A wish, a fear and a complaint: understanding the (dis)engagement of forest owners in forest management

Abstract

Inducing private forest owners to undertake any kind of forest management poses a challenge to policy makers. To gain a better understanding of the attitudes of forest owners, this study set out to describe, analyze, and interpret how forest owners engage (or fail to engage) in the management of their properties. A grounded theory approach Glaser and Strauss (The discovering of grounded theory, Aldine: Chicago, 1967); Charmaz (Constructing grounded theory. A practical guide through qualitative analysis, Sage publications, Ltd: London, 2006) was used to build an emergent theory through a descriptive and interpretational analysis of how forest owners get involved in forest management and the factors that influence their active decision-making process. The research was conducted in Catalonia. The main finding was that forest owners are more likely to engage in the management of their properties when they believe that through their actions they are fulfilling a moral norm, they are reducing the risk of forest fires, they have an archetypal image of what the forest should look like, and they can justify forest management as part of their economic strategy. These interdependent personal, social and cultural factors question the likely effectiveness of traditional economic policy tools.

Are the communal forest owners involved in the management of their lands?: A qualitative analysis for the case of Galicia (Spain)

“…In order to help changing the trend in the management of the most passive owners, it is essential to consider political instruments that encourage their training in forest management to improve the management of their land, as they are not professionals of the sector and forest management is not usually their main income (Domínguez and Shannon 2009).…”

“…This is the reason why research results coincide with Elands et al (2004) statements, since the will to keep property in the future may be the key to guarantee the continuity of the forest sector in an area. Consequently, the future generations must be aware of the responsibility they have about property coinciding with Domínguez and Shannon (2009).…”

“…From 1980s onwards in Europe, studies have been increasingly focused on the behavior and motivations of forest owners Martin 1989, Butler et al 2007), though in Spain, the first studies of forest owners date from the last decade , 2010, Domínguez and Shannon 2009.…”

“…GT was chosen as an empirical and qualitative method to study social life and is used for data collection and analyses (Glaser andStrauss 1967, Charmaz 2006). This methodology builds an increasingly more complex representation of the social phenomena studied and interpreted (Domínguez and Shannon 2009); having, thus, a constructivist character. Ideas arise from data interpretation without previous hypotheses (Creswell 1998), in contrast with hypothetic-deductive methods in which trial data are collected to test predetermined hypotheses (Domínguez and Shannon 2009).…”

Ecosystem Services from Small Forest Patches in Agricultural Landscapes

“…When dealing with private forests, some locations may be of personal significance for the forest owners and their families [210]. It has been observed that a share of the farmers owning land in the analysed landscapes of north France and north Belgium was reluctant to enhance the structural properties of these SFP to promote higher biodiversity levels.…”