Forest Policy and Economics最新文献

Forests have a crucial role in mitigating climate change. The Chinese government is currently deliberating the utilization of carbon taxes and subsidies to incentivise the potential for forest carbon sequestration. The impact of the policies on China's forests, especially the quantitative information is unknown. To fill this gap, we follow the Faustmann-Hartman model to examine the relationship between the policies and forest carbon sequestration. We find that due to extending the rotation age, policies will increase China's forest carbon sequestration by 1.99 tCO₂e/ha/yr, contributing 11.15%–17.31% to the 2060 carbon neutrality target, as the carbon price increases from 0 to 400 CNY/tCO₂. China's forest carbon sequestration supply curve is inelastic, with an average elasticity of approximately 0.08. Policy implementation in the northwest region is more effective for the northwest region to improve carbon sequestration potential both per unit area and total amount, in contrast to certain provinces in the South Central and Southeast coastal regions. The average costs of the policy are generally higher in the southeast, averaging about 2.2 times higher than in the northwest. However, considering financial affordability, some southeast provinces in China are more economically feasible. These findings have important policy implications.

Wild urban woodlands (WUWs) are a novel category of urban forests and have been established as vital sources of diverse ecosystem services for local residents. Despite their potential to mitigate green gentrification, WUWs are often neglected in urban planning. Assessing whether different groups of residents accept WUWs as a part of urban green spaces and determining their preferred WUW type are critical for cities lacking green space supply. Therefore, a collection of photographs of 15 WUW patches was employed in this study to explore the preferences and attitudes of urbanites (n = 200) and new urbanites (i.e., individuals who have undergone a transition from rural to urban residency due to urban expansion; n = 206) toward five prevalent WUW categories and examine their perspectives on the future transformation of these WUWs. Accordingly, the following study results were obtained. (1) New urbanites exhibited greater support for integrating WUWs into urban green infrastructure compared to urbanites, primarily due to the limited supply of green spaces in their residential surroundings. (2) The one-way ANOVA shows significant differences in WUW preference scores between new urbanites and urbanites. Urbanites strongly preferred WUWs situated within stream corridors and the least for WUWs in urban villages. Conversely, new urbanites preferred WUWs on agricultural lands and found WUWs on industrial lands the least appealing. (3) Most participants expressed a desire to witness the planned transformation of WUWs. New urbanites preferred additional spaces for leisure activities, whereas urbanites hoped to witness visual improvements in the WUWs. (4) Multifactor ANOVA shows rural background significantly affects preferences scores. Spearman correlation indicates terrain ruggedness and surrounding construction intensity relate to preference. These findings underscore the substantial potential of WUWs in the urban greening in China. They contribute to urban managers' understanding of the diverse needs of the two urban resident groups regarding WUWs, thereby fostering equity in green space planning.

The positive and transversal value of the forestry sector within the various international, European and national policies related to sustainable development and mitigation and adaptation to climate change is now widely recognised.

This contribution is linked to the biological and evolutionary times of forest ecosystems and therefore cannot be separated from far-sighted strategic and programmatic political choices that guarantee the protection and conservation of the natural heritage and the rational use of resources. To be effective, this action needs to be able to count on information and knowledge that are not only constant and detailed but also reliable and verifiable and in large quantities. The availability of statistical and cartographic data concerning the forest heritage and the related production sectors is therefore essential for planning and management purposes.

For these reasons, Italy has decided to launch an important process of reorganization and harmonization of statistical and cartographic knowledge on forests and the national forest-based sector, in line with the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a European Forest Resilience Monitoring Framework (COM/2023/728 final).

This communication aims to present the participative process and the main contents of the new National Forest Information System (SINFor) and the identification of the minimum knowledge that needs to be collected.

The forestry sector is currently facing several parallel challenges in coping with climate change-related disturbances, biodiversity loss, increasing wood use for substituting fossil materials, and other ecosystem functions like recreational use. On the one hand, the number of climate- and land use- related policy regulations is constantly increasing. On the other hand, the forest-based value chain includes different segments ranging from carbon storage and mitigation in forests to timber production and bioenergy. This article aims to draw a comprehensive picture for grasping these complexities across Europe. It analyses the policy efforts that want to increase climate-related resilience along these value chain sections. The research addresses firstly the conceptual question of “what ought to become resilient” from a policy perspective in order to secondly ask “how do the current policies relate climate-goals with resilience in the forestry sector?” Conceptually, we disentangle resilience into analytical criteria for identification in policy documents. In addition, we discuss interpretations of resilience-relevance with policy experts from Europe using two focus groups and a number of targeted interviews. The results show a divided picture. Whilst for all these experts, tackling climate-change is a priority, our results show that the notion of resilience is used differently in the related policy strategies. In particular, we reveal some deviating strategic targets across climate-related resilience and other societal demands. We subsume those under “environmental demands” and “productivity demands” along the forest-based value chain. In recommendation to policies, this entails intensified communication between the different departments dealing with resilience for Biodiversity and resilience in a Bioeconomy.

Political systems are under increasing pressures to respond to the impacts of climate change. We employ a numerical policy negotiation forecast model and apply it to forest-related political decisions on remunerating forest ecosystem services. Our results predict that German forest carbon sinks will be partially remunerated by government payment systems as will nature conservation efforts and climate resilient forest management. Our predictions indicate that there is substantial remaining upward pressure on each of these issues to go beyond present regulations.

Voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) offer energy-intensive firms a cost-effective means to reduce carbon mitigation expenses through promoting forest conservation. However, concerns about greenwashing may deter firms from using these options, which are susceptible to illegal forest harvesting. This study examines whether firms purchasing carbon credits from forestry-based communities can help strengthen forest conservation, mitigate project risks, improve environmental outcomes, and reduce abatement costs. We examine a large Indian steel firm, with an annual production capacity of 4 million tons, issuing green bonds to fund afforestation in Himalayan forest communities. Using industry-level average emissions, abatement costs, and output data for Indian firms, we develop a dynamic optimization model to determine optimal abatement strategies, considering the risk of future forest carbon loss from VCMs. The model, utilizing examples and data from existing carbon sequestration programs in the Himalayan states, offers insights into promoting high-integrity VCMs through formal emission market linkage. Findings suggest that firms' involvement in compliance emissions markets provides an alternative route to accessing affordable carbon credits when abatement costs are high. Additionally, engaging in the VCM reduces expenses related to emission reduction targets. However, with elevated greenwashing risks, firms reduce their use of green bonds in VCMs. Participation in the VCM positively reinforces forest conservation and enhances environmental services when greenwashing risks are absent, further lowering carbon mitigation costs. To enhance VCM integrity, further research is needed on how community conservation norms influence illegal harvesting.

Interlinkages between forest and water resources are changing with global warming, leading to an increased likelihood of severe disturbances such as floods and droughts. In order to develop responses to these changing interlinkages and their effects on local communities and ecosystems, scholars propose to increase interactions across the forest and water sectors. In Germany, however, the two respective sectors have been observed as institutionally and ideationally fragmented, showing very few signs of cross-sectoral cooperation. As local actors are most directly affected by global warming and struggle to adapt to its consequences, we argue that cross-sectoral cooperation is also relevant at the local scale. Against this background, it is our aim to investigate the local narrative constructions of the (ir)relevance of cooperation across the forest and water sectors. Based on semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions in six case study areas, we identify eight narratives which range from irrelevance (4), via partial relevance (2), to relevance of cooperation (2). Additionally, we elucidate a disinterest in cooperation among local water actors, compared to a narrative of urgency and fatalism among forest actors. Disinterest and urgency, however, furthermore differ regionally: Disinterest in cooperation is predominant in water abundant regions, whereas urgency is predominantly observed in regions of water scarcity. We contribute to conceptualizing disinterest as the rejection of a (common) problem possibly related to defend one's turf, and related both the urgency and fatalism narratives to the high affectedness within the forest sector.

In recent years, in response to consumers' increasing demand for “greener” products due to growing environmental awareness, more and more businesses have turned to eco-labels to assert the environmental benefits of their products or services. However, it remains unclear how consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) varies with different types of eco-labeling, especially concerning food products harvested from forests. In this study, we employ discrete choice modeling to uncover consumers' preferences for “green” maple syrup—syrup made with sap tapped from sustainably managed forests—under four eco-labels: self-claimed, bird-friendly, verified by a voluntary conservation program, and certified by a third-party. Our findings reveal that the WTPs for “green” maple syrup under eco-labels are higher than that for organic maple syrup, except for the third-party certified label. One plausible explanation is that some consumers may perceive sustainability certification as greenwashing, leading them to be skeptical of the claimed benefits.

In this study, we employ a Moran's $i$ based Lasso (Mi-Lasso) methodology to address the spatial dependence of an unspecified functional form, investigating the association between a country's economic growth and the rate of deforestation. Our aim is to explore the existence of a forestry environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). Our approach to handling spatial dependence overcomes limitations identified in existing EKC literature. We estimate a series of cross-sectional data models spanning the period from 1990 to 2020 for 146 countries. Our findings indicate a non-linear relationship, revealing a change peak rate of deforestation over time. Additionally, we observe that the income threshold at which the deforestation rate begins to decrease changes over time with differences observed between model specifications. Crucially, our results highlight that failing to account for spatial dependence leads to a significant absolute upward bias in ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates of income and worse model fit.

The emergence of green consumerism has contributed to the rise of farms which hold out as tree planters for absorbing CO₂. A preliminary survey of the literature on tree farms and town planning practice of Western Australia found that there is scepticism regarding the credibility of these tree farms and an absence of an information flow system that rewards the credible private tree farmers. From a Coasian neoinstitutional economic (NIE) perspective, there is therefore the potential for devising rules that can enlarge an existing market or industry. This short commentary maps the current information flow system in the tree planting industry and proposes an improved system based on voluntary disclosure of tree planting data by tree farms in the planning permission system.