharge areas, pure drinking water is gained in a unique, natural and sustainable way with the help of the forest. All the desired functions of the forest require a continuous and goal-oriented forest management. To settle all the manifold requirements in and around the forest and to coordinate the required management measures within the forest as an ecosystem, a significant challenge faces the forest service both currently and in the future.

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Private Forests in Nepal: Status and Policy Analysis

Journal of Forest and Livelihood ◽

10.3126/jfl.v15i1.23094 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 120-130 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Swoyambhu M. Amatya ◽

Prakash Lamsal

Keyword(s):

Present Status ◽

National Level ◽

Timber Harvesting ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Private Land ◽

Private Forest ◽

Community Forest ◽

Private Forest Owners ◽

Forest Owners ◽

Private Forests

This paper reviews and analyses the present status of private forests and tenure administration in light of existing legal, policy, and regulatory frameworks in Nepal. Additionally, the present status of private forests, as well as the scenarios of timber harvesting, transportation, marketing, and their administration are thoroughly revised. Provisions regarding forests and trees on private land and their basis are examined and implications are articulated for potential policy improvements for enhanced tenure security. It is shown that robust national-level policies and legal frameworks exist, and that there is an increasing trend of timber flows to markets from private forests over the past five years. However, there is still skepticism, mistrust and fear amongst private forest owners, saw millers, and forest administration that prevents the full use of the bundle of rights that legal and policy provisions have promised. An unusually slow pace of private forest registration, lengthy and multi stage processes for obtaining harvesting and transportation permits, and official bans on important commercial species, among others, are found to be the factors that most hinder the private forest owners’ and tree growers’ interests, and their rights and obligations with respect to the management and use of their private forest resources. It is concluded that a simplified permitting process along with programmatic support would promote and help to grow private forestry and that Nepal’s experience and lessons learned from community forest implementation would be a great asset to move towards this end. Connecting community forest user groups for organised and cooperative action, and mobilising their institutional strength and accumulated funds for pro-farmer technical and regulatory support would allow farmers to intensify tree plantations and forest management. Further steps are required to convince policymakers and secure necessary budgetary support to this end..

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Nonindustrial Private Forest Owners in Idaho

Western Journal of Applied Forestry ◽

10.1093/wjaf/6.2.32 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 32-36 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jo Ellen Force ◽

Harry W. Lee

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Management Practices ◽

Sociodemographic Characteristics ◽

Private Forest ◽

Private Forest Owners ◽

Forest Owners ◽

Domestic Use ◽

Sociodemographic Profile ◽

Nipf Owners ◽

Nonindustrial Private Forest

Abstract Idaho's nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) owners were surveyed by mail to determine their sociodemographic characteristics, perceptions of the benefits received from owning forestland, use of forest management practices, harvesting plans, and use of forest management assistance. Data were reported for the entire state and also analyzed by ownership class. The sociodemographic profile of Idaho's NIPF owner is similar to that reported from other states. Major benefits of owning NIPF land were: wood for domestic use; esthetic enjoyment; and wildlife appreciation. Esthetics were more important to smaller landowners. Grazing and timber were benefits of importance to large landowners. Fifty-six percent of owners have harvested timber, varying from 35% of small holdings to 74% of large holdings. One-fourth of the owners say they will never harvest timber. Only 34% have ever sought professional forest management assistance. West. J. Appl. For. 6(2):32-36.

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