Old trees are perceived as a valuable element of the municipal forest landscape

Urban trees are important to maintain biodiversity and, therefore, need public acceptance. Few studies, however, have addressed the topic of social acceptability of old trees. The aim of this research was to examine city residents’ perception of old trees, including hollow-bearing ones, mainly in the aspect of safety and aesthetics. A total of 448 Warsaw municipal forest’ users expressed their opinions by completing an online questionnaire. Several methods were used to analyse the results of the study: the Chi-square test of independence, the Kruskal–Wallis H test, the Mann–Whitney U test and the Quartimax method of factor rotation analysis. The results revealed a correlation between the frequency of forest visits and the level of sensitivity toward old trees, which translates to less radical notion of danger and less radical decisions about cutting such trees down. Age of the respondents (56+) was a factor contributing to higher willingness to protect and care for old trees. The results also indicated that outdoor activity in the urban forest may increase ancient trees acceptance by developing emotional connection with them, and eventually contribute to their protection.

Market Segmentation by Motivations of Urban Forest Users and Differences in Perceived Effects

The purpose of this study aims at segmenting the urban forest users’ market by motivation and analyzing the difference in perceived effects of urban forests. Based on a literature review, the study selected seven motivating factors of urban forest users: experiential activity, relaxatin/healing, health management, escape from everday life, daily leisure, affinity toward nature. Data were collected online from 21 to 29 Sepember 2020 with urban forest visitors. We analyzed 878 questionnaires received from those with experience of visiting an urban forest within the previous 24 months. We performed a cluster analysis to classify the subjects according to the characteristics of urban forest utilization, and assigned them to four clusters (rest in nature, family leisure, passive participation, and multiple pursuit). An additional analysis was performed to determine intergroup differences, which revealed differences in perceived benefits and healing effects of urban forests as well as satisfaction. The results of this study provide implications for urban forest operation and strategy setup.

Understanding Ant Forest continuance: effects of user experience, personal attributes and motivational factors

PurposeTechnology has emerged as a leading tool to address concerns regarding climate change in the recent era. As a result, the green mobile application – Ant Forest – was developed, and it has considerable potential to reduce negative environmental impacts by encouraging its users to become involved in eco-friendly activities. Ant Forest is a novel unexplored green mobile gaming phenomenon. To address this gap, this study explores the influence of user experience (cognitive experience and affective experience), personal attributes (affection and altruism) and motivational factors in game play (reward for activities and self-promotion) on the continuation intention toward Ant Forest.Design/methodology/approachThe authors assessed the data using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for understanding users' continuation intention toward Ant Forest.FindingsThrough a survey of 337 Ant Forest users, the results reveal that cognitive and affective experiences substantially affect Ant Forest continuation intention. Personal attributes and motivational factors also stimulate users to continue using Ant Forest.Originality/valueThe authors build and confirm a conceptual framework to understand users' continuation intention toward a novel unexplored Ant Forest phenomenon.

Organizational, Economic, and Strategic Aspects of Capitalization of Multipurpose Forest Industries

Introduction. The present article forecasts the organizational, economic, and strategic aspects of the multifunctional forestry capitalization in the Kemerovo region aka Kuzbass. The authors analyzed the current Russian laws in order to answer the following question: is multi-purpose forest utilization able to ensure the rights and interests of all its participants, while providing legal means to resolve various related issues? Study objects and methods. The research featured the legal norms in the field of forest, wildlife, and subsoil utilization. The authors assessed their ability to guarantee sustainable use of natural resources while protecting the rights and legitimate interests of forest users. The study was based on general standard methods of cognition and special legal methods. Results and discussion. Hunting is regulated by hunting sector agreements. The Forest Code and the Hunting Law of the Russian Federation do not prohibit or restrict other types of forest utilization of hunting grounds. Most Western European countries link land ownership to hunting rights, which makes landowners liable for damage caused by hunting and obliged to protect the local fauna. Conclusion. Russian legislation does not provide for direct conciliation and compensation mechanisms in cases a part of hunting ground is used for other purposes, e.g. mining. Russian legislation needs legal termination procedures for hunting sector agreements and compensation rules in case a land plot was seized from hunting providers for subsoil use.

Review of Policy Instruments for Climate-Smart Mountain Forestry

Implementing the Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) concept into practice requires interaction among key stakeholders, especially forest owners and managers, policymakers (or regulators in general), forest consultants, and forest users. But what could be the most effective policy instruments to achieve climate smartness in mountain forests? Which ones would be the most acceptable for forest owners? And for the local forest communities? Should they be designed and implemented with the use of participatory approaches or rather on a top-down basis? This chapter summarizes key policy instruments structured in three subsequent categories: command-and-control, voluntary market-based instruments, and community cooperation. It provides examples of their functioning in the forestry sector and discusses their suitability for the implementation of climate smart forestry. It appears that there are many policy instruments used with varying degrees of success such as forest concessions or voluntary certification schemes. A wide range of instruments are responding to direct regulation; this has been seen as insufficient to deal with natural hazards and calamities.

State and prospects of forest protection from illegal logging in the Ural Federal District

Illegal logging and trade in primary timber is a significant threat to the integrity of the forest system of the Ural region. It causes enormous damage to economy and society. The purpose of the work is to describe the state of the problem of illegal logging, identify the main factors causing widespread illegal logging and illegal timber turnover in the district, and make separate recommendations to suppress illegal activities of unscrupulous forest users. The analysis, comparison, and synthesis of the data were conducted on the basis of official Departmental reporting provided by the Forestry Department of the Ural Federal District. The issue of illegal logging is systemic and sustainable. Recognition of not only economic, but also the social and environmental significance of the problem, coordination of interdepartmental interaction, improvement of the system of state forest control and supervision, combating corruption schemes, creation of the institution of public environmental inspectors and their active work with the support of regional and federal authorities and the response of the timber industry enterprises can turn the situation.

Assessment of the volume of harvested wood in accordance with the vital state of wood species

During selective felling on the territory of 3.9 ha, 181 m3 of wood, 35% of which is dead wood. Among them, pine (16 m3), spruce (27 m3), birch (8 m3) and aspen (12 m3) were found. The volume of cut viable wood was 118 m3, including 50 m3 of pine, 44 m3 of spruce, 14m 3 of birch and 10 m3 of aspen. The values obtained do not exceed the forest declaration data. To determine the stumps from dead coniferous trees, the following criteria were tested: complete or partial absence of bark, the presence of traces of the vital activity of insect pests and abundance worm dust. Species-specific criteria are proposed: in pine – the presence of rot of the peripheral part of the wood, brown color of sapwood and bast; spruce – the presence of heart rot and wood destroying fungi. In deciduous species, the main criterion for isolating stumps from dead trees has been tested – the presence of wood-destroying fungi, in aspen – heart rot caused by tinder fungi. We recommend using these criteria to resolve legal claims against forest users in the removal and assessment of harvested wood.