Forest Policy and Economics最新文献

Sustainability transitions challenge traditional forest-based sector and the way it operates. So far, the traditional forest-based sector has been considered path-dependent which could hamper its ability to renew. The sustainability of the sector is increasingly contested in science and public discussions despite the efforts to sustainability reporting and certifications. Hence, there is a need for sustainable business models and value creation within the forest-based sector through which companies could increase the well-being of both ecological and social systems through business activities. There is a large body of research regarding the sector's value creation, and a thorough picture is needed. The aim of this systematic literature review is to provide profound information on how sustainable value creation is considered in the literature regarding forest-based sector. Our data consists of 70 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and conference papers. According to the results, value creation has been studied from various angles, yet the economic dimension has dominated the literature. Sustainable value creation has been considered more on conceptual level while especially emphasizing circularity. Novel approaches emphasizing environmental and social dimensions of value creation are lacking. Business model, servitization, future perspective and network are the four most used theoretical perspectives to consider value creation. More empirical research is needed to understand sustainable value creation and realization of environmental and social values. Furthermore, there is a need for transdisciplinary approaches in studying and assessing sustainable value creation where different theories, methods and tools could be applied to enhance the sector's contribution to sustainability transitions.

The staples theory posits that a country rich in natural resources tends to rely heavily on extracting its natural resources for exporting to markets. An exporting country as such is known as “hinterland” whereas the destination of the commodity goods is known as “heartland”. In the Canadian context, fur, fish, and timber served as good examples that lend support to the validity of the staples theory.

With the declining share of resource sectors relative to other components of the economy, the staples-dominant economies have undergone profound transformations. The significant changes in Canada's forestry sector illustrate the attenuation of the staples theory, particularly in the province of British Columbia. Resembling a “smorgasbord”, a new paradigm is emerging in Canada. Representing a new spirit, or Zeitgeist, of forest management in the 21st century, this new paradigm emphasizes managing forests to meet a dynamic set of socio-economic, environmental and cultural objectives.

The settlement area is expanding at the cost of agricultural land in densely populated regions such as Central Europe. This development is also affecting the forest. Forest clearances due to, e.g. traffic and energy infrastructure development, require afforestation elsewhere but surfaces providing appropriate soil are increasingly scarce. Switzerland is an important case in point. It is densely populated, exhibits a large amount of forest – also in the lowlands – and although it features a strong forest protection law, it recently allowed compensating forest clearances with non-forest related offsets. Based on the results of a Q-methodology survey conducted during a stakeholder workshop, we show that pressure for more flexible forest specific rules largely stems from “outside” the forest sector, i.e. the agriculture and development sector. Only a small group of actors aims at reinstalling the more restrictive regime, whereas the largest group of actors embraces the status quo. This group rejects expansion of more flexible rules and adheres to strengthening the top of the mitigation hierarchy, i.e. prioritizing the mitigation of habitat loss caused by development. This interpretation of biodiversity offsetting aligns with the conviction that development needs to respect the limits of growth. Prioritizing the mitigation hierarchy requires a planning rather than a market coordination approach. We show that in a context with rigid biodiversity offsetting rules, following a multipurpose forest regime and with high land-use competition, stakeholder preferences impede the integration of habitat banking approaches into the planning of compensatory afforestation and biodiversity offsetting in the forest.

Armed conflict and peace-building processes have often prolonged extreme extraction and deforestation practices. This research examines the potential drivers of local forest transitions in relation to the peace-building process in Colombia's South Pacific region; an area that has been traditionally dominated by illicit crops, inhabited by vulnerable Afro-Colombian communities and in areas where post-conflict agreements are particularly relevant due to high levels of violence. The study provides valuable insights for public policies that prioritise forest restoration and to assess how this process can contribute to broader goals of sustainable rural development and peace building. The findings highlight the importance of Social and Ecological Restoration (SER) strategies that help local communities to develop medium-term plans, improve decision-making efficiency and create fair and sustainable pathways for rural territories and residents. This study analyses how the introduction of ‘shade-grown’ agroforestry systems (i.e. cacao) to replace illicit crops can be a stepping-stone to regional environmental sustainability and social cohesion by reducing deforestation pressure. The results demonstrate that promoting local economic development and land decentralisation in favour of Afro-Colombian communities may be the key to successfully substituting illicit crops as part of the ongoing peace agreements in Colombia.

Compensation payments for ownership rights restrictions due to nature conservation of forest land have a long history in the Czech and Slovak Republics. A similar understanding and the common roots of nature conservation led us to analyse the implementation of these governmental payments for ecosystem services in both countries. This study aimed to compare the implementation process of payments in the Czech and Slovak Republics and to answer the following research question: How effective are they in ecosystem services provisions? Methodologically, the study was based on document analysis and interviews with forestry and environmental stakeholders and policymakers. We evaluated compensation payments with a multicriteria analysis based on policy analysis and governance theory. The evaluation analysis disclosed very similar results concerning the relevant implementation gaps in both countries. We observed that for small- and medium-scale forest owners, it is difficult to apply for compensation payments, e.g., they lack information about it. In both countries, the implementation process needs to be revised and improved. In summary, compensation payments have moderate environmental effectiveness related to their goals and ecosystem services support.

Frankincense gum resin is a globally traded forest product, likely generating more than $1 billion USD in value annually for its use in perfumery, medicines, and incense. It supports thousands of rural livelihoods in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, India, and several other countries, where it is harvested from Boswellia trees. Recent research indicates unsustainable practices and population declines in both heavily and minimally traded species, prompting a review by the CITES Secretariat and consideration of potential listing of the genus (or species therein) in Appendix II. We argue that each of the 24 Boswellia species faces different circumstances and challenges with respect to trade and must be treated as an individual entity rather than being lumped together as part of a homogenous multi-species entity. The trade-conservation relationship for Boswellia species is not straightforward, with both positive and negative impacts of trade apparent, and interventions must account for this. CITES as a mechanism relies heavily on the infrastructure of exporting states, some of which suffer from limited resources, severe corruption, and existing trade suspensions. These limitations make CITES listing inappropriate as a conservation and regulatory tool. Tougher standards are needed, but without aiming for simple answers, we suggest that these are better implemented through importing country regulation driving private supply chain improvements rather than through exporting country-based CITES regulations. This can avoid foreseeable unintended negative consequences for both the conservation of different Boswellia species, populations, and the livelihoods of local communities frankincense tapping has supported for thousands of years.

The management and governance of forests must consider the synergies and trade-offs between different societal goals, especially with the bioeconomy being a key factor in recent sectoral strategies worldwide. This literature review explores the multidimensional concept of synergies and trade-offs, focusing on scientific publications dealing with the European forest bioeconomy. The objectives are twofold: 1) to provide an overview of the reviewed literature, including publication outlets, disciplinary diversity, and geographic scope of the studies; and 2) to analyze the synergies and trade-offs assessed by the reviewed articles, including the temporal scope of the assessment, the value chain segment considered, the methods used, and the policy implications and research gaps identified. The results show that European forest bioeconomy research concentrates on Finland, Sweden, and Germany, the three largest roundwood producers in the EU. The research is highly multidisciplinary (with a strong presence of social sciences), employing a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods. Out of the 138 studies reviewed, 22% explicitly analyze synergies and/or trade-offs in the forest bioeconomy. The reported synergies were widely varied, while most commonly reported trade-offs related to wood production versus climate change mitigation, biodiversity, and more generally other ecosystem services. The use of the synergy and trade-off concepts is often inexact, and the policy implications articulated in the literature are frequently formulated in generic terms, emphasizing communication. The findings and recommendations of this review are thus of relevance for both the scientific and practitioner/policy community.

Extreme temperatures and droughts have led to catastrophic wildfires across Greece over the last two decades, with 2023 experiencing the largest fire-driven evacuation in the country's history. Existing wildfire governance approaches may be outdated in the face of these new challenges. Greek residents' attitudes and willingness to pay for additional prevention and mitigation may be changing with the increased threat. Because policy design can affect public support and subsequent outcomes, we conducted an online national-level survey of Greek residents (n = 722) with an embedded discrete choice experiment, aimed at assessing preferences and willingness-to-pay for different policy alternatives to address wildfire risk. Our results suggest that, in general, Greek residents are unsatisfied with current fire policy, are willing to pay a small amount for additional fire mitigation efforts aimed to reduce burned areas, and prefer action led by the Greek Forest or Fire Services using awareness and education campaign—for example, fire prevention informative mailers or workshops.

In the southern United States, female forest landowners (FeFLs) are an important stakeholder group as they make up 27% (about 450,000) of family forest landowners and hold 21% (about 30 million acres) of the total forestlands. Despite FeFLs' increasing role in forestry, they are less actively involved in forest management than male forest landowners. This could be attributed to a general lack of understanding about gender-based training needs in sustainable forest management. In this context, we surveyed 246 forest landowners in Georgia, a major forestry state in the United States, to gauge the levels of perceived knowledge and interest in learning about 12 forest management topics. We determined the competency gaps in forest management using the Borich's Needs Assessment Model. Our results indicate that the priority topics of training needs were consistent regardless of the landowners' forest management objective. Gender-based disparities highlighted that FeFLs had a significantly lower perceived knowledge level across 11 out of 12 topics than their male counterparts. Further, FeFLs required training in all 12 topics of forest management. The top five priority topics, in order, were tree disease management, forest insect pest management, timber taxes, nuisance wildlife management, and environmental education. To bolster the competency and capacity of FeFLs in sustainable forest management, we suggest implementing targeted training, encouraging peer-to-peer learning, and elevating female forestry professionals in Georgia and other states in the region.

Creating typologies of forest owners is a common approach for analyzing and understanding heterogeneity in responses to forest policies and management practice uptake. While many forest owner typologies have been developed, only a few quantitative methods dominate the field with little information on how methodological choice affects outcomes. In this study we compare five methods for quantitative typology formation and ask what type of information each method provides, and to which degree the methods complement each other. Empirically we use data from a survey conducted in 2014–2015 about Swedish forest owner's objectives, attitudes, and factors of decision-making. The results show that individual forest owners are assigned to different clusters by the compared methods, and how each method highlights different aspects of forest owner characteristics. The study shows the importance of method selection as it influences how we can describe and interpret forest owners in connection to policy adoption, uptake of practices, and environmental awareness. We conclude by providing basis for a methodological guidance on how to make judgments when selecting method(s) to typology formation based on research purpose and approach.