Forest owners’ views on storing carbon in their forests

Given the high percentage of private forest ownership in Finland, family forest owners have an important role in mitigating climate change. The study aims to explore Finnish family forest owners’ perceptions on climate change and their opinions on increasing carbon storage in their forests through new kinds of management activities and policy instruments. The data consists of thematic face-to-face interviews among Helsinki metropolitan area forest owners (n?=?15). These city-dwellers were expected to be more aware of and more interested in climate change mitigation than forest owners at large. Forests as carbon fluxes appear to be a familiar concept to most of the forest owners, but carbon storage in their own forests was a new idea. Four types concerning forest owners’ view on storing carbon in their forests could be identified. The Pioneer utilizes forestland versatilely and has already adopted practices to mitigate climate change. The Potential is concerned about climate change, but this is not seen in forest practices applied. The Resistant is generally aware of climate change but sees a fundamental contradiction between carbon storing and wood production. The Indifferent Owner believes that climate change is taking place but does not acknowledge a relation between climate change and the owner’s forests.     

Mitigating Climate Change Through Small-Scale Forestry in the USA: Opportunities and Challenges

Forest management for carbon sequestration is a low-cost, low-technology, relatively easy way to help mitigate global climate change that can be adopted now while additional long-term solutions are developed. Carbon-oriented management of forests also offers forest owners an opportunity to obtain a new source of income, and commonly has environmental co-benefits. The USA is developing climate change policy that recognizes forestry as a source of offsets in carbon markets, and the emissions trading programs and standards that have developed to date offer opportunities for afforestation, reforestation, reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and improved forest management projects. Private forest owners are key players in carbon markets because they own over half of the forest land in the USA and carbon offsetting from public forest land is rare. However, a number of environmental, economic, and social constraints currently limit carbon market participation by forest owners. Key issues include: the low price of carbon and high cost of market entry; whether small landowners can gain market access; how to meet requirements such as management plans and certification; and whether managing for carbon is consistent with other forest management goals. This paper provides an overview of current and emerging opportunities for family forest owners to contribute to climate change mitigation in the USA, and explores ways of overcoming some of the challenges so that they can take advantage of these opportunities.     

California's regulatory forest carbon market: Viability for northeast landowners

Carbon markets have the potential to reward landowners for improved forest management and forest conservation. To date, the Over the Counter (OTC) voluntary market represents the greatest opportunity for forest landowners to participate in carbon transactions. However, lack of a consistent carbon price signal and sporadic demand coupled by high transaction costs has prevented widespread participation from family forest landowners. Adoption of a U.S. based cap-and-trade program reduces price risk and may provide incentives for sustainable forest management across large areas. Yet few studies have examined the supply side of carbon offsets and factors affecting project financial viability. To address this gap, we assessed how (1) property characteristics (i.e. stocking level, forest type, size etc.); (2) silvicultural treatments; and (3) protocol and legislative requirements affect the financial viability of compliance forest offset projects, focusing on California's Air Resource Board (ARB) program due to its significance as the world's second largest carbon market. We used forest inventory data from 25 properties in the northeastern United States to examine the viability of the sites as ARB offset projects. We utilized the U.S. Forest Service Forest Vegetation Simulator for our growth and yield simulations. To examine the factors that influence project viability, we used a classification and regression tree analysis performed in S-Plus software. Results indicate C stocking and property size are the most important property characteristics driving return on investment. However, protocol requirements and legislative assumptions impacting long-term monitoring costs are also important factors. While reduced price risk in a compliance carbon market has the potential to improve forest management in North America; high initial project development costs, long-term monitoring obligations, and legislative uncertainty are significant barriers that will limit family forest landowner market participation. The model developed here can be used by U.S. landowners to assess the financial viability of their property as a compliance offset project and can be utilized by policymakers to develop cost-effective climate change policy.     

美国引导林农参与碳市场的经验及启示

林农参与林业碳汇项目对提高其生计能力和收入以及应对气候变化具有重要意义.文中主要以美国家庭林主为研究对象,简要介绍其参与碳市场的背景、美国碳市场关于林业项目的规定以及美国引导家庭林主参与碳市场的经验,针对我国林农参与碳市场遇到的障碍,提出如下建议:1)合理制定碳汇交易规则,保障林业碳汇项目有序开展;2)完善中介服务体系...     

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。     

Carbon Storage on Non-industrial Private Forestland: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Leading scientific experts in the field of climate change suggest that a multifaceted response to global warming should include the use of forest carbon offsets (also known as forest sinks). Emerging emissions reduction legislation in the United States (US) accounts for this recommendation by allowing for carbon offsets derived from domestic forestry projects (e.g. reforestation, afforestation, avoided deforestation). Given that the majority of US forestland is privately owned and non-industrial, the current research employs a behavioral model to measure intentions of private non-industrial forestland owners to participate in carbon sequestration and trading. Results suggest that very few (5.1 %) of these forestland owners are currently involved in carbon sequestration and trading, but half (50.4 %) were at least somewhat interested in exploring opportunities to do so. The Theory of Planned Behavior, acting as the theoretical frame of reference, was extended in the current research to include environmental orientation, innovativeness, perceived risk and tested knowledge, all of which had significant effects on core model constructs: attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and behavioral intentions. The extended model explained a significant amount of the variance related to behavioral intentions to sequester carbon on private US forestland (R² = .53).     

Forest owners' attitudes toward pro-climate and climate-responsive forest management

Climate change is a global concern. Within Nordic countries such as Finland it has particular influence on the use of natural resources. Family forest owners own 61% of the forested land in Finland and 80% of the industrial roundwood purchased comes from these forest owners. Thus how private forest owners approach climate change is of high national economic and ecological importance. In order to understand family forest owners' perspectives on climate change in their own forests, qualitative interviews along walks through the owner's forests were conducted. Analysis of the conversations during these walks highlighted that forest owners discussed the phenomenon without prompting more often than hypothesized. Additionally, forest owners were less certain as to the causes of changes observed in their forests, mostly willing to take advice from professionals, and economically-driven in their response. For those forest owners who did express concern regarding climate change, they were at a loss for ways their efforts could make a meaningful difference. The prevalent uncertainty among forest owners calls for guidance from authority. Policy practices should make an effort to combine monetary incentives along with climate change focused forest management practices. Additionally, forest owner's reliance on the advice and expertise of forestry professionals should be utilized when pursuing climate-motivated forest management.     

Typology of Nonindustrial Private Forest Landowners and Forestry Behavior: Implications for Forest Carbon Sequestration in the Southern US

To implement effective climate change mitigation and carbon sequestration activities in the southern US, nonindustrial private forest landowner (NIPF) participation is necessary because of the significant area of forest land under their ownership. For policy implementation to involve this major ownership group in climate change mitigation activities in this region, it is important to understand their forest management motivations and understanding toward carbon sequestration. This study develops a regional typology of NIPF landowners based on reasons for owning forest land in the southern US. The specific goals were to: (1) segment NIPF landowners into smaller homogeneous groups based on reasons for owning forest land; (2) identify landownership characteristics and forest management behavior by ownership groups; and (3) assess their climate change beliefs and understanding of forest carbon sequestration by ownership groups. A principal component-cluster analysis of 735 responses to a mail questionnaire distributed to NIPF landowners in the southern US revealed three groups, which were named amenity, multi-objective, and timber-oriented landowners. The amenity group included 21% of the landowners, while the timber and multi-objective groups included 40% and 39% of the landowners, respectively. These landowner groups varied in terms of owner characteristics, forest species type and management behavior, climate change beliefs and understanding of carbon sequestration. The amenity and multi-objective owners tend to have more positive belief toward climate change than the timber group, but more landowners in each group indicated having poor understanding of forest carbon sequestration. The study fills a knowledge gap in research efforts by developing a regional typology of NIPF landowners and linking it with their forestry resources and management strategies along with their climate change beliefs and understanding of forest carbon sequestration.     

Forest Policies Addressing Climate Change in China

As a developing country with a large population and a fragile ecological environment, China is particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Beginning with the Rio Conference of 1992 China has played a progressively enhanced role in combating climate change. A series of policies and measures to address climate change have been taken in the overall context of national sustainable development strategy, making positive contributions to the mitigation and adaptation to climate change, among ...     

What does it take to get family forest owners to enroll in a forest stewardship-type program?

We estimated the probability of enrollment and factors influencing participation in a forest stewardship-type program, Minnesota's Sustainable Forest Incentives Act, using data from a mail survey of over 1000 randomly-selected Minnesota family forest owners. Of the 15 variables tested, only five were significant predictors of a landowner's interest in enrolling in the program: compensation amount, intention to obtain a forest management plan, opposition to the program's land covenant, prior awareness of the program, and total acres of forest land owned. The estimated median minimum compensation required was approximately $24 per acre per year. One-fourth of the survey respondents were undecided about whether they would participate in the stewardship program, suggesting there may be potential to capture additional interest and participation. Marketing efforts to raise program awareness, increasing annual stewardship payments, and eliminating the land covenant are likely to be effective strategies for increasing program participation.     

Extending rotation age for carbon sequestration: A cross-protocol comparison of North American forest offsets

Through carbon offset programs, forest owners can be offered financial incentives to enhance the uptake and storage of carbon on their lands. The amount of carbon that can be claimed by an individual landowner will ultimately depend on multiple factors, including the productivity of the forest, the management history of the stand, and the program in which the landowner is participating. This project presents a modeling framework for forest carbon accounting which is driven by forest yield curves and carbon pool partitioning. Within this model the amount of creditable carbon generated from adjusting the rotation age of multiple forest stands can be estimated for 46 distinct North American forest types. The model also provides a comparison of total creditable carbon generated under three carbon accounting methodologies: the Department of Energy 1605b Registry, the Chicago Climate Exchange, and the Voluntary Carbon Standard. In our evaluation of a 5-year rotation extension across 102 unique modeling scenarios, we find large differences among the carbon accounting schemes. This has implications for both forest landowners and policymakers alike. In particular, methodologies to account for such issues as leakage, permanence, additionality, and baseline establishment, while potentially increasing the overall legitimacy of any forest carbon offset program, can reduce creditable carbon to the forest owner (by up to 70%). Regardless of the protocol used, we also note strong regional differences, with Pacific Northwest forests of fir, spruce, hemlock, alder and maple being the most effective at sequestering carbon on a per area basis.     

国内外林地流转影响因素及成效研究进展

文中对比国内外不同产权安排下林地流转影响因素及成效的研究内容与方法发现,由于林地产权制度和交易规模、交易主体的不同,对私有林地交易和集体林地流转的研究存在差异性.工业林地交易行为的研究基于企业利润最大化的角度;家庭林地的出售受财产税等林地持有成本的影响较大,林地购入以休闲、娱乐等效用最大化为目标.我国集体林区小农户行为...     

Climate risks and forest practices: forest owners' acceptance of advice concerning climate change

Based on qualitative interviews with Swedish forest owners this study focuses on climate change, risk management and forest governance from the perspective of the forest owners. The Swedish forest governance system has undergone extensive deregulation, with the result that social norms and knowledge dissemination are seen by the state as important means of influencing forest owners' understandings and practices. Drawing on Foucault's concept of governmentality this study contributes knowledge on how forest owners understand and manage climate-related risk and their acceptance of advice. From the interview study, three main conclusions can be drawn: (1) forest owners' considerations largely concern ordinary forestry activities; (2) knowledge about forest management and climate adaptation combines experiences and ideas from various sources; and (3) risk awareness and knowledge of “best practices” are not enough to ensure change in forestry practices. The results of this study show that the forest owners have to be selective and negotiate about what knowledge to consider relevant and meaningful for their own forest practice. Accordingly, local forest management can be understood as situated in a web of multifarious interests, claims, concerns and knowledges, where climate change adaptation is but one of several aspects that forest owners have to consider.     

Do forest decision-makers in Southeastern Norway adapt forest management to climate change?

To study whether, why, and how forestry decision-makers in Southeastern Norway adapt to climate change, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews in focus groups consisting of non-industrial private forest owners, forest managers, and forest advisors. Our results show that a majority of the participants believed in climate change as a phenomenon, and had experienced events or observed changes that they attributed to climate change. However, we found little evidence of concern regarding climate change impacts on forest ecosystems and forestry among the participants. Instead, the majority regarded climate change more as an opportunity for the Norwegian forest-based sector than a threat. A minority had implemented proactive practices motivated by climate change but in all but one case, the adjustments were adaptation of forest infrastructure. In general, the participants agreed that the uncertainty associated with the effects of climate change and the (economical) uncertainty associated with adaptation of forest ecosystems were too large to change forest management practices at present. However, many participants, in particular the managers, are already adapting in response to experienced problems, such as increased frequency and duration of periods with low carrying capacity of the ground implying reduced or no accessibility within and to stands.     

The Influence of Multiple Ownership Interests and Decision-Making Networks on the Management of Family Forest Lands: Evidence from the United States

A national assessment of how the number of parcel owners influence family forest land management and use decisions in the US was conducted using a subset of the US Forest Service’s National Woodland Owner Survey Dataset. Seventy-two percent of single parcel family forest land ownership respondents of at least 4.05 ha had multiple owners. The extent to which past land management practices and future intentions for the land are influenced by the number of owners of an individual parcel was evaluated. We also examined how landowner decision-making networks are related to past practices and future intentions. Contrary to previous findings, our research suggests that having more than one owner does not necessarily reduce the likelihood that a variety of different forest management activities, including commercial timber harvesting or wildlife habitat improvement, will occur. Moreover, we found that one-owner forested parcels are less likely to have experienced activities like harvesting, invasive plant removal, fire hazard reduction, wildlife habitat improvement, and cost-share program participation than parcels with two or more than two owners. We also found that family member involvement in landowner decision-making has a minimal effect on past and planned land management actions, while the involvement of a forester or land manager in decision-making increases the likelihood many land management actions have been or will be undertaken.     

A Survey of Forestry Extension Clientele in South Carolina,USA

The U.S. South contains nearly one-third of the nation’s forests and 40% of its productive timberland. This makes the southern U.S. an important part of the wood supply chain. In South Carolina, family forests cover 55% of the 13 million acres of forestland, and contribute significantly to the annual timber harvest volume. However, not all family forest owners are engaged in forest management activities. To better understand the needs and behaviors of family forest owners that are actively engaged in forest management an online survey was developed and sent to family forest owners that actively seek the help of extension agents. Results of a latent-class analysis of survey responses showed that there are three distinct groups of family forest owners that engage with extension agents: hands-on timber managers, hands-off timber managers, and multiple-use land managers. These groups differ in their utilization of help from a consulting forester and their ways of selecting timber harvesting contractors for forest management activities. Eighty-eight percent of respondents reported that their major goal of a thinning was to maximize future revenues. When asked about the expected outcome of a cleat-cut, 69% expected all trees to be removed, whereas the rest expected outcomes similar to selection, seed-tree, or commercial clear-cuts. Overall, this survey provides initial information to better focus outreach and extension efforts, but also highlights how family forest owners engage in their timber harvest.     

Use and effectiveness of Washington state’s extension forest stewardship program

This paper describes the use by family forest landowners of educational programs provided by Washington State University Cooperative Extension (WSUCE), and the associated use of technical assistance programs provided by state and federal agencies and the private sector. Approximately 100,000 family forest owners controlled 19% or over 1.2 M ha of Washington’s forestland and accounted for 29% of the timber harvested in the state on a volume basis in 1998. A variety of public and private assistance and education programs are available to encourage and help family forest owners manage their forests. In 1999 a mail survey was conducted to evaluate use and effectiveness of Washington’s family forest assistance and education programs. Over half of the 872 responding family forest landowners had contact with an extension educator, program or educational material, and about three quarters of these respondents gave an overall rating of the usefulness of extension programs and materials as good or excellent. Respondents attending WSUCE forestry educational programs have larger median land ownership size, are older, have owned their forests longer, have a higher rate of absentee ownership, and are better educated than non-users. They are more likely to actively manage their forests for timber production and exhibit a clearer understanding of the multiple-use capabilities of their forests.     

In the eye of the storm: adaptation logics of forest owners in management and planning in Swedish areas

With a changing climate, storm and wind throw is becoming an increasing risk to forest. However, Swedish forest management practices have so far involved relatively little consideration of adaptation to climate change. This study examined resistance and alternatives to “business as usual” forest management, drawing upon material obtained in interviews with individual forest owners who spontaneously identified and discussed storm and wind throw as a risk to their forest. They thereby expressed a logic differing from that of the forest industry in Sweden, which has largely normalised storm risk rather than considering it in climate change adaptation work. The present analysis illustrates the broad and largely concerned position of individual forest owners, in contrast with a more established industry position on storm as an accepted and existing risk. Overall, the study highlights the diversity, agency and power relations within Swedish forestry and the forested landscape – aspects that are vital to better understanding processes relevant to forest and climate change adaptation.     

Family forest owner preferences for biomass harvesting in Massachusetts

U.S. forests, including family-owned forests, are a potential source of biomass for renewable energy. Family forest owners constitute a significant portion of the overall forestland in the U.S., yet little is known about family forest owners' preferences for supplying wood-based biomass. The goal of this study is to understand how Massachusetts family forest owners feel about harvesting residual woody biomass from their property. The study estimates the probability that Massachusetts landowners will harvest biomass as part of a timber harvest using data from a survey of 932 Massachusetts family forest owners. Logistic regression results suggest that the likelihood of harvesting for biomass is quite low, and that the supply of participation in biomass harvesting is inelastic with respect to price. These low probabilities may be due to the method used to account for preference uncertainty, as well as the unique nature of Massachusetts forests, forest markets, and landowner attitudes in comparison to other states (e.g., Minnesota). The study suggests that it would be more effective to target renewable energy policy toward different regions and/or markets rather than develop a uniform national policy.     

Surveys in Private and Communal Forests: Data Collection Methods in Bavaria

More than half of the forest land in Bavaria belongs to private forest owners, who contribute a large amount of the industrial timber supply. The level of information about private forests is in comparison to the communal forests inadequate. The increasing demand for data about the forest sector in Bavaria can be partially covered by regular inventories but requires supplementary monitoring activities. Regular surveys based on voluntary participation deliver data, but often do not fulfil statistical requirements due to low response rates of 15–20% to postal surveys. The Bavarian annual postal cutting survey has been built up over 5 years using a roster of voluntary participants. This pragmatic and cost-effective approach provides reliable data for statistical purposes and gives insight in the forest management activities of small-scale forest owners. Recent technical developments, in particular the availability of grids and digital land-use maps, facilitate the random sampling of forest owners. This approach has been applied in a climate change project, but the results did not meet the expectations because of low response rates. The rather labour- and cost-intensive census of forest owners as applied in the project in Eastern Bavaria cannot be recommended except in exceptional circumstances. In the described project a qualitative approach with four distinct questionnaires has been adopted in order to identify ways to reach forest owners that are either not interested in their forests or do not respond to requests. Due to low response rates the objectives of the study could only be partially achieved.