Plantations and social conflict: exploring the differences between small-scale and large-scale plantation forestry

Commercial afforestation of agricultural land is often associated with social conflict over the perceived environmental, economic and social impacts of the plantations being established. One of the most common solutions suggested to this conflict is a shift from large-scale afforestation by companies and government agencies to small-scale afforestation by individual landholders. Small-scale afforestation by farmers is argued by many to have more positive and fewer negative impacts than large-scale afforestation by non-farmers. However, few studies have examined whether small-scale afforestation is associated with less social conflict than large-scale afforestation. This paper reports results of a recent study that compared afforestation conflicts in two regions: County Leitrim in the Republic of Ireland and the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Considerable afforestation has occurred in both regions in recent decades, and both have also experienced major shifts in the scale and ownership of the plantations being established over time. For both regions, establishment of small-scale farm forest plantations was found to be associated with considerably less social conflict than establishment of large-scale plantations by non-farmers. Some tentative explanations may be given for this pattern, based on comparisons between the two case study regions.

Jacki SchirmerEmail: