Forest Policy and Economics最新文献

{"title":"Forest condition and forest restoration as topics of online communication – An analysis of website performance of selected forest actors in Germany","authors":"Sandra Liebal,&nbsp;Josephine Köhler,&nbsp;Norbert Weber","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103454","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103454","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In recent years, many actors in Germany claimed in debates how forests should be treated in future, e.g. by stating own positions, providing information, and offering participative actions like tree planting events or educational programs. However, also conflicting views and beliefs of different forest actor groups have become apparent in their communication, leading to e.g. fierce debates in TV and social media or protest campaigns against the forest sector. Although knowledge alone is not sufficient to solve conflicts and find consensus solutions, evidence-based knowledge would be beneficial for the course of such discussions as well as for good political decision making. Research so far has pointed out to a crucial need for information on the topics of forest condition and forest restoration. The increasing importance of online media suggests that a corresponding range of information should also be available online, e.g. on websites. Accordingly, this study focuses on websites as channels for direct-to-consumer communication and conducts a media analysis with special emphasis on (i) how much information on the topic is provided by different forest-related actors in Germany on their websites (content) and (ii) how well this information is adapted to the needs of the website users (performance). For website analysis, we refer to the concept of user experience (UX).</div><div>The UX of websites has been analyzed for 72 selected institutionalized forest actors, showing that there are clear differences in the UX. In tendency, actors of the interest mediation system operate websites with a better UX than most actors in public administration. Regarding performance, not all websites are sufficient to meet the requirements and needs of website users. Based on the processes of perception and assessment of websites such as proposed by Thielsch and Salaschek (2020; see <span><span>Fig. 2</span></span>), a poor performance will result in no or low attention and thus a worse perception of the website content. Regarding content, only very few websites of the investigated actors offer comprehensive information on forest condition and forest restoration. We therefore conclude that the extent of evidence-based information is not suitable to satisfy the need for information on these topics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103454"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143453325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Missing the forest for the trees: Ekiti State's quest for forestry revenue and its impact on forest managers","authors":"Giovanni Occhiali ,&nbsp;Michael Falade","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103451","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103451","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many countries' forests are over-exploited and mismanaged, including through ineffective taxation. This is the case across Nigeria, where forest management has been decentralised to individual states. In this paper we assess the forestry tax regime in Ekiti State, where forests represent more than 50 % of land area and forest revenue has been historically relevant. We aim to complement a literature on tropical forest management often based on big-picture theories with a close empirical examination of the experiences of forest managers. Based on 16 interviews with public and private stakeholders, as well as data from the Forestry Commission, our analysis suggests that the Commission excessive focus on forests' revenue-generating capacity is contributing to their depletion, which remains driven by economic phenomena. The conceptualisation of the Forestry Commission as a revenue-raising agency rather than a management one, non-transparent tax rates, and a view of the industry potential disconnected from reality, are perversely associated to decreasing forestry revenue. While there is potential to reform both the structure of forestry taxes and their method of administration, evidence suggests that priority should be given to enforcing lower levels of forest exploitation and to allowing government reserves to regrow. This will require substantial sensitisation and engagement with actors in the sector, as well as increasing the monitoring capacity of the Forestry Commission, which does not currently have enough staff to guarantee the enforcement of existing legislation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103451"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143418544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Towards an efficient implementation of the EU biodiversity strategy in forests – An analysis of alternative voluntary conservation mechanisms and selection criteria","authors":"Johanna Kangas ,&nbsp;Markku Ollikainen","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103448","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103448","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the European Union's Biodiversity Strategy aim to halt biodiversity loss by 2030. Both include ambitious goals to increase the area of protected land and sea to 30 % with 10 % devoted to strict protection. The required land areas are large and challenge current instruments tailored to meet much less ambitious conservation goals. Forest conservation traditionally relies on voluntary flat-rate or cost compensation policies inviting predominantly conservation-minded landowners to conserve their forests. More efficient instruments are needed to meet the ambitious goals of forest biodiversity conservation. We examine how alternative auction mechanisms perform relative to the current instruments under different selection criteria in promoting strict conservation targets. We demonstrate that the studied mechanisms differ in their ability to invite sites to the conservation program. The auction incentivises higher participation from landowners who do not have strong conservation motives and decreases information rents from landowners with strong conservation motives. When selection criteria favour high-quality sites, like old-growth stands, the auction mechanisms outperform the cost compensation policy by providing the largest area of conserved land and the highest ecological values. Thus, auctions offer a promising option for implementing forest biodiversity conservation in accordance with the EU Biodiversity Strategy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103448"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143387156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding how urban communities make trade-offs between forest management and ecosystem service objectives","authors":"Haotian Cheng ,&nbsp;Francisco J. Escobedo ,&nbsp;Alyssa S. Thomas ,&nbsp;Jesus Felix De Los Reyes ,&nbsp;John N. Ng'ombe ,&nbsp;José R. Soto","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103445","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103445","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban populations adjacent to forested areas value water-related ecosystem services and recreational opportunities. However, maintaining these benefits requires active forest management through thinning and prescribed burns, infrastructure development as well as issues of equity. These activities can also lead to public concerns over access fees, smoke emissions, and perceived negative impacts on forest health. This study aims to understand the tradeoffs between public preferences and forest management objectives in Wildland-Urban Interface montane forests. We employed an online survey using the Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) method to assess importance rankings and tradeoffs among forest management and ecosystem services attributes. The study focused on urban communities near the San Bernardino and Angeles National Forests in southern California, USA. Results reveal that residents' preferences between frequent visitors group and infrequent visitors group were inconsistent. Residents prioritized mechanical tree removal over prescribed fire as the most important forest management objective. Lakes emerged as the most valued ecosystem service attribute, surpassing rivers and waterfalls. Among recreational infrastructure, public restrooms ranked highest, followed by garbage bins and public grills. These findings provide insights for forest managers and policymakers by offering a framework that balances ecological needs with public preferences. The results are particularly relevant for implementing policies such as the Wildfire Crisis Strategy and forest management plans, by identifying potential conflicts and enhancing public support for forest management decisions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103445"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143378664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The evolution of land governance in Myanmar: A historical analysis of the people-land nexus in the Konbaung dynasty and British colonial eras","authors":"Phyu Phyu Han ,&nbsp;Win Min Paing ,&nbsp;Masahiko Ota ,&nbsp;Takahiro Fujiwara","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103446","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103446","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Contemporary environmental challenges are deeply entwined with land-related issues, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of the historical dynamics between communities and land for practical solutions. Myanmar has encountered significant societal and political disruptions during the colonial era. This study traces the evolving governance of the people-land relationship spanning the final Burmese state, the Konbaung dynasty period, and the British colonial era. Employing Foucauldian governmentality theory and genealogical analysis, this study illuminates traditional governance predating the colonial era while highlighting the distorted shifts in the people-land nexus. The monarchical Burmese state was instrumental in crafting a traditional agrarian society rooted in the tenets of Buddhist statecraft. It upheld liberal governance principles and recognized individual land property rights, fostering agricultural population in both regulatory and practical contexts. However, the British, despite propagating liberal ideologies, established an authoritarian top-down government in the forested areas, using modern statistical methods and scientific mapping. This study highlights the historical dynamics of the people-land relationship in Myanmar, providing essential insights for addressing contemporary environmental challenges and formulating policies that address contemporary land-related issues with sustainable and more equitable solutions. Future land policies should prioritize individual property rights and acknowledge the intrinsic connection between local communities and forested lands for sustainable governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103446"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143378665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The adoption of natural capital accounting: Lessons from the Tasmanian forest management system","authors":"Isobella Grover ,&nbsp;Shaun Suitor ,&nbsp;Julianne O'Reilly-Wapstra ,&nbsp;Mark Tocock ,&nbsp;Peter Volker ,&nbsp;Darla Hatton MacDonald","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103441","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103441","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Natural capital accounting (NCA) provides a systematic framework to integrate broader economic and environmental data in a way that aligns with traditional financial accounting. This fuller set of information allows organisations to better manage their environmental risks and dependencies. However, NCA adoption remains limited and fragmented in the forestry sector. We utilise semi-structured interviews as part of an Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to examine the incentives and barriers faced by public and private forestry organisations in adopting NCA. This paper contributes to forestry management by querying the reasons for these gaps in adoption, as well as the barriers preventing adoption and utilisation of NCA at the organisational scale. We base our study in Tasmania, Australia, using its forest management system as a case study<em>.</em> We find that a wide range of Tasmanian organisations perceive clear incentives for adoption. Among them, recognised reporting approaches, access to financial markets and investment opportunities, additional data to inform decision-making, as well as new evidence to support social licence to operate. However, significant barriers exist, such as lack of baseline data, limited internal capacity and often ambiguous guidance on account compilation. These barriers could be addressed through greater standardisation of existing NCA frameworks, establishing accounting standards for natural capital, and increased private-public sector collaboration. Addressing these barriers could enable the adoption of NCA at scale, enhancing the management of natural resources.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103441"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143372750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Calling into the void? German forest dieback 2.0 debate on Twitter. A case study to operationalize the analysis of discursive power in hybrid media systems","authors":"Philipp Mack ,&nbsp;Ida Wallin ,&nbsp;Mariella Susann Zwickel ,&nbsp;Jonas Pfistner ,&nbsp;Lena König ,&nbsp;Daniela Kleinschmit","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103447","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103447","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Forest dieback 2.0</em> is the common term for describing climate change-related forest damages that sparked a nation-wide debate in Germany starting in 2018. Referring to the “first” <em>forest dieback</em> in the 1980s that inspired environmental movements and policy changes, raises questions concerning today's mobilization potential. Political communication has been profoundly transformed, mainly through the spread of digital media. To understand the current debate, it is thus crucial to consider the complex entanglements in hybrid media systems. We contribute to the operationalization of analyzing discursive power in hybrid media systems, through Twitter-actor-networks as well as tweet-hyperlink-networks, representing a communication space where older and newer media logics blend. Results suggest a scattered debate characterized by insulated communication networks of few central actors. Whereas forestry frames dominate <em>original tweets</em>, nature conservation frames are more likely to be <em>amplified</em> through retweets. Despite having largest number of followers, legacy media actors show low <em>centralities</em> in the Twitter-network. However, their influence must be seen in regard to the referred hyperlinks. Interactions between tweets and hyperlinks revealed different mechanisms for how frames are <em>introduced</em> and <em>amplified</em>. Besides mainly following the cleavage between forestry and nature conservationists, alternative frames instrumentalize forest damages to call for climate action or climate change skepticism. Despite these controversies and insulated communication, the <em>forest dieback 2.0</em> debate on Twitter does not appear to be <em>destructively</em> polarized. Nevertheless, further research needs to carefully examine the polarization potential. Due to the limited outreach, however, the Twitter debate largely seems like a calling into the void.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103447"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143349622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating carbon emissions and removals resulting from Russia's trade in harvested wood products","authors":"Roman V. Gordeev ,&nbsp;Anton I. Pyzhev","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103444","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103444","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Harvested wood products (HWP) are carbon reservoirs that remain underutilized in decarbonization policies due to the superficiality of carbon flux estimates in international trade in forest products. This paper focuses on the emissions and removals associated with Russia's foreign trade in HWP. For the first time, we provide estimates of these carbon fluxes for individual Russian regions for 2016–2020. Our findings indicate that the Siberian and North-Western regions are the primary contributors to carbon emissions from international trade. A comparison of estimates from the stock change approach (SCA), the production approach (PA), and the atmospheric flow approach (AFA) points to the latter as the most suitable for application in Russia given the significant proportion of exports in the sales of roundwood and sawn timber. Furthermore, we supplemented the estimates of carbon stock change from HWP trade using an approximation of rail and maritime trade routes for transporting timber from and to Russia. We found that the transportation emissions induced by overland and maritime HWP trade flows account for about 7 % of the total carbon balance from Russia's HWP trade. The largest volumes of emissions from HWP shipments are generated by the main exporters in North-Western Russia and Siberia, as well as regions that play a major role in freight handling.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103444"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143261960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diversity of plant species used as firewood in indigenous colonized communities: An ethnobotanical study in East Misiones, Argentina","authors":"Mario Gabriel Sackser ,&nbsp;Lucas Rojas ,&nbsp;Héctor Alejandro Keller ,&nbsp;Norma Inés Hilgert","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2024.103409","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2024.103409","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The use and consumption of firewood implies a detailed knowledge of species, and its materialisation translates into culturally mediated practices. This study analyses the link between users and the variety of species employed as firewood and the diversity of uses by settler and Guarani populations in Misiones, Argentina. Information was obtained through semi-structured interviews, free listings, participant observation, and botanical walks. The richness of species was assessed considering the species mentioned and their associated uses, and the usage categories of both cultural groups were compared. The cultural importance of the species was estimated based on the Consensus and Versatility of Use. In total, 84 species were recorded. The species with the highest Consensus of Use between Guarani and settlers were Holocalyx balansae and Parapiptadenia rigida, respectively. We identified six use categories, with cooking being the most cited in both groups. There were no reports for the “ritual/religious” category among the settlers. In both cultural groups, firewood is the main energy resource, but there are differences in the mode and object of use. Among the Guarani, firewood and fire represent fundamental elements in their way of life and culture beyond satisfying their material needs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103409"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142925301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Minimising the relative regret of future forest landscape compositions: The role of close-to-nature stand types","authors":"Thomas Knoke ,&nbsp;Peter Biber ,&nbsp;Tobias Schula ,&nbsp;Jonathan Fibich ,&nbsp;Benjamin Gang","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2024.103410","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2024.103410","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Increasingly uncertain decision outcomes prevail in forest management and hamper choosing a single optimal management alternative. Confronting all management alternatives with multiple future scenarios and selecting an alternative minimising the regret under the worst scenario may provide suitable guidance under such uncertainty. Here, we search for future forested landscape compositions using regret minimisation for different objectives. We consider even-aged and uneven-aged stand types (called close-to-nature stand types) as management alternatives. Close-to-nature forest stand types supported the minimisation of regret for all objectives (represented by financial return, volume increment, C-storage, and two biodiversity indicators). However, close-to-nature stand types covered 18 % to 43 % of the future forest landscape in our study, which shows that even-aged stands are also necessary. For example, supporting biodiversity or multiple objectives simultaneously required large proportions of light-demanding and climate-change-tolerant Oak stands (even aged). Such Oak stands are difficult to achieve under shady conditions with limited canopy openings, which is typical for uneven-aged systems. Building on robust Pareto frontiers, we show a substantial trade-off between supporting biodiversity and maximising financial return but only a moderate trade-off between supporting biodiversity and maximising the C storage in a forest landscape. We suggest that such landscape-level trade-offs be quantified and discussed more intensively.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103410"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142967790","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}