Social Values of Forests and Production of New Goods and Services: The Views of Swedish Family Forest Owners

Abstract

Forests are considered crucial assets for sustainable rural development, and contemporary forestry is an industry where production, environmental and social goals can-and should-be handled simultaneously. Swedish family forest owners (FFOs) are expected to both manage and conserve their forests for the benefit of the whole country, but there are contradictions between development and conservation and between traditional and alternative forms of utilization representing dilemmas in rural areas. Tensions between urban and rural areas, between demands on what to produce and protect, are often linked to the FFOs' views on opportunities for forest management. The aim of this study is to identify and analyse the extent to which FFOs perceive that social values have the ability to generate "new" goods and services as a supplement or alternative to traditional forestry, and to suggest how the forests might be managed to render high social values. Fiftyseven interviews were conducted with FFOs (both resident and non-resident). The results indicate that regardless of where they reside, FFOs have a multifunctional view of their forests and forest management, that the social values attached to forests can play an important role in development of local recreation-and forestbased tourism activities, and in this respect they can enhance sustainable rural Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-017-9379-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. development. It is, however, not obvious who might start and develop these businesses, since there seems to be a lack of interest among the FFOs themselves.

Forest development and conservation policy in Poland

“…Within the framework of social functions, special forest parking facilities, forest education centres as well as cycling, horse-riding and walking trails are established to ensure safe and organised opportunities to use the forest value. Moreover, forestry is an important element in rural development, as it has been indicated by several authors, for example, Adamowicz (2005Adamowicz ( , 2008, Szramka (2005Szramka ( , 2006Szramka ( , 2008, Liu et al (2018), Pereira and Martinho (2017) and Bjarstig and Stens (2018). The forest offers jobs to the local residents, primarily in rural areas.…”

Inspired by structured decision making: a collaborative approach to the governance of multiple forest values

“…Instead, Swedish forest policy explicitly affirms the importance of "freedom with responsibility," granting all Swedish forest owners, public and private, large-scale and small-scale, substantial scope to decide how to incorporate environmental protection in the management of their forests Keskitalo 2014, Beland Lindahl et al 2017). Previous research has shown that forest owners have multiple objectives, suggesting that an emphasis on only economic benefits is not desirable from the forest owners' point of view (Bjärstig and Sténs 2018). However, a recent study of Swedish forest policy has found that the current governance model adapts a "more-of-everything" pathway, in which various ecological, economic, and social goals are expected to be prioritized and achieved simultaneously (Beland Lindahl et al 2017).…”

Assessment of a Public Participation Tool by Experts: A Case Study of Quebec, Canada

“…Bernard, N. Gélinas DOI: 10.4236/nr.2020.117017 285 Natural Resources cial). Bjärstig and Sténs [10] defined multifunctionality as an array of services and functions that are provided by the land for the benefit of the people and their environment. However, the forests are managed in order to respect the sustained yield doctrine, which has been described as "the 'holy grail' of foresters all over the world for more or less two centuries" ( [11], p. 7).…”