Willingness of rural communities to reforest with native tree species in central Chile

Abstract

Economic development of rural people is not always feasible along with concomitant forest restoration, especially when meager reforestation incentives are oriented to poor rural people who probably are not willing to plant native species in their small plots of land. Forest restoration incentives have been created by the Chilean government to engage poor rural people in reforestation using native tree species to recover degraded lands. Our objective was to compare the willingness of people from rural communities to plant native species if they had to bear the costs or if the government did, and we related the answers to environmental and socioeconomic variables. Of the 217 respondents 53.9% were interested in planting native trees if subsidies became available. Interest decreased if the respondents had to pay for the cost, but only slightly. The willingness to reforest was significantly greater at lower distance from the community to the nearest native forest for those with lower income level, and was higher when there was use of nontimber forest products or wood by the respondents. However, in spite of the positive disposition to plant native trees, only 23% of the respondents were interested in planting on their own land, which is a requirement to receive the economic incentives. Most respondents were willing to plant in open sites and on degraded hillsides that surround their communities. We conclude that despite monetary incentives, benefits cannot reach most rural inhabitants because of their lack of interest in reforesting their own land.

Differences in stakeholder perceptions about native forest: implications for developing a restoration program

“…For example, in the dryland forest of central Chile restoration should consider areas for research and education (perceived by experts and community, respectively), recreation (perceived by experts and government managers), and tourism (perceived by community). Areas of forest management to obtain timber and non‐timber forest products should also be considered, because all stakeholders said they use these products to a greater or lesser extent, which has also been observed in other studies (Ovalle et al 1996; Smith‐Ramírez et al 2019), even though wood products were the least valued goods and service for the three stakeholder groups. This situation occurs in a similar way in other communities within Latin America.…”

“…As we observed in this study, the ecological restoration of the dryland forest in central Chile is very important for the different stakeholders so it is likely that there is support for public policies aimed at the ecological restoration of this ecosystem. It is important to consider that effective restoration of dryland forest will depend on understanding landowner and community behavior with respect to restoration concerns, and also on economic incentives to restore (Smith‐Ramírez et al 2019). The economic incentives that currently exist in Chile to promote restoration are not cost‐effective for landowners to decide to restore their lands (Schiappacasse et al 2012), and require that they be accompanied by strong programs to explain the benefits social in terms of the provision of goods and services (Smith‐Ramírez et al 2019).…”

“…The interview was divided into seven sections: (1) personal data (name, age, gender, telephone, address, e‐mail, education level, current job); (2) questions about knowledge of restoration ecology term (if the interviewee knows the term, and if so, what does it mean), importance of the forest and its restoration and uses of native forest. A list of the main uses of the native forest was presented to each respondent (Smith‐Ramírez et al 2019); they had to select those uses that the forest gives and also add if they give it other use. (3) Question about willingness to participate in forest restoration; (4) question about goods and services provided by the forest.…”

“…In addition, grazing of livestock and rabbits (introduced species) is widespread, thus hindering forest regeneration (Jaksic & Soriguer 1981). Besides, remnant degraded native forests continue to be a source of firewood, extraction of soil made of leaves and other non‐timber forest products used by the community (Smith‐Ramírez et al 2019). At the same time, however, extensive abandoned and highly degraded or bare lands with Acacia caven formations occur, giving dryland forests an opportunity to recover (Fuentes‐Castillo et al 2012).…”

Estimation of the Values of Wooden Materials in Urban Regeneration: The Case of Seoullo in Korea

“…There are some previous studies capturing monetary incentives to reforest rural communities [10] and public attitudes toward urban wood [11]. However, the research on the effects of constructing buildings by utilizing wood has not been actively conducted.…”