•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.
The use of natural resources often generates conflict among stakeholders. Conflict analysis and management in this sector has traditionally been based on compliance enforcement and/or education. ...Recently, however, the need for alternative approaches has been increasingly highlighted. In this study, we address the need for in-depth analysis, and introduce the theoretical concept of psychological ownership to improve the understanding and potential management of conflict situations. We suggest that ownership feelings may play a significant role both in successful co-operation, and in conflicts related to the use of natural resources. The study is qualitative in nature. The data consisted of two interview datasets related to nature tourism: nature tourism in private forests and bear watching safaris. We show that the ways the psychological ownership of stakeholder groups is constructed and taken into account in co-operative relationships are of the utmost importance for the sustainability and success of the interplay among stakeholders.
•Stakeholders' opinions cannot be changed by focusing on explicit public arguments.•Ownership feelings effect on cooperation and conflicts in use of natural resources.•Psychological ownership –concept provides new approach to natural resource research.•Respecting psychological ownership may help in natural resource conflict management.
Collective action for wildfire risk reduction has different territorial constraints.Ideal landscape management units can originate large and inefficient group sizes.Risk reduction is more needed ...where collective action⿿s transaction costs are higher.Market incentives for fuel treatments are lower in the most fire-prone landscapes.Public policy can exacerbate territorial disadvantages for collective risk reduction.
The increase in frequency and extent of fires in Portugal has favoured the approval of a new legal frame for forest management, the Forest Intervention Zone (FIZ). Under this frame, a large contiguous surface involving numerous owners is subject to a single management plan, providing an opportunity for cooperation. Since 2005, 161 zones have been created but only half of them have had their management plan approved and very few are nearing its implementation.
Cooperation amongst private forest owners has usually been explained at the owner level. In an approach at the local level we examine local constraints and key-factors for cooperative landscape management. Building on the theory of collective action, a typology of FIZ/territories is established by Cluster Analysis using a group of ecological and socioeconomic variables expressing the characteristics of natural resources, owners⿿ group, institutional arrangements, and external environment of FIZs.
Three clusters are identified. Where FIZs are smaller and biophysical resources impose greater wildfire susceptibility, the transaction costs for collective management are highest due to more numerous, aged, and dispersed owners and the absence of a land registry. Conversely, larger FIZs have fewer owners, more powerful management bodies, and higher public financial incentives, leading to greater performance rate. Nonetheless, since their resources are less fire-prone, and private profitability is higher, public support for collective action has a lower social return.
Addressing the heterogeneity of local systems of ecological and socioeconomic constraints is therefore a challenge faced by public policy makers seeking to mitigate wildfire risk.
Legislation and policy makers have recognized private forest owners cooperation in machinery ring as an instrument to support wood mobilization through efficient use of machinery. The study analyzes ...private forest owner's cooperation in the machinery ring in Slovenia and determines whether this cooperation contributes to wood mobilization from small-scale private forests. The research was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the survey was conducted among the members of machinery rings at their annual general meetings (24 machinery rings participated in the survey, representing 64.9% of the total number of machinery rings). The questionnaire was distributed to all members present at the annual general meetings (n=529) and only those who were private forest owner or provided services within machinery rings were eligible to complete the questionnaire (n=438). In the second phase, data on the amount of service provided by machinery ring members were compared with the amount of felling in private forests for 2019 to gain insight into the extend of forestry work (timber harvesting) carried out in a private forest under neighbourhood assistance.The results show that machinery rings members are predominantly male, on average 50 years old, mainly with high school education and occupation in agriculture, owning on average 15.2 ha of forest. Regardless of forest management activities, machinery ring members perform forest management activities in their forest by themselves or with the help of family members. Only a small proportion of members use neighbourhood assistance to carry out the work. This most often occurs in the transport of timber. A very small proportion of members provide forest services through the machinery ring, but their scope of services is not insignificant. In 2019, machinery ring members most often performed harvesting activities with the chain saw, followed by timber skidding as a service. Equipment with machinery for providing services is good among members – about three quarters of them have a chainsaw and an adapted agricultural tractor, but this machinery is quite old, showing that machinery is insufficiently used for forestry operations. The results show that machinery rings are nowadays an essential part of strategic (operational) management in Slovenian agriculture and forestry, and provide important insights into the possibilities to improve forestry operations and the future development cooperation between private forest owners in machinery rings to support wood mobilization from small-scale private forests.
The forestlands of the Pacific Northwest store a significant amount of carbon, provide wildlife habitat, generate revenue for forestland owners, and provide for sustainable generation of forest ...products. Promoting forest carbon storage is increasingly recognized as a key management objective to mitigate climate change. We developed an agent-based model to examine the effectiveness of current land management practices in sustaining forest carbon storage and revenue flows, and the utility of market-based carbon payments in improving carbon storage while also improving revenue generation in the Pacific Northwest. We find that while market-based incentives can improve both forest carbon storage and revenue, they are limited in their benefit to small forest owners. Our results highlight the crucial need for additional policy interventions to reduce barriers to market access for small private owners and ensure sustainable forest management in this region. We further show that a forest owners’ cooperative, which aggregates small owners to reduce the costs of participating in a carbon market, can help overcome these barriers and result in both greater carbon storage and a more equitable benefit from carbon payments.
•Forest carbon management is crucial for climate mitigation; forest owners’ management practices play a vital role.•We developed an agent-based model of forest owners’ management and their adaptations to carbon-focused policies.•We analyze policy effectiveness for landscape-level and forest owner-level carbon sequestration and revenue generation.•We show policy efficacy for carbon storage and revenue generation, and inequitable economic outcomes across owner groups.•We highlight the need and effectiveness of additional institutional intervention to ensure equitable outcomes.
Personal networks affect the flow information and behavior through social groups. We investigated the role of personal relationships in the flow of information and adoption of sustainable forest ...management behavior by private forest landowners. Among the 1767 owners of 20 or more acres of Minnesota forest land surveyed, 90% have received forestry information from at least one source including 65% from a peer and 53% from a professional forester. Forestry information personal network size ranged from 0 to 14 with a mean of 2.92. Network diversity, expressed as the number of different types of information sources within the network, was relatively high relative to network size, suggesting that most landowners value diverse perspectives, despite reporting fairly small networks. Larger acreage owners, management plan holders, and frequent visitors to their forest land had significantly larger and more diverse networks. Network size and diversity were statistically unrelated to ownership tenure, landowner age, and resident/absentee status. Significantly more respondents named a peer or a professional as their most helpful source than other source categories. Satisfaction with forestry information networks was positively associated with network size and diversity, further suggesting that landowners prefer information from a variety of different sources. The results suggest that landowner education designed to foster peer learning and relationship building between landowners, foresters, loggers, and other groups may promote adoption of sustainable forest management practices.
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•Private forest owners value information from a variety of different sources.•Minnesota forest landowners name an average of 3 sources of forestry information.•Peers and public sector foresters were landowners' most helpful sources of forestry information.•Larger acreage owners and more active land managers have larger networks.•Private forest policy should support education that builds relationships, not just knowledge.
Climate change seriously impacts forest ecosystems. In order to maintain a healthy and sustainable forest cover, adaptation strategies should be implemented. This article proposes to deepen our ...understanding of the decision-making process of private forest owners in terms of adaptation decisions towards climate change. In particular, we question whether or not French private forest owners have already implemented adaptation strategies and if yes, we identify the determinants of this decision. We focus on the identification of the determinants of the probability to adapt and on the determinants of adopting each strategy separately (early harvest, thinning, irregular silviculture). A survey of more than 900 French private forest owners was conducted for the purpose of collecting both (1) objective variables: characteristics of the owners and the property; and (2) subjective variables: perception of climate change and impacts. The results reveal that both types of variables explain the adaptation decision. In addition, we show that the determinants are different from one adaptation strategy to another, meaning that the adaptation decision should not be thought of in general but, instead, strategy-by-strategy.
•We conducted a survey on 944 French private forest owners.•Determinants are tobjective variables and subjective ones.•The determinants of adaptation decisions are strategy-dependent.•Objective and subjective variables both explain adaptation.•Our findings may help decision makers to design adaptation policies.
To ensure sustainable forest management, public authorities have been working on the creation of policy tools to stimulate private forest owners' cooperation and active forest management. The ...effectiveness of these policy tools depends on their adoption and private forest owners' organizations (PFOO) are interlocutors with a crucial role. Hence, it is important to comprehend the acceptance level, the main reasons for adherence, and whether the benefits of cooperation are made possible by these policy tools. Although the literature recognizes the relevance of PFOO, their acceptance and perception about forest policies and particularly, policy tools, is still not completely unravelled. For this purpose, an exploratory study based on primary data collected by means of an online survey was conducted in Portugal. All the Portuguese PFOO registered were contacted, with a response rate of 47%.
Results show that 54% of PFOO inquired are currently managing entities of at least one forestland area working under the rules of these policy tools and 49.2% are working on new managing arrangements. The most adopted arrangement is the Forest Intervention Zone, while the newly created Integrated Areas of Landscape Management reveals the greatest dynamism concerning new agreements. The most frequent reasons justifying the adherence were the need to create scale, forest owners' interest in those arrangements, and motives related to monetary support, namely, the facilitated access to funds and the monetary support from central government. Moreover, PFOO recognize that their activity results in a high number of benefits, some of them enhanced by the adherence to policy tools. Thus, besides being important for joint representation of owners' interests and in accessing services for forest management, PFOO are crucial for the implementation of actions underlying the policy tools. Particularly for fragmented forest areas, facing population ageing and less active forest management, in a context of accelerating climate and biodiversity crises, PFOO may be a fundamental part of the success of public policy tools towards sustainable forest management.
•Cooperation and active management are essential for sustainable forest management.•Several policy tools have been created to promote sustainable forest management.•Private forest owners' organizations are key for the adherence to policy tools.•Receptiveness and reasons for adherence to policy tools need to be understood.•Benefits of cooperation may be fostered by these policy tools.
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