Attitudes of small-scale forest owners to their properties in an ageing society: Findings of survey in Yamaguchi prefecture, Japan

Populations of most developed countries have been ageing, and the populations of Japanese mountain villages are estimated to have reached into a super-ageing society. In particular, because forestry is unprofitable and due to the economic recession in Japan, many small-scale forest owners face the problems of ageing. For policy-makers, it is important to assess the socioeconomic impacts of forest owners’ ageing in order to ensure the sustainable management of forests. A survey was conducted of forest owners in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which is famous for overall depopulation and ageing of the rural population. It was found that 83% of 687 plantation forest owners who responded in the survey were 60 years or older and 76% did not have forestry income over the past three years, but 81% had kept up ownership of their forest as the traditional family property. In terms of forest management intentions, the respondents were found to consist of four types, namely ‘family management’, ‘commissioned management’, ‘de-accession’ and ‘possession without proper management’. Differences in evaluations of hypothetical policies were found among the four types.     

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.     

What is new about new forest owners? A typology of private forest ownership in Austria

With structural changes in agriculture, new types of forest owners have become increasingly important. This article develops an empirically-based typology of forest owners in Austria. Based on a representative survey and by means of cluster analysis, seven types of forest owners are identified. These types form a sequence, ranging from forest owners with a strong agricultural background to forest owners with no agricultural background at all. The latter exhibit markedly different behaviour in various respects, e.g. in their interest in forest-related information. The increasing number of ‘new’ forest owners raises important questions for forest policy, especially how policy instruments can reach these owners and how extension services can address them.     

Equitable regulation of private forests

The sustainability of forested ecosystems often requires cross-boundary management at large spatial scales. This can be challenging, however, in landscapes where forests are primarily under small-scale, private ownership. Consequently, in many areas of the world private forest practices are governmentally regulated to promote more consistent cross-boundary outcomes and better protection of large-scale ecological integrity. In this qualitative, ‘grounded theory’ study, 109 stakeholders throughout the State of Washington, USA were interviewed to learn their perspectives about processes and effects of private forest regulation. The State of Washington is widely recognized for its long-established and comprehensive forest regulatory policies and thus provides an excellent study area for this topic. Interviewees included private forest owners, forest policy advisors, regulatory agency employees, and representatives from forest ownership organizations, forest industry trade groups, and environmental organizations. The study revealed an important and often poorly recognized outcome of private forest regulatory policy: regulation rarely affects all private forest owners similarly. Instead, the burdens and advantages of regulation tend to be unevenly distributed within this key stakeholder group. The study identified three phenomena producing these inequitable outcomes: natural landscape variability, oversights in policy design, and disparate interests and goals among forest owners. This paper analyzes these causes, identifies solution pathways, and discusses implications for policy-makers.     

Understanding forest transition in the Philippines: main farm-level factors influencing smallholder’s capacity and intention to plant native timber trees

The ‘when, where and how’ of decisions by smallholder upland farmers to plant trees as part of their use of natural, human and capital resources needs to be understood if policy support is to result in actual recovery of tree cover as part of a ‘forest transition’ trajectory. In large parts of the Philippines the turning point may be close. Data on resource access and tree planting decisions were gathered from a household survey, with a total of 148 respondents in four rural communities in Leyte Province in Central Philippines. Data were analysed using logistic regression analysis. Household-level results reveal that the outcomes of the decision-making processes primarily depend on the availability of land and access to remaining forest resources rather than socio-cultural or economic factors. The total area of land and number of parcels managed by the household plus security of land tenure through ownership was found to have a statistically significant effect on farmers’ decision to plant native timber trees. Access to surrounding natural forest is negatively associated with farmer tree planting.     

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.     

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.     

The scope for reconciling public good and private forestry in the United Kingdom

The nature of private forestry in the UK as an economic activity is changing, with increasing ‘public good’ demands being placed on forest owners, with or without compensation from government. Although the motives for owning woodland are weakly researched, it is evident that amenity and recreational interests rather than formal productive economic activity are a major force in influencing woodland purchase and may well be a dominant force in woodland management over many parts of the UK. Recent research suggests a need for recognition of the high value of the public goods and, in particular, recognition of their high levels of spatial variability, whilst recognising that the public good — private good dualism is an oversimplification of the actual situation. New policy instruments are currently being implemented in various parts of the UK by devolved governments, and their capacity to both remediate market failure and address the needs of forest owners is considered. Their voluntary character and the preferences of forest owners may seriously constrain the optimal delivery of public goods. Further, existing policy instruments may be seen as insufficiently geographically targeted to areas where the greatest social benefits could be anticipated from policy-induced improvements in public good values.     

An Internet-Supported Planning Approach for Joint Ownership Forest Holdings

This article proposes a planning approach for private forest holdings that have more than one decision maker, e.g. a heirship group or a joint ownership between siblings. Through a case study example, we illustrate the phases of the proposed planning process and describe the communication and planning tools used in this process. The final aim is that in the future the forest planners’ toolkit would include this kind of approach for rather common situations where it is not easy to reach all the owners for synchronous face-to-face planning sessions. The process started with initial telephone interviews with the forest owners. From these interviews appropriate alternative forest plans were developed. Indicators and their values from the forest plans were inputted into the Mesta internet application. The forest owners were also given guidance on how to use the program. After this they were given time to independently use the program. Once the forest owners finished the use of the program, the results were collected and analyzed. Among the alternative forest plans, one was approved by all of the forest owners. The results of trial use involving a North-Karelian forest holding were encouraging. The main benefits of the approach according to the participants were learning that there are alternatives between which to choose, and reaching a common base level of understanding holding’s production possibilities for future decisions. After developing the process and technical tools further, the proposed model could serve joint ownerships over distance also in practice and in larger scale, and, as a result, foster owners’ engagement on their own forest.     

Sustaining Participatory Forest Management: Case Study Analyses of Forestry Assistance from Tanzania, Mozambique, Laos and Vietnam

This paper introduces case study analysis against an illustrative model, the ‘house model’, which contains a number of key elements for sustaining participatory forest management (PFM). In theory, the elements in the model are basic requirements for ensuring that the participation of local people in forest management will continue after external donor support ceases. In practice, the study shows that none of the four case study projects managed to build the whole ‘house’ nor did they have tangible impacts on all the elements, and long-term sustainability of PFM is still questionable. All four donor-supported projects had limited tangible impacts on access to information and benefits, especially with regards to long-term extension services, markets and marketing information. These were the most difficult elements to influence during and after the projects in all four cases. It is concluded that in order to sustain PFM, there needs to be a solid institutional foundation which as a minimum ensures local people’s access to information and benefits from forests under the PFM.     

Ecology-oriented House Builders and FSC-certified Domestic Timber in Japan

Forest owners’ cooperatives are one of the leading organizations in the forest sector in Japan. Yusuhara Forest Owners’ Cooperative (YFOC) in Kochi Prefecture is one of such examples, which obtained FSC forest certification as a resource manager of the forest, which belongs to more than 1,200 small-scale forest owners. YFOC has successfully expanded sales of FSC-labeled timber in recent years. Most of their certified timber is purchased by house builders in urban cities including Osaka. This paper analyzes who desires FSC-certified timber from YFOC and why. Six case studies are reported, which reveal that ecology-oriented house builders are interested in using FSC certified timber because of traceability of the timber, price advantage from direct dealing, environmentally sound forest management of YFOC, and relatively high quality of the timber.     

Technical efficiency in timber production and effects of other income sources

In Norway, as in many other European countries, income from forestry has become marginal to owners’ household economies and most employment of forest-owner households is now undertaken off the property. Also, many forest owners have focused increasingly on other revenue-earning activities on their properties, such as providing recreational services. It is a challenge in all kinds of production to find the optimal way of converting inputs into outputs, i.e., to be technically efficient. Extent of financial dependency on income from forestry differs between part-time and full-time forest owners. Since the two groups have different livelihood strategies, it is plausible that full-time forest owners have more professional forest management practices. Data for a cross-section of 3,249 active (i.e., harvesting) forest owners were extracted from the 2004 Sample Survey of Agriculture and Forestry representing the year 2003. A stochastic production frontier analysis was applied to evaluate forest management efficiency impacts of important factors including property and owner characteristics, outfield-related and agricultural activities, off-property income and geographical location in central or remote areas. It was found that many forest owners are technically inefficient, and there exist opportunities for improved performance. Off-property income was found to have an estimated negative impact on technical efficiency, the inefficiency arising (weakly) with increasing share of household incomes from outfield activities, and properties in urban centred areas are less efficient than those in remote areas. One policy implication of the study is that a potentially substantial efficiency increase might be achieved from allowing small inefficient woodlots to merge into larger units of forestry production. Also, providing support for forest management plans may improve efficiency.     

Challenges of Organizing Private Forest Owners in Serbia

Small-scale forestry in Serbia is characterized by high fragmentation of properties, a large number of parcels and forest owners. Numerous activities for private forest owners in Serbia supported by the State, FAO and CEPF have resulted in an increased interest of owners in forming private forest owners’ associations (PFOA). The goal of this paper is to explore preconditions that are necessary for organizing private forest owners in Serbia into effective associations. In order to reach this goal, results of PRIFORT project were used. The over-arching research questions of this paper are: “What is the level of interest among forest owners in forming owners’ associations?”; “Why has forest owner interest in organizing developed so slowly?” and “What are the necessary preconditions for the development of private forest owners’ organizations in the country?” In order to answer these questions, quantitative survey with 42 close, open and Likert scale questions was conducted. Sample size was determined following Malhotra’s proportion method and, in total, 350 private forest owners, from nine municipalities were interviewed. Results of this paper show that majority of respondents are very little or not at all aware of existing legislation. Almost half of respondents consider that their interests are not represented well. Although about 50% of interviewed forest owners miss interest organization, only 0,3% are members of PFOA. More than 70% are ready to join association, if it would provide some economic advantages.     

Disintegration of the U. S. Industrial Forest Estate: Dynamics,Trajectories, and Questions

In the past decade ownership of the corporate forestry sector in the USA has undergone remarkable transformation. Corporate consolidation, separation of processing capacity ownership from timberland ownership, and disinvestment from timberland ownership altogether have occurred rapidly and on a global scale. Vertically-integrated forest products companies, once the standard model for publically-traded corporations, have all but disappeared. A new class of timberland investors now dominates the timberland estate. These new owners can be viewed as the most recent manifestation of capital from the core seeking rent in the distant periphery. While in this respect they resemble their industrial forestry predecessors, they differ markedly with regard to landholding objectives, time horizons, management capacities and other characteristics. This transformation has created new challenges and opportunities for other forest owners and for rural communities. Many timber processing mills have closed, restricting markets for smallholder wood. While much former industrial timberland remains in industrial-style timber management, some has been subdivided for ‘highest and best use,’ and conservation buyers have assumed control of a few large blocks. Further fragmentation of the industrial forest estate is anticipated, presenting both challenges and opportunities to small-scale forest owners and rural communities. This paper outlines the dynamics of forest ownership restructuring, posits alternative future scenarios for small-scale forestry, and points to potentially useful future research.     

Forest gap dynamics and tree regeneration

When one or a few canopy trees die (or are injured) in a forest, small openings, which are called ‘gaps,’ are formed in the forest canopy and are then filled with other trees. This sort of forest dynamics is termed gap dynamics; a large number of papers and data on gap dynamics have been accumulated since the 1970’s, and gap dynamics has been described in many forest types. In this review, I introduce the basic concepts of gap dynamics and summarize major issues on gap dynamics relating to tree regeneration, with many references. Although enormous studies on gap dynamics of natural forests have been conducted, applications of gap dynamics to forest practice are limited. However, accumulated knowledge on gap dynamics should be useful for sustainable forest ecosystem management, as much of the literature suggests. Recipient of the Japanese Forestry Society Award 2000.     

The formation of small-scale forestry in countries with economies in transition: Observations from Lithuania

Lithuania has been undergoing a transition from one political culture (based on a centrally planned economy and a one-party system) to a radically different political culture (market economy and a democratic political system). After the declaration of independence in Lithuania, some new phenomena emerged in forestry: the privatisation of forest industry, the formation of a free timber market; increasing timber export levels; and new modes of ownership (private forests) and enterprise (private business logging companies). Private forest owners control approximately 680,000 ha of forest, 33% of the total forest area, projected to increase to 40–45% in the future. Small-scale private forestry is developing in Lithuania but there is a lack of information about the objectives and problems of private forest owners. This paper presents the main results of a survey carried out in 2004 by the Lithuanian Forest Research Institute. The most important forest ownership objectives are firewood production for home consumption, income generation from wood and non-wood product sales, and protection of nature and biodiversity. The main problems for private forest owners are that the forest properties are too small to achieve efficiency, owners lack money for silviculture activities and there is a heavy bureaucratic system for forest-related activity documentation. A cluster analysis of respondents’ ratings of importance for various forest management objectives reveals four groups of private forest owners. These groups are named according to their dominant management objective, as multi-objective owners, businessmen, consumers and ecologists.     

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.     

Concepts and perceptions of biodiversity in community forestry,Nepal

International and national development programs in Nepal place high priority on management of forests for biodiversity. Communities are expected to embrace and cooperate in this endeavour for biodiversity conservation, yet little research has been carried out to understand community viewpoints on biodiversity conservation, or even to ascertain people’s understanding of the concept of biodiversity. This paper explores perceptions and concepts related to biodiversity and its conservation held by people involved in community forestry in Nepal. Data were obtained from in-depth individual interviews and focus group discussions carried out in two contrasting geographical districts. The results show that the Western term ‘biodiversity’, translated into Nepalese as jaiwik bibidhata, is new and confusing to most forest people, who interpret the term in a variety of ways. People’s perceptions of biodiversity vary widely and a considerable gap exists between policy-makers and forest users in the understanding and interpretation of this Nepalese term and its related concepts. These findings have important implications for the design and implementation of development programs and in formulation of forest policy in Nepal.     

Mapping landscapes: Integrating GIS and social science methods to model human-nature relationships in Southern Cameroon

Participatory mapping and GIS are both necessary to model the interactions between humans and their environment. A case study from the forest margin in the Congo Basin demonstrates how data from participatory community mapping and other social science methods can be prepared for quantitative modelling. This approach bridged the gap between spatial modelling data and social decision-making in space by elaborating a geographically consistent social representation of the landscape and giving a geographical base to the connection between land use, its cultural representation, and its social management. This was achieved through an iterative process of GIS cartography, using feedback from village informants and field checking, to transpose the spatial references from participatory mapping sketches into reliable geographic locations. As well as demonstrating the utility of such data for modelling, this work clarified the distribution of land rights among the six main owner-clans spread through the eight hamlets in the watershed. The ‘basin’ of spatial resources and its relation to the rules of land use and natural resource management were defined for each clan. Land-use systems at the forest-agriculture interface in the study area proved to be complex, strongly driven by social rules and influenced by history and settlement strategies. These social and historical aspects established the framework within which communities make current decisions and interventions. The authors thank the people of Akok for their collaboration and hospitality. Village technician Michel Engueng and village contact Adolphe Ze facilitated and assisted this work. Our thanks also to Julie Mbazo’o and Remy Assoumou, both members of the ‘social side’ working group of the FLORES modelling team. Christopher Legg’s contribution to the discussion of this work through his constant reviewing of the CamFlores model is gratefully recognized. Finally, thanks to the whole CIFOR-ACM team for numerous scientific and methodological inputs. The Italian Foreign Ministry funded the work of Valentina Robiglio (APO-GIS specialist) through an APO contract with IITA. The European Union (Tropical Forestry budget line DG VIII) contributed to the CIFOR’s research program on the ‘Adaptive Collaborative Management of Forests’ (ACM) in Africa, and to the Alternative to Slash and Burn (ASB) program in Cameroon on ‘Environmental Services and Rural Livelihoods’ through the World Agroforestry Centre.     

Development Phases of Forest Planning on Non-Industrial Private Lands in Finland: Perspective of Planners’ Work

This paper examines the historical phases of Finnish forest planning from the 1960s to the present day in support of the rational future development of forest planning for family-owned forest holdings. The ‘historical types’ of work—craft work, mass production, process enhancement, and mass customization have been recognized in the Finnish planning discourse to date. Indications of mass customization are typical in the present developmental discussion of forest planning. There are some signals in the current planning debate that are calling for the next activity principle, co-configuration. A forthcoming type of forestry extension activity, labelled adaptive planning, is described in this paper to explicate the demands imposed by a future planning system. The present analysis informs also other contexts outside of Finland, where public and private institutions that support family forest owners face post-industrial challenges.