There are an estimated 10.7 million family forest ownerships across the United States who collectively control 36% or 290 million acres of the nation's forestland. The US Department of Agriculture ...Forest Service National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS) provides information on the characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors of these ownerships. Between 2011 and 2013, 8,576 randomly selected family forest ownerships with at least 10 acres of forestland participated in the NWOS. Results show: amenity values are the dominant reasons for owning; owners tend to be active on their land, but most are not engaged in traditional forestry programs; and owners are relatively old. Although the general ownership patterns and reasons for owning are the same between the 2002-2006 and current iterations of the NWOS, participation in some management activities changed (some increased and some decreased) and the percentage of female primary decisionmakers increased.
Abstract
Family forest owners (FFOs) control a plurality of forestland in the United States, and the decisions these landowners make have a profound impact on the landscape. Most research on FFOs ...consists of cross-sectional studies, although many of these recognize the importance of capturing long-term trends to understand whether and how FFO attitudes, behaviors, and general characteristics are changing. We use data from the 2006, 2013, and 2018 iterations of the USDA Forest Service, National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS), with a bootstrapping approach to identify significant changes across these time periods among FFOs with 4+ hectares of forestland. Total FFO hectares decreased and FFO ownerships trended downward over the study period. A decreasing proportion of FFOs owned farms or homes near their forestland, harvested timber, or received advice. Demographic shifts include an increase in age and education level from 2006 to 2018, and an increase in FFOs of color from 2006 to 2013. Overall, we find a trend towards decreased traditional engagement and management and a slight increase in owning land for its amenity values. Understanding temporal trends in FFO characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors will help policymakers and forestry professionals inform and update their outreach, technical support, and financial assistance programs.
Study Implications: Families and individuals hold more forestland than any other ownership group in the United States. We use nationwide survey data from 2006, 2013, and 2018 to determine whether and how these landowners are changing over time. The total forestland held by FFOs decreased between 2006 and 2018, and there has been a decrease in traditional forest management and engagement, such as through timber harvesting and nearby farm ownership. This study provides insights for policies, programs, and outreach and a foundation for future long-term comparisons of this group.
Abstract
Private nonindustrial forest owners’ intention to safeguard biodiversity in their own forest was studied by applying the theory of planned behavior. The data were collected in a nationwide ...mail survey sent to 3,000 Finnish forest owners (response rate 35%). The impact of attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on the intention to safeguard biodiversity was empirically tested by estimating structural equation models (SEM). The empirical estimations supported the theoretical model. The influence of perceived behavioral control was inhibiting on the intention and slightly stronger than the explanatory power of attitude or the subjective norm. External factors had an impact on the explanatory pattern of the intention. The effect of subjective norm increased and the role of attitude decreased with age. Academic education increased the importance of attitudes and decreased the role of normative pressures. In the development of voluntary measures aimed at safeguarding biodiversity, special attention should be paid to the reduction of the obstacles for the implementation perceived by forest owners. Forest owners often perceive important to retain decision-making power for the next generation. Forest owners should be provided with information about the different measures for safeguarding biodiversity and the contract terms.
Study Implications: Forest owners consider active timber production, compensation level, willingness to retain decision-making power for the next generation, and small forest ownership as factors that inhibit their intention to safeguard biodiversity in their own forests. Forest owners’ attitude toward safeguarding forest biodiversity and the normative pressures the reference groups create have a slightly smaller effect on intention. It is important to take the views of forest owners into account when developing voluntary measures for safeguarding biodiversity. It is essential to distribute information to forest owners about the available measures, their requirements, and compensation.
In the USA, there are an estimated 9.6 million families, individuals, trusts, estates, and family partnerships, collectively referred to as family forest owners, who control 110 million ha of ...forestland or 39% of the country’s forests. Between 2000 and 2019, 640 peer-reviewed articles were published that focused on family forest owners in the USA. These articles were published across 95 sources with the Journal of Forestry, Forest Policy and Economics, Small-scale Forestry, and Journal of Extension being the most common. Most articles focused on geographic or participatory subsets of family forest owners with many doing cross-subset comparisons, such as between program participants and non-participants. Quantitative methods, and in particular surveys, were the most common data collection techniques, but qualitative, simulation, and synthesis approaches were also applied. Theoretical frameworks were scant across most studies with behavioral change models being the most common frameworks among those studies that did explicitly include one. Forest management and policies and programs were the most common topics, but the relative frequency of topics changed over time with topics such as forest management decreasing and legacy increasing. Much has been learned about family forest owners, but there is still much that is unknown. Harmonization across studies could help to increase comparisons and allow for drawing of broader conclusions. Continuing to borrow ideas from other fields and stronger incorporation of theoretical frameworks could also help further this scientific field, but it is also important that attention is paid to the implications of the research to ensure it has the greatest possible impact on the threats and challenges facing family forests.
In Lithuania, as in other analyzed countries, greatest attention is concentrated on the protection and monitoring of state forests, while the situation in the private forest sector is quite unclear ...and uncertain. In most European countries, as well as in Lithuania, there are a lack of socio-economic data, and there are no planned forest monitoring methods and permanent programs. We claim that the problem of achieving sustainability in the forest sector, in the case of the estates of the private forest owners, could be partially solved by implementing the monitoring of social and economic indicators. This study proposes the need for the establishment of a social and economic database of private forest owners in Lithuania. In this article, we have carried out a detailed analysis of scientific sources and selected socio-economic indicators to help the adoption of optimal management solutions for sustainability in the private forest sector. To explore the need to establish a social and economic database of private forest owners in Lithuania, we conducted an empirical study by applying the method of semi-structured interview to a group of experts/specialists in the forestry field. Summarizing the results of the research, it can be concluded that the need for socio-economic information about the owners of private forests in Lithuania is obvious, as it would clarify the most pressing problems that forest owners face when farming in their forest estates. This information would also allow the improvement of policy formulation and implementation, the adoption of legal regulations, and the organization of the necessary changes in private forestry. Therefore, it is necessary to establish criteria and indicators that could ensure more sustainable forest management.
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.
Abstract
Wood products are an essential provisioning ecosystem service with US forests providing nearly one-fifth of global wood supply. As of 2018, an estimated 46% of the annual wood harvested came ...from corporate forests, 42% came from family forests, and the remainder came from other private, public, and Tribal forests. The supply of wood from corporate forests is well described by traditional economic models, but the supply from family forests is much less well understood. This article combines data from three components of the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis program—plots, landowner surveys, and mill surveys—with other data to model the wood supply from family forests in the United States. Results are summarized in terms of bivariate relationships and a logistic regression model. The model results show that basal area, stand origin, forest type, having timber as an ownership objective, the amount of annual income derived from their forestland, proximity to a mill, management advice, and region are significantly associated with family forest timber harvesting. The results should be useful for forest industry analysts and others interested in understanding the current and potential future supply of wood from family forests.
Study Implications: Family forests provide an estimated 42% of the annual timber harvested in the United States. It is important to understand the factors affecting their harvesting behaviors to design effective policies and programs to ensure a continual supply and sustainable management of this critical resource. This article shows that timber harvesting by family forest owners is influenced by a combination of biophysical, social, and economic factors, including basal area, stand origin, forest type, having timber as an ownership objective, the amount of annual income derived from their forestland, proximity to a mill, management advice, and region. These results suggest that programs aimed at increasing the area covered by planted stands, the area covered by softwood stands, and the number of owners receiving forest management advice may be particularly influential in maintaining and increasing the amount of wood harvested from family forests.
•FOrestry Knowledge and Information Systems (FOKIS) in Europe are changing as ownership and policy change.•Patterns of persuasive or coercive communication vary with geography and politics.•Policy ...demands from forests are broadening from timber to wider ecosystem services.•FOKIS are becoming more democratic, participatory and negotiated.•Advisory services are moving from public to private sector.
The decisions and actions of private forest owners are important for the delivery of forest goods and services. Both forest ownership, and policies related to forest owners, are changing. Traditionally in most countries, government extension officers have advised and instructed forest owners, but this is evolving, with greater importance given to a range of actors, objectives, and knowledge types. Drawing on literature and mixed data from 10 countries in Europe, this paper explores how forestry advisory systems can be conceptualized, and describes their current situation in Europe. Drawing parallels with the concept of AKIS (Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems), we propose the term FOKIS (FOrestry Knowledge and Information Systems), as both a system (a purposeful and interdependent group of bodies) and a method for understanding such systems. We define four dimensions for describing FOKIS: owners, policy goals, advice providers, and tools. We find different roles for extension in countries with centrally controlled, highly regulated forest management, and advisors in regions where forest owners have more freedom to choose how to manage their forest. We find five trends across Europe: increasing flexibility, openness and participation of owners as sources of information; increasing reliance on information and persuasion rather than enforced compliance; a shift of attention from timber to a wider range of ecosystem services such as biodiversity and recreation; a shift of funding and providers from public to private sector; emergence of new virtual communication tools. The approach provides a way to make sense of comparisons and change in FOKIS, and opens up an important research field.
•I found evidence of adaptation to climate change among individual forest owners.•Forest owners exhibited autonomous, reactive, and incremental responses.•Forest owners also exhibited planned and ...proactive responses.•Forest owners sought to transition to new conditions and be resilient to change.•Adaptation research and policy should account for scales of stressors and responses.
A growing body of research documents how individuals respond to local impacts of global climate change and a range of policy efforts aim to help individuals reduce their exposure and improve their livelihoods despite these stressors. Yet there is still limited understanding of how to determine whether and how adaptation is occurring. Through qualitative analysis of focus group interviews, I evaluated individual behavioral responses to local forest stressors that can arguably be linked to global climate change among landowners in the Upper Midwest, USA. I found that landowner responses were planned as well as autonomous, more proactive than reactive, incremental rather than transformational, and aimed at being resilient to change and transitioning to new conditions, rather than resisting change alone. Many of the landowners’ responses can be considered forms of adaptation, rather than coping, because they were aimed at moderating and avoiding harm on long time horizons in anticipation of change. These findings stand in contrast to the short-term, reactive, and incremental responses that current socio-psychological theories of adaptation suggest are more typical at the individual level. This study contributes to scientific understanding of how to evaluate behavioral adaptation to climate change and differentiate it from coping, which is necessary for developing conceptually rigorous analytical frameworks to guide research and policy.
PDF
