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.     

Innovation Processes in Forest-related Recreation Services: The Role of Public and Private Resources in Different Institutional Backgrounds

This article examines innovation processes in forest recreational services on the basis of case studies in five European countries with differing institutional backgrounds of forest ownership and access rights. The analysis reveals that forest-related recreation services are developed under varying institutional conditions and on public as well as private land. Ideas for innovations in recreational services may come from within but often outside the forestry sector. Financing is provided from public and private sources. Both public and private spheres have important roles in providing natural, human and financial resources and usually a network of public and private actors are involved in innovation processes. Of particular importance are cross-sectoral interactions between forestry and tourism. Greater institutional support is needed for the development of forest-related recreation services because the field is at an early stage of development. It is concluded that support should focus on providing ideas and financial resources for product development and on facilitating cross-sectoral interaction between forestry and tourism actors. A particular need is seen for development of models for durable interaction between land owners and tourism operators on a regional scale.     

Rethinking recent changes of forest regimes in Europe through property-rights theory and policy analysis

This article studies recent changes in forest regimes in Europe from an analytical perspective, combining both property-rights theory and policy analysis. Important elements of the institutional framework for forests can be identified through the application of theories from institutional economics (property and use rights) and public policy analysis. Different examples of important changes in the institutional framework in European countries illustrate which components were most likely to change in recent years: the order frame of property and use rights in Central and Eastern Europe, due to the breakdown of the socialist systems; the implicit use rights for the public due to growing needs in leisure activities and nature protection; and the implementation arrangement, where the state gradually withdraws from forest management activities. A first analysis of the triggers and dynamics of the changes shows that slow and incremental changes in public policies are much more likely to occur than any reform of the property rights or forest tenures. In order to explain the changing institutional framework, it is necessary to take into account not only the contingent external triggers, but also the logic of learning processes and the actor networks in place.     

Forest policy in aroused society: Ukrainian post-Orange Revolution challenges

With the collapse of the communist regime the market changes were introduced in Ukraine, as in other Central and Eastern European Countries, including forestry sector. Reform was not as radical as in other sectors of economy, nor in the forestry sector as in some other countries of region. Ukraine is involved in international forest policy dialogue, particularly Intergovernmental and Pan-European processes of the forest sector development on the principles of sustainability, but implementation of international agreements needs to be sounder in practice.This paper discusses the current situation in forest sector and achievements and failures in economic, environmental, and social aspects of forest sector development. Policy and institutional mechanisms to develop the sustainable forest management (SFM) approaches are discussed. We analyze preconditions for institutional building (legislature, institutions, policy actors) looking at both the existing potential and the constraints in the realization of urgent tasks that arise in the economy in a period of transition. Specific attention is given to the national forest policy conception and forest sector development prospects.     

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.     

维西县深化集体林权制度改革成效与对策初探

文章阐述了云南省维西县森林资源和"林业三定"的变迁特征,在全面总结深化集体林权制度改革取得成效基础上,系统分析了存在问题,提出以明晰集体林权、规范与弱化政府的行政权、市场化运作集体林权和巩固集体林权改革成果等4个对策,为消除林业发展的体制机制障碍,适应社会主义市场经济发展,推动全县林区社会主义新农村和生态文明村的建设提供重要的理论指导依据与实践经验。     

Forest resources and timber production of Ghana: Current instruments for sustainable development

The decline of the natural tropical high forest has reached a critical stage in Ghana’s forestry history. Timber resources are over-exploited, degraded and further production prospects are questionable and of concern to forest management. The objective of this paper is to discuss some of the institutional measures and development instruments being taken in Ghana towards the feasibility of achieving sustainable management of the high forest for timber and other commodity products, as well as conserving other forest resources. This paper, therefore, provides institutional measures and structures, regulatory and economic instruments, currently being taken to ensure effective forest management and increase the productivity of the land and logging. The role of collaborative management approach of both natural reserved and unreserved high forests and to promote integrated farm forestry is explained. Effective management of the high forest resource demands close harmonizing of instruments and mechanisms, both internal and external to forestry, and which encourage stakeholders to participate actively in decision making that affects the resource quality and its production status. Currently, different instruments including regulatory, property rights, motivational, hypothecation, information supply and economic are being applied in Ghana to achieve sustainable forest resource management and timber production. These instruments are not mutually exclusive in their current application, but rather complementary. Thus, an effective mix of instruments is necessary to promote and make feasible, sustainable forestry in Ghana’s socioeconomic development objectives.     

退耕还林工程实施过程中的寻租行为分析

以我国退耕还林工程中的“毁林造林”现象为例,从经济学视角分析林业部门寻租行为成因,得出林农法律意识薄弱、林业部门收益不足、政府监管不完善等是产生寻租行为的主要动因,据此提出依托明确的林地产权界定提升农民对土地物权意识、加强对地方林业部门支持力度、完善生态补偿政策和司法监督机制等政策建议。     

平原地区集体林权制度变迁及其绩效研究-以河南为例

运用制度变迁理论和实证分析方法,得出平原地区历年林权制度频繁变动,林权制度绩效总体处于一种非均衡的低效率状态,河南省新一轮集体林权制度改革取得了显著的经济效益、社会效益和生态效益.     

Socio-economic and ecological outcomes of community based forest management: A case study from Tobé-Kpobidon forest in Benin,Western Africa

Community forestry, promoted as a “win–win” forest management strategy yielded a variety of results that includes both failure and relative success. The willingness of government to hold control over forest resources while transferring only part of property rights to local communities is one of the major constraints. Therefore, there is a need to explore alternative approaches, which enhance the position and accountability of local communities in community forest management. This study evaluated socio-economic and ecological outcomes of community forestry in a context of important property rights conceded to local communities. The study was conducted using focus groups discussions, forest income evaluation and assessment of forest resources and their dynamics. Findings showed that institutional design with important property rights conceded to local communities partially empowered local communities and reduced threats while improving the condition of forest resources. The approach also yielded positive economic outcomes that enabled bordering populations to make up to 25% of their global annual income from the forest. However, the sustainability of this scheme of forest management was mostly limited by the financial dependency on local non-governmental organization, by local institutions and discrepancy in forest benefits sharing among local forest users.     

Formal and informal institutions and their hierarchy in the regulation of the forest lease in Russia

The aim of this study is to identify and analyse the institutionalarrangements that regulate the forest lease and related marketsof industrial timber in Russia. A theoretical framework is derivedfrom institutional economics. Institutions, their hierarchyand cohesion are surveyed at constitutional, collective-choiceand operational levels. The organization of the long-term forestlease and its contribution to the sustainable forest managementand development of forest industries are described and regionaldifferences in the organization of forestry are tested. In addition,the expected impacts of the new federal Forest Code are analysed.     

Property Rights Effects on Farmers’ Management Investment in Forestry Projects: The Case of Camellia in Jiangxi,China

China’s central government has carried out a series of collectivization and de-collectivization attempts of forest tenure over time, which have led to multiple forest tenure arrangements within provinces. This paper investigates the motivation of farmers to maintain forestry under various forest tenure regimes. First, the paper provides a qualitative analysis of the different forest tenure regimes using the New Property Rights Theory. Second, an econometric analysis based on data from camellia projects in Jiangxi province is carried out. Camellia projects are long-term projects for the production of non-timber forest products which are important for rural income generation. Qualitative results of the research show that a multitude of different tenure regimes exist across forestry projects. Community-based or collective forest management regimes are the most important tenure regimes in forest management in Jiangxi province. Village communities and farmers are the main actors in forest resource management and investment in camellia projects in Jiangxi province. The results of the econometric analysis show that higher degrees of tenure security and residual claimancy for farm households lead to a higher use of household labor and capital within camellia forestry projects. Uncertainty about the future forestland distribution is an obstacle for household investments in forestry.     

Moroccan Forestry Policies and Local Forestry Management in the High Atlas: A Cross Analysis of Forestry Administration and Local Institutions

This paper examines how local forestry management has evolved in the Aït Bougmez Valley (Central High Atlas, Morocco) in the last three decades and how this evolution has affected forest ecosystem conditions. It focuses on the impact of the forestry administration on ‘traditional forestry management’ since its introduction in 1985, and of recent innovation in forestry policy. The relatively new Strategic Environmental Management Analysis (SEMA) framework is applied, rather than a more ‘classical’ new institutional framework. This approach allows for a more comprehensive understanding of both strategic interactions between various actors and ecological consequences of these interactions. An interesting empirical findings is that instead of a quite simple opposition between the forestry administration and local populations, negotiation opportunities exist that are taken by the actors. This leads to specific actor configurations and sometimes unexpected environmental outcomes, even if from a global point of view, forest stands have been seriously depleted over the last 40 years mainly due to exploitation by local population and the absence of economic alternative to forest exploitation. On the other hand, the implementation of a new policy tool in such a context has to be understood as an opportunity for new actors to take part in forest management rules definition.     

中东欧前社会主义国家森林私有化概况与发展趋势

概括介绍了中东欧前社会主义国家林权私有化的现状、面临的种种挑战和发展趋势。     

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.     

城市森林的成分及其类型

城市森林是城市范围内及与城市关系密切的、以树木为主体的生物群落。为便于分类型进行研究、规划设计和建设以及经营，将其按主要功能、所处的位置、经营管理的一致性及与城市规划和习惯接轨等因素，区分成防护林、公用林地、风景林、生产用森林和绿地、企事业单位林地、居民区林地、道路林地和其它林地、绿地等子系统。     

Institutional change in the forestry sector—The explanatory potential of New Institutional Economics

Due to a changed economic situation and due to a changed understanding about the role of the state in governing forest resources, there is currently a formal institutional change under way in various European countries. It will have far-reaching consequences for the mode of governance of forests. Institutions, as the rules of game, seem to be in need of change on all levels: international and national laws, collective choice arrangements, such as forest associations or contracts between economic actors. Within economics, New Institutional Economics (NIE) is the body of literature dealing with the rules of the game. This paper focuses on those theories within NIE that try to explain them.This paper focuses on those theories within NIE that try to explain institutional change and looks for their applicability to the forestry sector. The paper argues that, because of particular characteristics of the forestry sector, we should avoid applying a too simplified (neoclassical) version of the theory that relies mainly on the explanatory power of competition, transaction costs, efficiency and (bounded) rational actors. Instead, we should extend this theory and analyse carefully the ideologies – a term introduced by Douglas North into NIE – prevailing in the different actors' minds in order to understand the driving forces of institutional change. Ideology comprises on the one hand the mental models individuals use to explain the world and on the other hand the normative value judgements they use for knowing how the world “should be”.     

The legally allowable versus the informally practicable in Bolivia’s domestic timber market

We analyze legality in the forest sector in Bolivia, focusing particularly on the domestic timber value chain in the northern Bolivian Amazon. Bolivia adopted wide-reaching forest, land and democratic regulatory changes since the mid-1990s that were partly intended to reduce illegal logging and related practices. The new forest regulations, in turn, led to new illegal practices because implementation and sanctioning were poor, but also because new forest and land regulations were inadequate and often contradictory. In response, the government and various forest agencies adopted new measures to address the new illegal practices. These forest regulatory and forest policy renovations and modifications of the last two decades are, for instance, reflected in the domestic timber market of the northern Bolivian Amazon, a region that relies heavily on the forest sector. The paper analyzes Bolivia’s regulatory changes that were relevant for legality in the forest sector and the multiple modifications that were made to address shortcomings of these reforms. It also analyses legality in the domestic timber value chain in northern Bolivia. The new actors involved in especially the domestic timber value chain have moved away from formal and legal mechanisms to benefit from timber that grows on their land and forests to practices that were not considered or actually shunned in the law and that appear difficult to regulate. Unless these new practices are recognized adequately in a new forestry law, some of the production and trade of the timber value chain will likely continue to operate at the margin of legality.     

A concept for the calculation of financial losses when changing the forest management strategy

The objectives of nature conservation can often only be realised by changing forest management regimes. Thus far, mainly institutional regulations have been used to achieve these goals. However, in Germany there is strong political interest in encouraging contract-based forest management whereby forest owners receive financial compensation for losses when changing over forest management regime. Such compensation is commonly paid in the German agricultural sector but is absent in forestry.When managing forests for social convenience, forest enterprises are faced with financial losses. With regard to practical experience in forestry there is a considerable lack of information about the economic consequences.To estimate the losses related to changes in silvicultural treatment, a calculation scheme based on the annuity method has been developed and figures have been calculated for different tree species and age classes. The annual timber production value determined per ha and year is documented in tables and, as shown by examples, could be applied to evaluate typical changes in forest management such as the renunciation of forest production, change of tree species, premature harvest and the preservation of mature stands.Standardised annual timber production values for different tree species, yield classes, management schemes etc. can be helpful to estimate the financial losses for forest-land owners when changing the management strategy. These financial losses can also be interpreted as the minimum price which has to be offered to forest land owners when a contract-based forest management is striven for by the government.     

Current pathways towards good forest governance for ecosystem services in the former Soviet republic Tajikistan

As one of the former Soviet republics, Tajikistan is facing a slow transition from a communist command-and-control system to a more market oriented, decentralized and participatory forestry. In the last 25 years, the country's forestry sector has undergone several reorganizations. In the process of a current reform, the overall aim of this study is to gain a broader understanding of the current state of forest sector in Tajikistan. Our specific objectives are a) to describe the current institutional network's complexity, (b) to analyze stakeholders' perceptions on the key challenges towards good forest governance, (c) and give recommendations to tackle the key challenges, so that important forest ecosystem services (ES) may be enhanced, thus, also contribute to the development of the sector. We elaborate a generic framework, which simplifies complex interaction of governance and forests ecosystem services. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through questionnaire-based interviews with stakeholders of the forestry sector. The results indicate that the forestry sector is still far from representing good forest governance, however the newly established structure seems to be a first step. Yet, challenges in establishing sound legal frameworks, decision-making transparency, and implementation enforcement must still be overcome. While it is too early and challenging to assess the impacts of forest governance on ES and vice versa, the survey respondents highlight the importance of provisioning services for the development of the forest sector. Given the post-Soviet background, almost all member countries developed along similar lines. Therefore, the study results are not only of significance for Tajikistan, but also countries with similar history and socio-economic context.