Bringing local socioeconomic context to the analysis of forest owners’ management

• Published in: Land use policy Vol. 41; pp. 397 - 407
• Main Authors: Canadas, Maria João, Novais, Ana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Cost and standard of living; Forest economies; Forest management; Forestry; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Location; Portugal; Private forest owners; Public opinion; Rural areas; Socioeconomic context; Socioeconomic status; Southern Europe; Portugal; Europe; Forest management; Forest economies; Private forest owners; Rural areas; Socioeconomic context; Portugal; Owner; Socioeconomic environment; Environmental policy; Land ownership; Land use; Forest economics; Rural area; Forester; Private forestry; Private sector; Private property
• ISSN: 0264-8377; 1873-5754
• DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.06.017

•Segmentation of NIPF owners can be adressed by owners’ typologies or adressed by local patterns of forest management.•Local socioeconomic context is still relevant for the understanding of NIPF owners’ management patterns.•Socioeconomic structures and dynamics are more relevant than the strict forest economy as drivers of owners’ management.•The relevance of local context varies with the management patterns analyzed. Regional and local differences in public perceptions and attitudes towards forestry have often been explained by socio-demography, farming structure, living standard, and other socioeconomic attributes of different geographic locations. These attributes have been used much less to explain regional differences in private forest owners’ objectives and practices. We explore the connection between local patterns of non-industrial private owners’ management practices and the socioeconomic characteristics of the local context. Discriminant linear canonical analysis of data for 2406 owners in 26 rural areas in Portugal allows us to discuss the relevance of the socioeconomic features of local context, such as forest sector economy, agrarian structures, and broader socio-demographic dynamics, to understand the owners’ management practices. Our findings reveal the importance of the features considered, especially socio-demography and agrarian structures. However that importance differs according to the type of forest practice under consideration, i.e., harvesting or bush clearing. This study provides a better understanding of the factors that shape the management practices of forest owners and contributes to improve the design of forest policy to be more adjusted to regional context.