Forest certification in the Heart of Dixie: a survey of Alabama landowners.

Abstract

A mail survey was conducted on private landowners in Alabama, USA, during autumn 2000 to investigate the landowners' general attitudes towards certification (level of knowledge of and 'openness to' the forest certification concept), costs and benefits of certification, and cooperation and communication. After reading the definition of forest certification provided in the survey booklet, 22% of respondents reported that they had previously heard of forest certification, while 78% had not heard of certification or were not sure. It was found that 69% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed to learn more about forest certification, and 70% agreed or strongly agreed that it is important to stay up to date with forestry practices and programmes. A normative conviction that certification is 'the right thing to do' was the only more frequently cited condition in seriously considering certification for their forestlands. The three most frequently cited befits include the provision of better wildlife habitat, enhanced timber productivity, and protection of the environment. The importance of landowners' willingness to cooperate with each other varies among forest certification programmes. More than half of the landowners expressed willingness to be certified with other landowners if it would decrease costs. 80% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that landowners should work together when new forestry issues arise. Landowner associations, professional foresters and the state government were the three organizations rated most trustworthy by landowners in Alabama. 44% of the respondents said that they would not seriously consider certification for their own forestlands unless they 'had a say' in making the rules.

Certification of family forests: What influences owners’ awareness and participation?

“…Finally, NIPF owners' perceptions, attitudes, and interests towards forest certification programs and their willingness to consider participating in them have been examined (Vlosky, 2000;Vlosky and Granskog, 2003;Newsom et al, 2003;Kilgore et al, 2005Kilgore et al, , 2007Perera et al, 2007;Mercker and Hodges, 2008;Leahy et al, 2008). However, the literature investigating the forest certification participation behavior of NIPF owners (thus FFOs) is still limited.…”

“Smart regulation”: Can policy instrument design solve forest policy aims of expansion and sustainability in Flanders and the Netherlands?

“…The literature confirmed that both options are accepted by private owners. Forest owners prefer certified foresters, forest-related associations and the government as intermediate organizations (Vlosky, 2000;Newsom et al, 2003). -However, it seems that the Flemish and Dutch governments are more reluctant to transfer other more coercive tasks.…”

Certification Schemes and the Impacts on Forests and Forestry

“…Extensive research examines reasons for differences in cross-firm and cross-country adoption. Initial studies at the firm level were typically case studies gleaning lessons learned by first movers (48) or surveys examining the knowledge of, experience with, and attitudes toward different certification options among landowners (49)(50)(51); forest products producers (52)(53)(54)(55); buyers, such as architects, homebuilders, and retailers (56)(57)(58); and end consumers (59)(60)(61)(62)(63)(64)(65). More recent case studies take a firm strategy angle, assessing the options available to firms and determining what choosing to certify will mean for a given business (21,66,67).…”