Property rights distribution and entrepreneurial rent-seeking in Romanian forestry: a perspective of private forest owners

In the framework of a broader political economics approach, this paper intends to enhance the understanding of the role of rent-seeking practices in the delineation of clear property rights in forestry. The research background is provided by the institutional changes occurring in the Romanian forestry sector as a consequence of the transition period and the accession to the European Union. The entrepreneurial approach to rent-seeking requires clarifications of the perspective under which private forest owners are analysed in order to position this study within ongoing discussions regarding the role of rent-seeking and its social impact. The conceptual framework employed distinguishes between rents resulting from entrepreneurship in conventional production functions and rents resulting from institutional entrepreneurship. A typology of entrepreneurial rent-seeking is developed for further understanding of the effects resulting from changes in the institutional setting of property rights. Using a qualitative approach, in the form of a case study, the research reveals perspectives of Romanian forest owners regarding barriers to production inherent in the current distribution of rights. Despite the extent of perceived profit-seeking barriers, owners’ entrepreneurial rent-seeking actions intended to change property rights in their favour appear limited and constrained. Hence, identified hypotheses regarding the institutional context dependency of entrepreneurial rent-seeking provide the basis for the future empirical identification of the role of institutional entrepreneurship within the forest production system.     

集体林权改革对乡村治理效用影响的研究

从乡村治理的角度探讨集体林权改革带给林区农村除经济方面以外的其他各方面的效用。论述了林权改革对林区稳定的作用、宣传作用;探讨了林改给林农思想观念与生活方式带来的变化,指出了林改促进了村容村貌以及社保机制的建立;促进了基层组织建设与村民的自治,并且林改催生的林业合作组织同时具有乡村治理的效能。因此得出了结论:集体林权改革对林区农村乡村治理效用存在积极的作用。     

吉水县林业产权制度改革对农民增收的影响

林业产权问题是林业经济发展的核心问题。2005年以来,吉水县开展了声势浩大的林业产权制度改革,有力地促进全县林业发展和农民增收。笔者从林改前后吉水县林业收支、森林资源流转价格、林产品销售价格、林农税费负担及劳动力转移情况,分析林业在农民增收中所处的位置及成因,着重论述林改给农民增收带来的影响,围绕做大做强吉水林业产业化提出一些看法和建议。     

Swedish non-industrial private forest owners: a survey of self-employment and equipment investments

It has been estimated that Sweden’s non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners undertake a total of 12 M hours of self-employed forest work per year. This paper reports an evaluation of self-employment in Swedish NIPF’s in terms of the people and equipment involved. NIPF owners’ self-employment was determined by a nationwide survey. Complete equipment sales statistics were compiled from interviews with manufacturers and importers. About 66% of NIPF owners are undertaking self-employed forestry work. Pre-commercial thinning was the activity undertaken most frequently by them, followed by planting, cutting and extraction. In comparison to other NIPF owners, self-employed NIPF owners tend to be younger, and are more likely to be male, single owners, resident on holdings, farmers and members of forest owner associations. Sales of new equipment suitable for self-employed individuals amounted to €67 M, or 83,000 items. Based on sales numbers and the profile of self-employed NIPF owners, no major changes in the amount and nature of self-employment are expected in the near future.     

Legal Issues of Rights to Manage Understory Land

Management of the understory land is an economic form to develop cultivation and breeding in making use of the forest ecological environment.It is also an important means to increase the income of forest farmers in the forestry regions after the reform of forestry real rights.This paper investigated the management status of understory land,and analyzed the impacts and destruction of its improper management upon the forest ecology environment.The management right of the understory land is a restricted right of property,because the management is related to the ecology protection of forest and woodland.In addition to private property rights,it should also comply with the arrangement of national forest management.Therefore,while encouraging and developing the understory land management,it’s important to establish a legal system for executing the management rights,and the management of the understory land should be included in the scope of the forestry management.     

南方集体林区林权制度改革研究

系统分析南方集体林区存在的产权问题,提出改革的主要内容:1)林权明晰化包括明确林地所有权主体,完善林地所有权的委托代理关系;构建经营权的委托代理关系,明确所有者与经营者之间的权利与义务;科学界定林地使用权和林木所有权主体.2)林权的安全性包括改革林地征用补偿制度;建立公益林征用(管制占用)补偿制度;改革商品林采伐限额制度;改革不合理的林业税费政策.3)林权的市场化运作包括降低交易成本;加强森林资源资产评估工作;提升林权交易需求的动力机制;激活林权交易市场的供给机制.     

中国林业产权制度变迁进程、动因及利益关系分析

有效的林业产权制度安排是林业经济发展的基础与核心。中国的林业产权制度自新中国成立以来,几经变迁,其中既有诱致性的变迁,也有强制性的变迁。林业资源的稀缺性,是林业产权制度变迁的原始动因,经济效率的激励和利益的驱动是林权制度变迁最重要的动因,同时,外部环境的变迁,人们需求或偏好的变化,也会驱动着林权制度的变迁。林业产权制度的变迁是利益分配制度重新调整的过程,不同的利益主体对制度变迁有着不同利益目标的诉求。     

Private native forestry in new landscapes: challenges and opportunities in New South Wales

Understanding the changes occurring within the forestry sector is complicated by socio-economic and demographic changes within rural communities - sometimes in areas where commercial forestry has a long tradition. These changes in some rural communities, particularly coastal New South Wales, appear significant for forestry because land ownership and management are increasingly disconnected from the traditional agricultural land use. There is an increasing population of landowners in ‘lifestyle’ landscapes who do not appear primarily driven by maximising the profitability of farming. The shift from ‘production’ to ‘lifestyle’ landscapes also reflects a transition in community expectations for forestry - a profound change that is likely to require quite different approaches to management. Landholders may be more likely to be interested in forestry with multiple values, including both timber products and environmental services. Furthermore, well-managed native forests that are integrated into individual properties and wider landscapes, may increase the market value of the property, representing a prudent business investment. This paper presents a method for analysing the relationship between rural land values and the estimated agricultural value of typical farms in a number of localities in New South Wales, as a means of interpreting the underlying social values of landholders. It is argued that such analysis can be helpful in identifying changes in community values as a signal that approaches to private native forestry may also need to change to accommodate the aspirations of ‘lifestyle’ landholders, who may value the aesthetics of native forests more highly than timber production.     

试论林业科技档案的利用与知识产权保护

林业科技档案的价值,在于为林业生产活动提供必要的参考和依据。利用好林业科技档案信息资源,可以对提高林业综合生产能力及社会、经济、生态效益,改善人民生态环境等方面起到积极的促进作用。但在林业科技档案的利用过程中,常常出现档案利用与知识产权保护之间的冲突,处理不当则容易导致知识产权的流失或破坏。因此,通过分析林业科技档案利用的主要方式、特定要求,以及在林业科技档案利用过程中存在的知识产权保护问题,对如何在充分利用林业科技档案的同时保护好知识产权,进行了初步探讨。     

Social Heterogeneity and Community Forestry Processes: Reflections from Forest Users of Dhading District, Nepal

Community forestry has been characterized as a successful model of community-based forest governance in Nepal that shifts forest management and use rights to local users, often socially heterogeneous in caste, gender and wealth status. This heterogeneity forms the basis of social groups, which differ in their needs, priorities and perceptions regarding community forestry implementation processes. This paper explores the dynamics of three community forestry processes—users’ participation, institutional development, and decision-making and benefit-sharing—among forest user groups as perceived by three social groups of forest users—elite, women and disadvantaged—from eight community forests of Dhading district, Nepal, using qualitative and quantitative techniques. It is found that social groups have differing levels of perception about community forestry processes occurring in their user groups. In particular, social elites differ from women and disadvantaged members of the group in users’ participation in community forestry activities and institutional development of forest user groups. An important policy implication of the findings is that social inclusiveness is central to the effective implementation of community forestry processes, not only to safeguard its past successes but also to internalize the economic opportunities it poses through reducing deforestation and forest degradation in the future.     

美国家庭森林发展和保护经验与启示

在我国集体林权制度改革之后,集体林地实行均山到户政策,由林农单独管理,难以实现统一的可持续经营,由此造成森林质量较低、森林生态服务能力减弱等问题,为此借鉴他国经验具有重要意义。文中从3个方面整理总结美国家庭森林发展与保护方面的经验,首先梳理其由政府主导构建的家庭林业政策扶持体系,其次对非政府环保组织培育的新型林业经营主体——“森林银行”进行分析,最后介绍美国利用市场激励机制通过林业碳汇项目引导家庭林主加强林地管护的做法;据此提出促进我国集体林发展的建议:完善林地产权制度,保障林农合法权益;构筑全方位的政策扶持体系;发展环保非政府组织,培育新型林业经营主体;积极发展林业碳汇项目。     

间断均衡理论视角的中国林业产权政策变迁分析

文中基于间断均衡理论模型，对中华人民共和国成立以来林业产权政策变迁过程进行梳理与分析。结果发现:结合关键事件可判断出中国林业产权政策变迁存在6个时间节点，经过了2个间断期和4个均衡期，并且呈现出“试点—推广”的政策演变方式。通过探究政策变迁的内在动机发现，决策主体的注意力、焦点事件的爆发、公众的参与行为和政策内容的突破性创新是导致林业产权政策议定场所发生变化的重大动因，其中焦点事件对林业产权政策场域的驱动作用十分明显。修正后的间断均衡模型能够有效解释中国林业产权政策变迁的逻辑。     

“A Privilege and a Challenge”: Valuation of Heirs’ Property by African American Landowners and Implications for Forest Management in the Southeastern U.S.

African Americans have historically struggled to retain land that has been held in their families for generations as heirs’ property, or land held collectively by heirs of the original owners without clear title. Ethnographic interviews with sixty landholding African American families in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama reveal the cultural meanings associated with family land, forestland in particular, and the role of heirs’ property in inhibiting forest management, including the threat of land loss, intra-family conflict, and legal limitations on forestry activities. The majority of interviewees have a strong desire to pass family land on to their heirs, but they also need the land to be economically productive. Sustainable forest management offers both an incentive to obtain clear title to heirs’ property land and a means of paying property taxes and generating intergenerational wealth within families. The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities is currently collaborating with local institutions in several states in an innovative program designed to help African American landowners navigate the legal system in order to obtain clear title and provide educational workshops about the financial and ecological benefits of sustainable forestry as well as site visits by consulting foresters. Analysis of the situations faced by African Americans with heirs’ property adds to the diversity of our understandings of the complex relationships between land tenure and forestry, with potential application for other minority communities in the U.S. and elsewhere.     

The role of NGOs in improving social forestry practice: Do they promote livelihood, sustainability and optimal land use in Bangladesh?

The encroachment rate in forests in Bangladesh is high and increasing — accelerated by rural poverty and the demand for dwelling space and forest products — causing environmental degradation as well as loss of forest cover and productivity. The forests are managed by the Forest Department, although a substantial area of marginal land belongs to other semi-public agencies including Roads and Highways and the Water Development Board. This marginal land has been left unused or underutilized. In contrast, nongovernmental organizations have an appropriate accessibility and technology disseminating ability to utilize this land in reducing poverty and enhancing rural livelihood, and have been highly active and successful in rehabilitating encroached forests. NGOs have added a new dimension to forest management, which has ensured community participation and protection of the forests, both planted and natural. This study evaluates the social forestry activities of four large NGOs, namely BRAC, Proshika, Caritas and CARE-Bangladesh, as well as national social forestry activities. By adopting a common partnership between public and private authority, property right conflicts have been resolved and rural livelihoods enhanced, and scope has been created for utilizing marginal land. The NGO partnership has been effective in reducing poverty and improving livelihoods. As an outcome of this common partnership, 33,472 km of roadside planting and 53,430 ha of reforestation activities have been carried out during the last two decades.     

Forest ecosystem recovery in the southeast US: soil ecology as an essential component of ecosystem management

The forestry industry in the southeastern United States relies upon soils that are highly eroded and depleted of their original organic matter and nutrient content. Pro-active land management can ensure continued and possibly increased production and revenue through the management and recovery of the soil resource. With an emphasis on loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) forests, this review integrates land-use history, pine ecology, silviculture, soil ecological research and the implications for forest management into a single discussion. Promoting soil recovery involves knowledge of ecosystem history and disturbance as well as nutrient cycling mechanisms, pools, fluxes and soil forming factors. Research on the rhizosphere is an area that is needed. Recovery of regional soils may confer benefits of drought and disease resistance. The goal of sustainable forestry is compatible with soil recovery; however, the technology and practices of modern forestry deserve thorough evaluation. Emphasis on the continued production of commodities, the agricultural model, is much different from managing for the functioning of healthy forest ecosystems. Many of the practices and outcomes of intensive forest management, including short rotations, harrowing, subsoiling, and burning or removal of logging slash, seem to be at odds with the goal of soil recovery. Best management practices that foster soil recovery include less intensive stand utilization and reduced soil disturbance. Stem-only harvest and longer rotations permit a recovery of soil biodiversity and an accrual of detritus and soil organic matter. Windrowing and similar techniques have dramatic and lasting effects on soil development. No-tillage agriculture as a model for pine plantations is discussed.     

Challenging the Traditional Forestry Extension Model: Insights from the Woods Forum Program in Massachusetts

Traditional forestry education and outreach activities tend to focus on transfer-of-knowledge, often through workshops initiated and led by professionals to “teach” landowners about forest management and conservation. Less than 10 percent of family forest owners in the US have a management plan, participated in cost-share programs, certified their forest land, or hold a conservation easement, suggesting flaws in this traditional model. Some researchers and practitioners have suggested the need for a paradigm shift away from transfer-of-knowledge to more facilitative, participatory approaches, among which peer learning has gained growing attention and is supported by a number of behavioral theories. By analyzing data from participant feedback of a peer learning pilot program in Massachusetts and a follow-up mail survey, this paper examines the perceived usefulness of peer-to-peer interactions and the effect of peer learning over time. The results suggest peer learning did not only appeal to landowners with forestry background, but also succeeded in attracting inexperienced landowners. Participants rated their peer-to-peer experience positively. The retention of information obtained through the program was reflected by participants’ ability to correctly identify foresters, land trust organizations, and reasonable sources of forestry or land management advice. Participants also shared a strong willingness to spread information obtained through peer learning. This study contributes to the identification of potential barriers to and opportunities for peer learning, informs forestry extension efforts in the US and beyond, and highlights the importance of integrating peer learning into the broader forestry education, technical assistance, and financial incentive programs to increase participation and promote sustainable forest management and conservation.     

Progress and prospects of community forestry in developing and developed countries

Community forestry is practiced in various countries throughout the world, with respect to both native forests and plantations, for livelihood and forest protection purposes and also for urban amenity values. While forests have been managed to some extent by communities for thousands of years, modern models of community forestry have been practiced widely for only about 30 years. Community forestry takes many forms; there is no unique definition or categorisation, although a number of characteristics are frequently present. There is in general, involvement of a local community in forest planning as well as management, for a form of forestry which is usually relatively small-scale, motivated by multiple objectives, and receiving some financial support and organisational assistance by government and non-government organisations. Where plantations are established, these may be managed as common property, individual property rights may apply, or there may be a combination of both. Analysis of the specific research studies included in this issue reveals that community forestry systems have been refined over time as experience is gained in program designs, and notable successes have been achieved. However, ‘the jury is still out’ on whether community forestry has lived up to the optimistic expectations of its proponents.     

福建林权制度改革的调查与思考

通过对福建省林权制度改革情况的专题调研,认为林权改革使林农造林育林积极性、山林集约化经营程度、林农林业收入都有显著提高,林业产业发展步伐也显著加快。同时福建林权改革实践也针对当前普遍存在的是否会出现大规模乱砍滥伐、经营小农化倾向、动摇农村基层政权建议、削弱生态公益林保护等问题作出了最好的回答。文章对当前林权制度改革提出相应工作建议。     

非公有制林业发展的制度障碍及其对策

对非公有制林业的概念、特点和实现形式进行分析,指出非公有制林业产权保护不力、采伐限额制度的束缚制约、林地使用制度不完善、林业税费负担沉重和林业金融保障制度不完善等主要制度障碍,并在此基础上提出相应对策:1)加强产权保护;2)改革采伐限额制度;3)完善林地使用制度;4)切实减轻林业税费负担;5)实施新型林业投资制度.     

林业碳汇供给主体产权权益保障问题探析

随着“双碳”目标的提出，林业碳汇作为目前最为经济的“碳吸收”手段逐渐受到全社会的关注。文中界定了林业碳汇供给主体的产权权益，探讨了林业碳汇供给主体产权权益保障存在的现实困境，包括林业碳汇产权归属的供给主体不明、林业碳汇产权的收益权残缺以及林业碳汇计量门槛高、项目方法学尚需完善等；在剖析困境成因的基础上，提出了林业碳汇供给主体产权权益保障的实现路径，即制定林业碳汇配套的法律法规、明晰林业碳汇产权归属的供给主体、保障林业碳汇产权收益权能的实现和完善产权权益受损救济途径等。