Nature conservation and timber production in areas with fragmented ownership patterns

Forestry has transformed the tree species composition and structure of Swedish forests. The fragmented ownership pattern in areas with non-industrial private forest ownership (NIPF), in combination with these forestry practices, have created fragmented forests with relatively low proportions of habitat types important to many species. Ecological landscape planning has been suggested and tested as a mean for integrating nature conservation and timber production in Sweden. However, ecological landscape planning concepts have been developed for areas with homogenous ownership patterns and not for areas with fragmented ownership. In this study, stands that are voluntarily set aside by individual forest owners were examined in terms of nature conservation value, and compared to randomly selected stands obtained by Monte Carlo simulation. In order to obtain rather detailed data about the set-aside stands, semi-standardized interviews were carried out directly with forest owners in three landscape areas dominated by NIPF. The interviews showed that 26 out of 29 forest owners could locate some stands where they did not have high requirements for timber yield. These stands had higher than average local and spatial nature conservation value as a result of stand structure, composition and location in the landscape. The stands did not have a random location or size, being found closer to key habitats as well as forming equally large or larger patches than other stands. These stands are suggested to form a basis for ecological landscape planning as forest owners seem to have some kind of ‘common view’ of which stands to set aside. This common view could be used to coordinate the contribution made by individual forest owners to nature conservation in areas with fragmented ownership patterns.