Many socioeconomic constraints exist for biomass removals from federal lands in the western U.S. We examine several issues of importance, including biomass supply chains and harvesting costs, ...innovative new uses for bioenergy products, and the policy framework in place to provide incentives for biomass use. Western states vary greatly in the extent and utilization of forest resources, the proportion of land under federal ownership, and community and stakeholder structure and dynamics. Our research—which focused on the socioeconomic factors associated with biomass removal, production, and use—identified several important trends. Long-term stewardship projects could play a role in influencing project economics while being conducive to private investment. State policies are likely to help guide the growth of biomass utilization for energy products. New markets and technologies, such as biofuels, for use in the aviation industry, torrefied wood, mobile pyrolysis, and wood coal cofiring could greatly change the landscape of biomass use. Social needs of residents in wildland urban interfaces will play an important role, especially in an era of megafires. All of these trends—including significant unknowns, like the volatile prices of fossil energy—are likely to affect the economics of biomass removal and use in western forests.
The goal of forest policy is to enhance sustainable production of the material and immaterial benefits of forests to serve the needs of all citizens. A theoretical model for explaining the formation ...of legitimacy in a certain political sector was developed and empirically tested in the context of Finnish forest policy. Nationwide mail survey data was used to determine the differences in the perceptions of forest policy by Finnish forest owners and other citizens. The questionnaire measured the legitimacy of the forest policy, the acceptance of laws, the justice of the procedures, the fairness of power relations, the acceptance of forestry operations and the competence in forest policy issues. Overall legitimacy was evaluated positively, and the forest owners considered forest policy in general to be more acceptable than other citizens did. The most criticized aspects of forest policy were the justice of the procedures and the use of clearcutting. Procedural justice and acceptance of forestry operations were the strongest explanatory factors for the legitimacy. Acceptance of the power relations of different stakeholder groups explained legitimacy for non-owners but not for forest owners. In both groups, forest policy competence led to a more negative evaluation of legitimacy.
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► Procedural justice and acceptance of forestry operations explained the legitimacy. ► Forest owners were in general more content with forest policy than non-owners. ► Justice of the procedures was criticized, especially equal treatment of stakeholders. ► Clearcutting and even-aged forest management were criticized. ► Forest policy competence led to a more negative evaluation of legitimacy.
Deforestation is a leading cause of biodiversity loss and an important source of global carbon emissions. This means that there are important synergies between climate policy and conservation policy. ...The highest rates of deforestation occur in tropical countries, where much of the land at the forest frontier is managed informally by smallholders and where governance systems tend to be weak. These features must be considered when designing policies to reduce emissions from deforestation such as REDD+. Deforestation is often accompanied by fires that release large amounts of carbon dioxide. These emissions are especially high in the case of peatlands which contain thick layers of carbon-rich matter. In this paper we derive marginal abatement cost (MAC) curves using data from a farmer survey in Sumatra, where rates of peatland deforestation are high. Comparing these results with farmers' stated willingness to accept payment not to clear forest to establish oil palm suggests that REDD+ policies may be more expensive than MAC estimates suggest The extent to which this is true depends on the types of soils being deforested.
•Tropical deforestation causes high rates of biodiversity loss and CO2 emissions.•Much of the land at the forest frontier is managed informally by smallholders.•Opportunity cost (OC) of avoided deforestation by farmers in Sumatra is estimated.•Payments requested by these farmers exceed OC estimated from survey data.•Our results have implications for the design of policies on avoided deforestation.
In recent years, the concept of sustainable forest management has evolved into a number of Criteria and Indicators schemes that are designed to guide the practice of sustainable forestry. One such ...mechanism is the Montréal Process Criteria and Indicators, which identifies seven criteria and 54 indicators associated with these seven criteria. While there is sufficient basic forest data available through the FAO's Global Forest Resource Assessment (2015), it is unclear how big forest countries compare in the key parameters surrounding sustainable forest management as defined by major Criteria and Indicator schemes. To accomplish this, we performed analyses of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015 (FRA) country report data to provide insights into the current status and trends in the period 1990–2015 in eight jurisdictions, namely Australia, Canada, China, Japan, the European Union, New Zealand, the Russian Federation and the USA. This study found that Canada has performed well against several key sustainable forest management parameters of the Montréal Process, including forest area designated for multiple use, and protective functions such as soil and water conservation and ecosystems services. Forest area in Canada remained stable over the past 25 years, although a relatively small area of forest had been lost. Compared to other countries, the rate of deforestation (which involves a change in land use) in Canada is small and has declined from 65,000 ha per year in 1990 to 48,000 ha per year in 2010. Forest area was also compared in the category of primary forest. Canada lost 741,000 ha of primary forest from 1990 to 2015, although this does not necessarily imply a change in total forest area. Our findings show that Canada, has some of the most stringent forest management legal and policy frameworks. While most other jurisdictions have only national and state level policies and a legislative framework to support sustainable forest management, Canada has comprehensive policies and a legislative framework in place at the national, provincial and local levels. In terms of social parameters, stakeholders are allowed to be involved in the planning, operations and review of almost all forest areas in our selected jurisdictions. This study demonstrates that the forest management and conservation regime in Canada, within the studied domains i.e. legal framework, management plans, national forest inventory and stakeholder involvement, incorporates a sophisticated understanding of the global, national and local interests linking economic, environmental and social issues.
•We performed comparative analysis of Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015 data.•We quantified current forest areas and examined trends in key indicators of SFM.•Canada ranked high on several key sustainable forest management parameters.•Canada has consistently maintained about 232 million ha of managed forest since 1990.•Deforestation rate in Canada declined from 65 K ha/yr in 1990 to 48 K ha/yr in 2010.
Situating in the lap of the Bay of Bengal, the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, plays a significant role in the livelihood of more than three million people and provides shelter to an ...undetermined number of species. Unfortunately, this United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared world heritage site faces various threats to wildlife and biodiversity due to human interventions in the forest and animal habitats. The present study finds that despite having 150 forest policies to conserve the forest, the forest size is gradually shrinking across the country, particularly in the Sundarbans. However, National Forestry Policy 1979 (amended 2016) aims to protect forests and forest resources, and Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012 (hereafter the Wildlife Act 2012) protects against wildlife crimes. Although National Forestry Policy 2016 endeavours to engage the local communities in the conservation process, no significant improvement was seen in the life of local communities and forest management. This paper assesses the role of international institutions that often support and cooperate with other countries for sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation, like the Sundarbans of Bangladesh.
Based on the review of relevant literature, this paper investigates how forest authority is produced or reproduced in the course of forest policy change, by drawing on the past four decades of ...participatory forest policy reform in Nepal. We analyze various waves of deliberative politics that emerged in different contexts related to the Himalayan crisis, the flow of international aid for conservation and development projects, civil conflict and democratic transition, and most recently the policy responses to climate change. The analysis shows how such deliberative politics contributed to the change or continuity of conventional authorities around forest policy and practice. It shows that despite notable participatory policy reform, the conventional authority has become further re-entrenched. Based on this analysis, we argue that efforts to understand forest policy change can be more meaningful if attention is paid to whether and how deliberative politics emerge to challenge the hegemonic claims to power and knowledge about resource governance practices. Such approach to policy analysis can open new possibilities for understanding democratic policy reform by explicating the nuances of deliberation and policy politics occurring at multiple scales.
•We examine how forest authority is (re)produced in the course of forest policy change.•We identify different waves of deliberative politics linked to various forms of forest authorities in Nepal, and explain how and to what extent deliberative politics leads to change or reproduction of forest authorities.•Despite promising participatory reform, the conventional forest authority has become further re-entrenched in Nepal in subtler way than in the past.•Analysis of how deliberative politics emerge enriches our understanding of deliberation and negotiation around policy landscape.
Large-scale cooperation between forest owners can have multiple benefits to both the forest owners and society. However, in most countries such cooperation is not widespread. The purpose of this ...paper is to explore the question why forest owners' cooperation is not a common practice. We do it by exploring the institutional barriers of cooperation. Based on an Estonian case example we find that the formal institutions reflect mainly the economic aspects of cooperation. The informal institutions, however, are more diverse and often do not relate to the formal ones. Therefore, a number of institutional barriers influences forest owners' decision-making towards cooperation. If policies and policy implementation fail to tackle these barriers then policy goals might not be met and cooperation might not be enhanced.
•Forest policy-makers are interested in developing forest owner associations.•We look at reasons why cooperation is not widely spread among private forest owners.•We identify several barriers to such cooperation.•Cooperation has a strong economic side so it does not address a wide range of owners.•Current forest policy implementation does not deal with these barriers sufficiently.
NGOs take many shapes and forms, operating at various governing scales and levels. As a categorical form, NGOs often emerged as benevolent philanthropists or as antagonistic actors. Relative to ...governments, NGOs are envisioned to fill a void of unmet public services, exposing shortcomings, or in extreme cases, gain notoriety by applying aggressive campaigns in confrontational ways. However, more recent manifestations of NGOs are maneuvering political strategies in more elegant and reflexive ways that do not always match their more classical categorizations. Notwithstanding the proliferation of literature indicating the evolving role of NGOs, the theorizing of existing definitions and the usage of NGO as a category in the scientific literature remain anachronistic, recalling a particular imaginary of a rather simplistic idea. Indeed, as a category of analysis, the academic literature and associated political commentary refer to NGOs in normative terms that invoke benevolent, independent, and non-profit agents striving for common goals to foster societal betterment. We argue that such normative definitions of NGOs no longer reflect the empirics, and indeed obscure the overall role that such actors perform. By more closely examining NGO activities and the strategies they employ to achieve political goals, we argue that NGOs, like other interest groups, are highly political actors that pursue self-interests in ways that we might not otherwise recognize.
•NGOs are often defined using normative descriptors and features.•Normative definitions of NGOs do not reflect the empirics.•Critical forest policy analysis needs new definitions and typologies of NGOs.•NGOs are organized interest groups that pursue self-interests.
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) employs regulations to protect threatened and endangered species and their habitat on private lands. Complying with ESA regulations can cause economic losses ...for private landowners; failure to comply can result in fines and imprisonment. Current policies may create an economic disincentive for maintaining habitat for listed species on private lands, thus undermining the very purpose of the ESA. This study examined a purposive sample of key family forest landowners' perspectives on the ESA. An electronic survey was administered to members of national and state forestry organizations across the United States (N = 928). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that respondents' attitudes toward the ESA, private property norms, and past behavior were significant predictors of their behavioral intention to participate in potential incentive programs. Results revealed key family forest landowners' perspectives on species conservation, with implications for future policy changes that could lead to more effective protection of listed species in the United States.
Natura 2000, which is the core pillar of the European Union's biodiversity conservation policy, is an ambitious and complex venture that requires funding to be successful. A major challenge is said ...to be a lack of available funding, and a low uptake of allocated funds is also reported. However, in in-depth analysis has still not been produced to assess the approaches to funding, the reasons for these approaches and their impact regarding the achievement of the aims of Natura 2000. Thus, with this article, we intend to fill this gap. To accomplish this, a case study analysis was carried out in six selected EU Member States: Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK.
In our study, we perceived different approaches which we sum up to two main types of approaches that were present in the Member States to different degrees. The first type was to find the funding necessary for the required activities, and the second was to delay the implementation of Natura 2000. The major reasons for the different approaches were related to domestic political power realities. The funding approaches impacted onto the attractiveness of EU co-financing instruments, and the sustainability of the schemes. Alternative approaches were either absent or declining in importance. The economic benefits were not perceived on the ground.
We conclude that neither a “one size fits all” approach to funding Natura 2000 will work nor will a universal claim for “more money”. Therefore, a successful funding strategy ultimately necessitates effective interventions at institutional levels, the business environment and the local level.
•Two different types of implementation approaches: 1) implement on time; 2) delay implementation.•A plethora of stakeholders is involved in the financing of Natura 2000 implementation.•Domestic power realities impact the availability of funds and their attractiveness.•Financing Natura 2000 has local, national and EU level aspects, short and long term.
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