Forest Allocation Policy and Level of Forest Dependency of Economic Household Groups: A Case Study in Northern Central Vietnam

A new forest policy of allocating forestland to individual households for management and development, has been applied in Vietnam since the early 1990s. This study was designed to examine how local forest-related people have used forestland and forest resources under the new policy, and to determine their level of dependency on forests. An upland forest-related community in northern central Vietnam, where the policy was introduced in 2002, was chosen as a case study. It was found that local residents in the community have not complied with the forest allocation policy well, in that they violated the policy to freely lend forestland to and borrow from villagers for cropping purposes, regardless of whether they were rich or poor, had enough land or not, or were legally forest recipients. Regarding forest dependency, all households studied lived on forest resources (forestland and forest products). More than 65% of the total annual income of poorer households was derived from the forest, compared to less than 40% for the richer households. Forest-derived income accounted for more than 75% in their total income in some of the poorest households.

Sustainability Attributes of a Small-Scale Betel Leaf Agroforestry System: A Case Study in North-eastern Hill Forests of Bangladesh

The Khasia ethnic community of Bangladesh has been a population of forest villagers in the north-eastern hill forests of Bangladesh since the early 1950s, practicing a betel leaf-based agroforestry system on land granted by the Forest Department. Taking a sample forest village of the Sylhet forest division as a case study, this article examines the sustainability attributes of betel leaf production in the agroforestry system. The presence of several positive attributes of sustainability including the composition of agroforestry, disease control, soil fertility management, profitability, socio-cultural acceptability and institutional support indicate that betel leaf production within the agroforestry system is stable under the prevailing traditional management system. Income from the sale of betel leaf is the principal livelihood means and villager’s reciprocal contributions help to conserve forest resources. However, problems with land ownership and regular agreement renewal need to be resolved for the sake of their livelihoods and forest conservation.

Valuing the benefits to the local community of supplying recreational facilities in community owned forests: an application of the contingent behaviour method

This research utilises a contingent behaviour valuation technique to value a number of improvements to recreational facilities in small-scale forests in Ireland. Willingness-to-pay estimates have previously been made for Coillte (Ireland’s state-owned forestry company) trails and forests. The total non-market value of Irish forests has also been examined. This paper adds to the literature by being the first to estimate the consumer surplus associated with recreational enhancements to Irish small-scale forest resources. The results presented indicate that community owned small-scale forestry can contribute enormously to the wellbeing of nearby urban residents, through the provision of outdoor recreational services.

Biomass expansion factors for Sitka spruce (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Picea sitchensis</Emphasis> (Bong.) Carr.) in Ireland

The assessment of a forest resource in national inventories provides a firm basis for the calculation of biomass and carbon (C) stocks of forests. Biomass expansion factors (BEFs) and conversion factors provide a robust and simple method of converting from forest tree stem volume to total forest biomass. These factors should be constructed on the basis of nationally specific data in order to take account of regional differences in growth rates, management practices, etc. The objective of this study is to improve the accuracy of biomass estimation by calculating a range of age-dependant BEFs from representative data that more accurately describe the allometry of present forests. The results from this study show that the allocation of biomass to compartments in forest stands and throughout a rotation varies considerably, and that the use of BEFs for the calculation of C stocks in forests of sub-timber dimensions is highly impractical.

Urban Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Non-wood Forest Products and Services in Switzerland and an Assessment of Their Market Potential

To obtain empirical data on future market potential, a consumer survey about supply, demand and consumption of non-wood forest products and services (NWFP&S) was conducted in six cities in different cantons of Switzerland. A total of 897 persons–about 150 per city–were interviewed through arbitrary selection in which women and youths were overrepresented in comparision to the Swiss population. A high consumer acceptance of forest products and particularly forest services among the Swiss urban population was observed. Preferences in purchasing honey, berries, mushrooms and roots among other NWFP were reported. The quality of the products and their environmental friendliness ranked highest in the attitudes of potential consumers who prefer to buy NWFP at market stands, in retail traders’ shops and in drugstores. The most popular forest activities among the respondents are recreation and various kinds of sports activities followed by the gathering of NWFP. As far as the consumers’ wishes and aspirations are concerned, sports, camping and adventure rank high apart from the desire to acquire environmental knowledge about the forest flora and fauna. NWFP&S are highly estimated in Switzerland and have a considerable market potential and, if well marketed, could add substantially to the income of forest enterprises.

The Increasing Importance of Small-Scale Forestry: Evidence from Family Forest Ownership Patterns in the United States

The state-level distribution of the size of family forest holdings in the contiguous United States was examined using data collected by the USDA Forest Service in 1993 and 2003. Regressions models were used to analyze the factors influencing the mean size and structural variation among states and between the two periods. Population density, percent of the population at least 65 years of age, percent of the population residing in urban areas, per capita income, income inequality, and per capita private forestland were found to be significantly correlated with the structure of landholding size. This paper suggests that the number and proportion of small-scale family forest owners in the United States are both increasing due to the increasing importance of non-timber amenities to forest landowners.

Social and ecological issues for private native forestry in north-eastern New South Wales,Australia

Forests in north-eastern New South Wales have often been the focus of controversy. The tension between production and preservation continues and hampers current negotiations for a code of practice for private native forestry. The structure of many private forests reflects past mismanagement, and silvicultural intervention would benefit both conservation and production objectives, but such intervention is rarely financially viable. This paper sets out the economic and ecological basis for private native forestry. Both the timber industry and nature-based tourism are major contributors to the local economy, and both rely in part on private native forests. Draft regulations currently under negotiation do not offer incentives for improved private forest management.

Carbon inventory methods and carbon mitigation potentials of forests in Europe: a short review of recent progress

The role of European forests and forest management in the carbon balance has received much attention in research recently. This was particularly motivated by the recognition of forest management as one possible measure countries may adopt in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere. The main method to assess carbon budget in forests is based on traditional forest inventories. This method requires the conversion of measured stem volume to carbon pools. This conversion has been identified as a large source of uncertainty in past assessments. Over the last 5 years, intensive research efforts have resulted in significant advances in the reliability of forest inventory based carbon budgets. In parallel, the impact of forest management on the carbon balance of forest ecosystems has been investigated and the carbon mitigation potential of these activities has been analysed. This paper reviews the progress that was made in these two fields of research with a particular focus on European forests.

Barriers and Opportunities for the Development of Small-scale Forest Enterprises in Europe

The article introduces the background and summarises main research findings of the research articles in this special issue. The focus is on the key issues relevant for forest-based entrepreneurship development in small-scale forestry in relation to both wood and non-wood forest products and services (NWFP&S). The article draws special attention to changing forest ownership, changing owners’ motives and values, and the evolving role of forest owners’ associations in Europe. The paper draws attention to the finding that many small-scale forest owners do not treat their forest as an income-generating asset. The ownership of the forests may be more important as symbolic capital than as a source of income. This is quite opposite to the traditional wood production model that for instance most of the Forest Owners Association’s still follow. In relation to NWFP&S, the taxonomy and indicators for NWFP&S are discussed and some conclusions from studies on forest recreation innovation and NWFP&S marketing are presented. The NWFP&S sector is traditionally product-oriented, which is strategically peculiar because the long distances from rural production areas to the customers would suggest highest orientation on marketing. Also surprising is the low level of segmentation in the sector.

Consuming Fuel and Fuelling Consumption: Modelling Human Caloric Demands and Fuelwood Use

This paper describes a conceptual framework that was developed to integrate livestock, human, cultivation and forest constraints to model community fuelwood consumption over a 25-year planning horizon. This framework was constructed as an energy balance based on human caloric requirements in order to examine the effects of household-level decisions for nutrition, fuelwood and land use. A scenario from a virtual community in Uganda is presented to illustrate the utility of this model to allow rapid policy and scenario evaluation. User-defined inputs combined with published research data are used in simulating resource responses and energy consumption rates. This model is a potential tool to monitor fuelwood consumption and to understand the implications of various land-use practices.

Woodland Management and Public Good Outputs: Appraising the Trade-offs in English Woodlands

This paper examines the trade-offs between woodland management for timber and public good outputs in English woodlands. Recent evidence suggests that some public good values may be declining as a result of a lack of woodland management. Such under-management has been attributed to the decline in timber values and reduction in the productivity of woodlands and forests for timber products. It is argued that assessing the management needs of woodlands in order to enhance public good outputs presents a complex challenge and often depends on a variety of factors, including location, type of woodland, age, condition, substitutability and ownership motivation. However, in most instances a moderate level of management (whether for timber or otherwise) is likely to be beneficial for public good outputs.

Investment in Small-Scale Forestry Enterprises: A Strategic Perspective for India

Small and medium enterprises are a key driver of current double-digit industrial growth of India; however, the shrinking domestic log supply has created a unique market opportunity for global forest-based industries. This paper examines the major obstacles to investment in forests at the national and individual firm level and also the policy steps needed to overcome these obstacles. Forest-based small-scale enterprises cite finance as their principal constraint in maintaining their competitive position and developing their activities, with shortages of raw material often taking second place. India has extensive tracts of land suitable and available for forestry; afforestation, although economically viable, requires massive initial investment by both the government and private sectors. India is promoting public–private partnerships in order to increase forest cover to ensure entitlement for the investor over forest produce, along with necessary safeguards for protection of and compensation for the rights of village dwellers and communities, besides providing them additional benefits and livelihood. Governments need to tackle corruption and other forms of rent-seeking, in order to build credibility with firms, foster public trust and legitimacy and ensure their policy interventions are crafted to fit local conditions. Competition requires the Indian forest products industry to accomplish a strong improvement in its economic and technological capabilities. The challenge for forest policy-makers in India is to find the right mix of policies and incentives to attract private investment.

Adaptation to Change and Re-designing of Governance Systems: Cases from Small-Scale Rural Forestry

Changes in small-scale forest governance as a reaction to global changes are viewed from the system dynamics perspective, focused on two levels of dynamic systems: the policy system with sets of interactions at the national level and the management system at the local level. These interactions are considered through permanent adaptation and re-shaping of stakeholders’ networks and positions provoking further changes in the systems. Empirical evidence has been obtained from two case studies related to small-scale rural forestry in distinct contexts—France (the Territorial Forestry Charters) and Kyrgyzstan (collaborative forest management and leasing of forest plots)—and viewed through a theoretical framework of social-political systems dynamics. The changes caused by the systems’ capacity for adaptability and resilience are expressed through a double spiral of decision-making, characterising the interactions between national policies and local management practices. The analysis leads to a conclusion that changes are basically determined by the formal and informal stakeholders’ strategies developed in a specific context and their mutual adaptation aimed at system resilience.

The Embeddedness of Collective Action in Nepalese Community Forestry

Collective action by local communities has been recognised as crucial for effective management of natural resources, particularly the management of forests in rural settings in developing countries. However, the processes and outcomes of collective action in forest management are often analysed through a narrow rational choice model, ignoring the impacts of wider social, political and economic processes in conditioning peoples’ decisions to act (or not to act) collectively. Optimistic assumptions are made for collective action being instrumental to enhance both social and ecological outcomes, but there is a paucity of empirical evidence on how and why the condition of forests has improved (or deteriorated) under collective action, and what impacts the change in forest condition has on various groups within local communities. This study critically examines the emergence, evolution and outcomes of collective action in a case of community forestry in Nepal. A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods has been used to collect primary data from the forest, households, key informants and focus groups. The emergence and outcomes of collective action is found to be embedded in social, economic and political relationships, where powerful actors control the use of forests in order to ensure conservation, thereby resulting in the underutilisation of forest products. Poor users, who depend heavily on forests, are found to be worse off economically under community forestry, but still engage in collective action for a variety of socio-political reasons. This contradicts the conventional wisdom which assumes that people only cooperate when they benefit from cooperation. It is concluded that a deeper understanding of the embeddedness of community forestry is needed in order to achieve the potential of collective action.

From Framework to Forest Activities: A Comparative Analysis of Different Ownership Types in Two Adjacent Regions

The paper examines the interactions between the demands of society, the restrictions due to recreational and protective functions of forests and the intensity and kind of forest management in the various ownership classes in Switzerland (CH) and Baden–Württemberg (BW) in south–west Germany. A survey was carried out among owners of communal forests, private forest landholders owning more than 200 ha of forest land and small-scale forest enterprises with up to 200 ha of forest land. The survey adopted a two-dimensional approach, using regions and comparable ownership classes in order to identify basic differences and underlying key drivers. It became obvious that there are relevant distinctions between the two countries. The paper highlights the present use of forests, the restrictions perceived by their owners, and the underlying management strategies in terms of structure of the forests, tree species composition and thinning activities. In BW the financial function is the dominant motivation for the majority of the private owners. The communities emphasize both timber and non-timber functions of their forests. Except for the protection function (avalanches, rockslides) the utilisation and importance of the forest in CH is lower than in BW. Profitability of forests continues to be a key-driver of intensity of forest management activities, but there is less influence on the choice of basic silvicultural strategies. The results of this comparative survey are placed in the context of a forest policy framework and the medium-term financial situation in the two countries.

Forest cover and pattern changes in the Carpathians over the last decades

This study aims at developing a satellite-based methodology for the implementation of two Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe indicators for the European Alpine Bio-geographic region, and their changes over time: (1) area of forest cover and (2) forest spatial pattern. The northern Carpathians were selected as a study area due to the documented recent increase of forest cover. Changes of forest cover were quantified using Landsat images for the years 1987 and 2000. Single-date forest–non-forest maps were derived by image segmentation and supervised classification, including the use of ancillary data (CORINE Land Cover and a digital elevation model). These maps were an input for the post-classification change detection. The forest spatial pattern maps with four classes (core, patch, edge and perforated forest) were derived with morphological image processing. A simple method to mask uncertainty areas on forest maps and related products was also developed. The accuracy of the resulting forest–non-forest map was assessed with orthophotos and amounts to 93.9%. Uncertainty areas, for which change assessment was judged more difficult and less reliable, were not considered for assessing forest cover change. The annual forest cover change rate of 0.38% was found over the 1987–2000 period. For the 13-year time period, we found a decrease of core forest and an increase of patch and perforated forest. We conclude that the proposed methodology allows to quantify changes of forest cover and forest spatial pattern at ∼1 ha minimum mapping unit.

SWOT analyses and SWOT strategy formulation for forest owner cooperations in Austria

Forest owner cooperations (FOC) are bundling wood supply from small-scale forests and some also offer additional services, such as wood harvesting or planting. FOCs are growing throughout Europe in terms of the managed timber volume. The increasing timber demand of forest-based industries as well as the new, rapidly growing demand for energy plants could lead to an under-supply in the following years in Europe. Because of high harvesting arrears in small-scale forests, FOCs are seen as an opportunity to overcome this foreseen timber shortage. The paper maps out timber mobilisation strategies using the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) approach.

Indirect methods of large-scale forest biomass estimation

Forest biomass and its change over time have been measured at both local and large scales, an example for the latter being forest greenhouse gas inventories. Currently used methodologies to obtain stock change estimates for large forest areas are mostly based on forest inventory information as well as various factors, referred to as biomass factors, or biomass equations, which transform diameter, height or volume data into biomass estimates. However, while forest inventories usually apply statistically sound sampling and can provide representative estimates for large forest areas, the biomass factors or equations used are, in most cases, not representative, because they are based on local studies. Moreover, their application is controversial due to the inconsistent or inappropriate use of definitions involved. There is no standardized terminology of the various factors, and the use of terms and definitions is often confusing. The present contribution aims at systematically summarizing the main types of biomass factors (BF) and biomass equations (BE) and providing guidance on how to proceed when selecting, developing and applying proper factors or equations to be used in forest biomass estimation. The contribution builds on the guidance given by the IPCC (Good practice guidance for land use, land-use change and forestry, 2003) and suggests that proper application and reporting of biomass factors and equations and transparent and consistent reporting of forest carbon inventories are needed in both scientific literature and the greenhouse gas inventory reports of countries.

The potential of auctioning contracts for conservation policy

This article studies the possibility of using auctions as a policy instrument in conservation programs. In particular, it provides insight into the main concerns that need to be dealt with when implementing conservation auctions. To show the cost saving potential of this policy instrument, we also calculate the social welfare improvement that can be obtained for an afforestation project in Flanders. When developing conservation policies, it is thus worthwhile to consider auctions as an alternative policy instrument.

The Upland Settlement Project of Bangladesh as a Means of Reducing Land Degradation and Improving Rural Livelihoods

Because of illegal logging, increased population pressure and intensified shifting cultivation, forest coverage of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) has decreased drastically resulting in land degradation. Many development projects have been implemented to combat forest loss and land degradation and also to improve the livelihoods of the hill people. This paper reports an empirical study of the Upland Settlement Project (USP) of Bangladesh which was undertaken to prevent land degradation and enhance the standard of living of the people. Planters were found to have given up shifting cultivation and adopted soil conserving agroforestry practices, and forest coverage has been increased in the project village. Interacting with project staff members, government officials and NGOs assisted planters in diversifying livelihood strategies thereby reducing dependency on project resources. Rich planters, utilizing their own capacity, expanded their income sources successfully. Poor planters still remain wage labourers because they do not have sufficient finance and networks to invest in productive ventures. Planters’ participation in project activities and the information flow between them and project staff were found to be minimal. Suggestions are made for the continuity of project functions, which involve greater participation of planters in rubber management functions, improved information flow, resolution of land tenure and greater equality in distribution of rubber revenue.