Service logics and strategies of Swedish forestry in the structural shifts of forest ownership: challenging the “old” and shaping the “new”

ABSTRACT

Sweden is one of the most forested countries in Europe, and it has one of the highest shares of productive forest. Production in forestry is largely reliant on the private non-industrial forest owners, who own half of the forest land. As in many countries, however, forest ownership is changing towards a higher extent of urban, female or non-forestry-background owners. This poses a challenge for the forestry services sector, mainly forest owners’ associations and companies, but also broadly the sector at large. By exploring the sales and marketing processes, this paper analyses the service logics and strategies of Swedish forestry under changing forest ownership, drawing on an interview study covering all the large actors in the Swedish forestry sector. The study illustrates an increased focus of forestry organizations on services from a strategic and managerial perspective, in customer-oriented relationship development and in value creation and sales processes, specifically in order to manage “new” forest owners and the demand of forest industries. The results highlight the domination of service logics associated with timber production and the challenges for the service market and the provision of diversified services to forest owners.     

Regional employment trends of wood-based industries in Germany’s forest cluster: a comparative shift-share analysis of post-reunification development

After reunification in 1990, Germany’s forest cluster developed anew and employment in the wood-based industries differentiated very quickly. With more than 900,000 employees, it is now considered one of the most important industrial sectors in the country. This paper analysed general trends in the development of employment of wood-based industries in the German forest cluster between 1999 and 2006. Shift-share analysis was considered to be the most appropriate way to determine regional differences in the subsection DD/20 ‘Manufacture of wood and wood products’ of the code “Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Revision 1.1” (NACE): the sawmill industry, the wood-based panel industry, the wood construction industry, the wood-based packaging industry, and the miscellaneous wood products industry. This method decomposed the change of employment into three different components that are due to that change: national trends, (industrial) sectoral trends, and regional conditions. Employment in the selected wood-based industries showed a significantly larger decrease than overall trends in both the producing industries and the whole economy of Germany: a continual loss of employees could be observed over the time period, affecting almost all of the selected wood-based industries. However, federal states in western and eastern Germany experienced divergent trends between 1999 and 2006, as different absolute and relative regional share components indicated in the shift-share analysis. This method allows of identifying regional disparities and characterising regions with positive (mainly eastern federal states) and negative (mainly western federal states) rates of employment growth. The research suggests that positive employment trends in eastern Germany’s wood-based industries can mainly be attributed to regional factors such as comparatively higher subsidies for new investments, lower labour costs, lower land values or infrastructural peculiarities.

Non-industrial private forest owners’ attitudes towards the operational environment of forestry — a multinominal logit model analysis

The aim of the present study was to relate the attitudes, characteristics and forest management decisions of private forest owners to concepts of strategic management, and by this means, to achieve support for the use of common strategic management approaches in forestry. Non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners’ forestry business units (BUs) were grouped into four strategic groups (Stars, Cash cows, Wildcats and Dogs), according to the McKinsey's matrix. This grouping was based on the forest owners’ attitudes towards the internal and external operational environments of forestry. Then, the groups were identified by means of a multinominal logit modeling approach that used forest-owner and forest-holding characteristics as explanatory variables. The differences in forestry behavior between the strategic groups were analyzed. The modeling results showed that forest-owner and forest-holding characteristics were in a logical relationship to the basic definitions of the used strategic groups. The behavior of the strategic groups was in accordance with strategies suggested in the tenets of strategic management. The results of this study are supportive of more extensive utilization of common strategic management approaches in forestry. However, the characteristics that make the forest different from other factors of production may require some modifications to be made to these approaches.     

Analysis of the role of forest,biomass policy legislation and other factors that may affect the future of Kenya’s forests: Use of Japanese forestry as a model

Forests are one of the most important ecosystems on earth that require careful management, conservation, and sustainable exploitation. As countries have their own guideline systems, each may learn and borrow from one another’s experience. One of such countries is Japan, which has elaborate forest policies, and rich in forest cover (67%) with its forest history dating many years back. On the other hand, Kenya, with a forest cover of just 7% and its policies demonstrating notable weaknesses, has a lot to learn from Japan. Therefore, we have attempted to do a comparative analysis of forest policies, technologies, and management practices between Kenya and Japan. Results indicate that Kenya’s forest policies do not place adequate emphasis on silvicultural practices and the establishment of forest plantations, and rarely focus on sustainable biomass utilization—factors that contributed significantly to forest growth and development in Japan. Additionally, policy legislation, revision, and implementation have not been given the deserved priority in Kenya. We conclude that Kenyan forest policy would benefit from both revision and thorough implementation. We also discuss the role of indirect factors such as economic growth and availability of nonwood-based energy sources in the future of Kenya’s forests.     

The end consumer’s choice of floorcovering in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom: a comparative pilot study of substitute competition

In order to understand the competitive situation of wood, it is essential to consider the end consumer of building materials. The knowledge of factors affecting the end consumers choice of building material for specific purposes, i.e., the mechanisms of substitute competition, is limited. Field studies of the British and Dutch floorcovering markets revealed that context, usage context as well as the general life situation, is of crucial importance in substitute competition. This contextual character severely limits the usefulness and adequacy of interviews with fixed-reply alternatives, as well as classical statistical methods of analysis. In this article, a qualitative approach to data gathering is combined with multivariate analysis. The results indicate that by using this methodology it is possible to determine which are the decisive predictors of material preferences, make cross-cultural comparisons, and apprehend the underlying motives or perspectives. The results further show that, unlike the other floorcovering materials studied, the determinant reasons for choosing wood appear to be exclusively nonfunctional in nature.     

Is the private forest sector adapting to climate change? A study of forest managers in north Wales

? Context

Two-thirds of Britain’s forest area is privately owned. Thus, understanding private forest owners and managers, and their attitudes to uncertainty and change, is essential for the success of climate change adaptation policies.

? Aim

The aims of this study are to (1) assess how beliefs in climate change in the private sector have influenced forest management practices; (2) identify constraints related to changes in species choice and silvicultural systems; (3) analyse the implications for implementing climate change policy in forestry.

? Method

Semi-structured interviews with key informants who provide advice to, or manage woodlands in, the private forest sector in north Wales.

? Results

Woodland managers and some advisers are not generally convinced of a need to adapt. They feel the future is uncertain, more usually in relation to tree disease than to climate change itself. Species choice is the principle focus of adaptation activities and reveals a deep divide in opinion. Commercial advisors look to new exotics but are inhibited by absence of markets, while small-scale owners rely more on native genetic diversity.

? Conclusions

Findings that are likely to apply widely include: the influential role of forest agents in forest management decisions including species choice; lack of confidence in climate change predictions, and in markets; more immediate concerns about tree pests and diseases; demand for leadership from the public sector, and for engagement amongst the private sector. Further research is needed across a wider area to test the variability in relationship between attitudes and behaviours, and local conditions including climate change predictions.     

Sustainability as a guideline for strategic planning? The problem of long-term forest management in the face of uncertainty

Forest management, which is the main focus of this paper, is facing fundamental paradoxes and dilemmas that cannot be addressed by long-term management strategies or management concepts, even where the intention of these strategies is to follow a sustainability path. On this basis, it is argued that sustainability is not a suitable future-oriented term but rather a term oriented towards the present. The more complex the relationships between the different social subsystems, the more rapid the social change of modern societies, the more confusing the present situation and the more unpredictable the future, the less suitable utopian, long-term strategies and the attitude and strategy of firm decisiveness are to address challenges. Several suggested management strategies and techniques such as incrementalism, adaptive management and scenario-analysis are critically discussed. The intention of these strategies is to cope with uncertainty and ignorance. With regard to their limitations, it can be concluded that strategic decisions in the face of uncertainty have to explicitly consider the reversibility of decisions and the awareness of their shortcomings in relation to various dimensions of risk, uncertainty and ignorance. It is therefore necessary to look for modes of planning that actively address uncertainty in organizing learning opportunities and permanent feedback control.     

The use of forest information in timber sales planning – a case study in a Swedish forest-owning company

Interactions between value-creating activities are vital to increasing product value. Information sharing is a cornerstone of such interactions. For a forest-owning company with the primary objective to be leading in selling roundwood to forest industries, it appears therefore crucial that the sales people within a forest company have up-to-date knowledge about the forest in planning their sales, and that the forest knowledge is presented in a format that is suitable for them. To investigate if this is the case, a study was conducted at Sveaskog, a large Swedish forest-owning company. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with respondents from different levels in the organization. The results show that most sales managers did not directly use the knowledge about the forests when planning their sales; instead, they relied on historical data and had low trust in the knowledge presented in the tactical forest plan. The study pinpoints the organizational obstacles for using forest information in sales planning. These obstacles need to be addressed if more sophisticated information made available through new technology is to be utilized.     

Rural household and forest: an evaluation of household’s dependency on community forest in Nepal

The aim of this paper is to analyze the level of dependency of rural households on forests, based on the economic status of the households and the property regimes of forests. The analysis of household-level dependency suggests that large numbers of rural households are benefiting regularly from their community forests. Out of three forest property regimes examined, community forests were found to be the most prominent sources for supplying forest products to local households. Analysis of the degree of forest-products dependency and the economic status of households shows that the low economic status households rely more on the community forest than the economically better-off households. In addition, a ² analysis indicates that the economic status of households affects the degree of forest-product collection activities. The results show three types of property regime with respect to forest management in Chitwan. Each regime holds its own ownership rights, which control the harvesting of forest products and provides incentives to the local households.     

“Smart regulation”: Can policy instrument design solve forest policy aims of expansion and sustainability in Flanders and the Netherlands?

The current study investigates with a multiple case study the relation between instrument design and policy success. The conclusion is that the instrument mix matters. The Flemish interventionist approach, which focuses more on traditional instruments, was not as effective as the Dutch stimulating approach, which uses a broad pallet of social and economic instruments, including many new environmental policy instruments. It is conspicuous that the government remains the most important regulator in all cases, although the importance of surrogate regulators is growing. Mostly the government is needed to stimulate or even create such surrogate regulators. Therefore, the government has a key position to decide which regulatory tasks will be transferred to surrogate regulators. This is currently restricted to capacity-building and certification.     

The forest as a taskscape: seeing through the good forest owner’s eyes

This article is a reanalysis of interviews conducted in 2006 and 2009 with forest owners and their families. It gives a complementary interpretation of the forest owners’ decisions to replant spruce despite strong criticism from the public and from experts. The interviewees’ visual conception of the forest landscape and how they relate to it through their forestry practices is analysed. The results show that the forest owners prefer landscapes that are clean and tidy, showing characteristics indicative of forestry skills. At the same time they remain sensitive to the existence of other value systems among the public. The forest owners’ way of looking at the forest was characterized by the fact that they worked with the landscape; for them the forest is not only a symbolic project linked to identity, but also a taskscape, an imprint of performed work. In the discussion, the forest owners’ aesthetic value system is discussed and a supplementary answer is given to why forest owners refused to heed warnings about the replanting of spruce, a question that earlier studies generally attributed to forest owners’ wish to avoid short-term economic risks.     

Toward forest ‘‘sprawl':monitoring and planning a changing landscape for urban sustainability

The present study analyzes the structure and dynamics of the forest landscape in a peri-urban area(Rome, Italy) during the city's expansion from 1949 to2008 using landscape metrics and change detection analysis of digital maps of the area(1500 km2). While urban settlements increased continuously from 6.5 to 27.5 % of the study area, woodlands changed less clearly, with a moderate increase(from 11.2 to 11.9 % of the total area)and a higher fragmentation as a consequence of Rome's expansion. The structure of forest landscape changed along the urban-to-rural gradient with patch size increasing with the distance to the inner city in 1949 and substantial landscape homogeneity in 2008. The indicators proposed in this study inform dedicated measures for conserving forest and maintaining landscape diversity. Measures adopted in Rome's forestation plan to counteract woodlandffragmentation were analyzed and discussed. Based on the complex landscape dynamics found for Rome, an integrated multiscale planning approach targeting forest conservation is considered a key contribution to urban sustainability.     

Unpacking the impacts of ‘participatory’ forestry policies: Evidence from Kenya

We evaluate the livelihoods of member and non-members of Community Forestry Associations under Kenya's participatory forest management (PFM) programme. We use propensity score matching of households based on recall based data from before implementation of PFM from 286 households and comparison of current incomes (2012), as well as review of records and interviews. Results reveal that members have higher total and forest-related incomes than non-members and indicate that impacts derive from labour and market opportunities supported by donor institutions, more than from differential access to forest products. In terms of governance the Kenya Forest Service largely remains in control of decision-making. Thus, PFM resembles Integrated Conservation and Development Project (ICDP) approaches. We conclude that current forest governance approaches in Kenya appear not to support participation in practice. Further, we conclude that impact evaluations must examine both outcomes and participatory forestry to provide meaningful policy evidence.     

Role reversal in the stand dynamics of an angiosperm–conifer forest: Colonising angiosperms precede a shade-tolerant conifer in Afrotemperate forest

In mixed angiosperm–conifer forests worldwide, infrequent landscape-level catastrophic disturbances create a mosaic of persistent and different aged forest stands in the landscape with varying levels of dominance by the conifer component. In the ‘temporal stand replacement model’ (TSRM), disturbance creates conditions favouring a colonising cohort that is replaced by a suite of relatively shade-tolerant canopy species, which establish following the synchronous senescence of the pioneer canopy. In most southern hemisphere mixed angiosperm–conifer forests, with the exception of those in southern Africa, the establishing cohort is usually a large and very long-lived (550–650 years) conifer that is gradually replaced by angiosperms. As an explanation of the apparent dominance of the conifer Podocarpus latifolius, we examine the efficacy of the TSRM in mixed Afrotemperate forests where the establishing cohort is not a conifer. Forest succession in Afrotemperate forests was deterministic with the successive replacement of species determined first by their establishment success in shaded environments, and second, by their relative longevity. Several angiosperm species that were common canopy dominants established a pioneer cohort but were gradually replaced by P. latifolius, a shade-tolerant species. Continuous regeneration beneath the angiosperm canopy by P. latifolius eliminates synchronous canopy senescence, a key feature of the TSRM, as a mechanism driving the temporal replacement of canopy species. Senescing angiosperms created canopy gaps that were colonised by grasses and ferns, which suppressed canopy tree regeneration. In contrast, with continuous regeneration beneath the shaded canopy, P. latifolius gains a critical advantage over angiosperms at gap formation. Thus, in the absence of fairly large-scale natural disturbances, conifers come to dominate Afrotemperate forests. Commensurate with the latter, conifers in Podocarpus-forest were dated to approximately 320 years, more than 100 years older than the oldest P. latifolius in angiosperm-dominated forest. Tree life-history differences (shade tolerance, longevity) and the time since disturbance drive successional change from an angiosperm-dominated system to a stage dominated by P. latifolius. In general, the TSRM is a plausible explanation for the observed canopy tree structure and dynamics in mixed Afrotemperate forests. South African Afrotemperate forest is unusual among other southern hemisphere mixed angiosperm–conifer forests in that a suite of angiosperm canopy species, rather than a single conifer species, forms the colonising cohort.     

The allocation of forestry land in Vietnam: did it cause the expansion of forests in the northwest?

Forests expanded rapidly in northwestern Vietnam in the 1990s. Forest expansion coincided with a new forest policy that mandated the devolution of forest management authority. A cornerstone of the new policy was the allocation of use rights for forestry land and trees to rural households. This paper examines to what extent the new forest policy contributed to the observed forest expansion. The findings of three village studies suggest that the new forest policy had minor effects on actual property rights, as villagers resisted its implementation. Instead, forests expanded, mainly due to the liberalization of agricultural output markets and availability of new technology. Changes in markets and technology motivated farmers to intensify crop production, reducing agricultural pressure on land. The research findings suggest the potential of market-based instruments and technology policy to facilitate forest regeneration. They also demonstrate the benefits of in-depth village studies for forest policy analysis, as it provides an integrated framework for assessing the relative effects of political, economic and technological changes on forests.     

Vertical and seasonal variation in the δ¹³C of leaf-respired CO₂ in a mixed conifer forest

The C-isotopic composition (δ13C) of leaf respiration (δ(LR)) has previously been shown to vary among functional groups, plant organs and times of day. We here investigated vertical and seasonal variation in δ(LR) through deep (~35 m) forest canopies. We measured δ(LR), δ13C of leaf bulk organic matter (δ(LB)), specific leaf area, net photosynthesis (A) and dark respiration in shade, middle and sun foliage in four conifer species from May to August. We used Keeling plots to estimate δ(LR); we developed a novel technique for ensuring that the respiratory substrate was not changing over the course of the measurement. Variables δ(LR) and δ(LB) displayed a vertical pattern in Abies grandis, Pseudotsuga menziesii and Thuja plicata, but were independent of canopy position in Larix occidentalis. Vertical gradients in δ(LB) (3.6‰) and δ(LR) (2.8‰) were similar. The respiratory enrichment (δ(LR)-δ(LB)) was smaller in expanding (3‰) than mature (4-8‰) foliage. There was a linear relationship between the respiratory enrichment and A. Our data support the hypothesis that δ(LR) values are related to patterns of C allocation among metabolic pathways. We demonstrated that considerable variation in δ(LR) occurs vertically through the canopy (3‰ gradient) and seasonally (3-7‰). Understanding sources of variation in respiratory signals is fundamental to comprehending C dynamics and for global model applications.     

The Austrian domestic forest policy community in change? Impacts of the globalisation and Europeanisation of forest politics

The interest intermediation system has always attracted the attention of forest policy scientists. However, research on this subject has focused on the national level, despite the fact that forest issues are increasingly prominent on international and European agendas, both in the EU and the Pan-European Process on the Protection of Forests in Europe. Accordingly, the impacts of the globalisation and Europeanisation of forest policy and the peculiarities of multi-level policy processes have not been sufficiently taken into account. This article examines how international forest politics and the integration of national actors in the EU multi-level system of joint decision-making affect national actor constellations. To this end, I draw on the advocacy coalition framework to depict the Austrian forest policy network and its actors’ dispute on forest certification, as well as on hypotheses and empirical results of multi-level governance scholars and on my own preliminary results to investigate the likely effects of the evolving EU forest policy. The discussion provides some hypotheses and indications that national forest policy networks might be subject to significant change.     

The effect of coverage level and premium subsidy on farmers’ participation in forest insurance: An empirical analysis of forest owners in Hunan Province of China

ABSTRACT

In forest insurance policy, coverage level and premium subsidy are two important factors that affect farmers’ decision to be insured. This paper uses data from a survey of farmers in Hunan Province of China. First, a single-bounded dichotomous-choice valuation method is used to estimate the average amount that the farmers are willing to pay (WTP) for forest insurance. The results show that farmers’ average WTP is 0.65 RMB/acre (Chinese currency is referred as RMB), which is lower than the premium level prescribed in the existing forest insurance implementation program. Second, an acreltiple-bound dichotomous-choice valuation method is used to study farmers’ WTP for acreltiple coverage levels. Results show that when coverage equals 500 RMB/acre, 1,000 RMB/acre, and 2,000 RMB/acre, the median value of the premium level of farmers’ WTP is 0.922 RMB/acre, 1.954 RMB/acre and 2.893 RMB/acre, respectively. In a situation where the current premium rates are unchanged, and the coverage level is 500 RMB/acre, 1,000 RMB/acre, or 2,000 RMB/acre, the models predict the subsidy ratio should be 53.90, 51.15 and 63.84%, respectively. Improving the coverage level of existing forest insurance policies can significantly increase farmers’ expected rate of insurance.