{"title":"Effects of concurrent conservation initiatives on forest-adjacent communities in the Chitwan Valley, Nepal","authors":"Ren Cao, Li An","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103597","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103597","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Forest-adjacent communities in Nepal depend on livestock fodder and firewood for their livelihoods. This study examines how overlapping conservation efforts—namely, Community Forestry (CF) and silvicultural practices promoted under Scientific Forest Management (SFM)—have shaped household access to these resources. Using spatial mapping, forest committee surveys, and household data from over 1200 respondents in 2014 and 1400 in 2017, including a longitudinal analysis of over 600 matched households, we assess changes in travel distance to collect fodder and firewood across time and social groups. Our models reveal a shift in key predictors: under CF alone, household factors such as caste and land size were most associated with travel distance. Following the spread of SFM-inspired practices, forest management activities became stronger predictors. While these interventions appeared to improve fodder access, firewood collection distance increased significantly among marginalized groups, including Dalit, Terai Janajati, and female-headed households. This divergence highlights how concurrent conservation initiatives can produce unequal livelihood outcomes. Our findings underscore the need for integrated forest governance that addresses these social equity trade-offs, and they point toward a critical need for future research using mixed-methods and quasi-experimental designs to untangle the causal pathways of these complex policy interactions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 103597"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144878233","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":"Competence needs in the wood-based construction industry in Norway","authors":"Knut Amund Skatvedt , Samee Ullah , Håkon Endresen Normann , Lina Ingeborgrud","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103589","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103589","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Norwegian wood industry is transitioning towards a greener economy. This study investigates the changing competence needs in the wood industry and how these changes affect recruitment. We analyze a total of 497 job advertisements from 2012 to 2022 to identify the demand for different competencies. In general, the job ads had tripled their size, including an increase in the number of different competence types required. We find a consistent high demand for technical competences across a high share of the job ads in both 2012 and 2022, but generic skills, such as teamwork, flexibility and writing and speaking skills are given more weight in the ads from 2022. Environmental awareness and commitment are new types of competences in demand, as well as knowledge on sustainable raw materials and resources. The industry also faces challenges in recruiting qualified personnel, particularly those with vocational diplomas. Companies thus adapt their recruitment strategies, by softening the formal competence requirements in the ads and offering more on-the-job training opportunities. Firms aim to enhance competitiveness and innovation by incorporating vocational expertise, but operational pressures often overtake them, leading to the deprioritization of new competencies. The wood industry is actively preparing for a green transition by attracting and retaining talent with necessary skills and attitudes and providing on-the-job training to secure the necessary technical expertise.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 103589"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144852334","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":"Purchasing certified forest products to participate in sustainable forest management: Unveiling the drivers of consumers' intention","authors":"Rahim Maleknia , Aureliu Florin Hălălişan","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103592","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103592","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Purchasing certificated forest products is an approach to the public participating in sustainable forest management. There is a research gap about deriving factors that promote purchasing these products. This study investigates the psychological factors influence citizens' intentions to purchase certified forest products utilizing an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model incorporating two additional constructs including environmental concern and perceived trust in certification mechanisms in Tehran, Iran, with a sample size of 447 consumers of furniture and wood product markets. Data collection was carried out through structured questionnaires. The hypotheses of study and relationships between variables were tested using structural equation modeling. The initial TPB model explained 65 % of the variance in purchase intention, while the extended model increased this explanatory power to 73 %. The findings revealed that attitude, perceived behavioral control, environmental concern, and perceived trust significantly influenced purchase intention. The study underscores the importance of fostering positive attitudes toward certified forest products through educational and promotional programs, enhancing environmental concern, and building trust in certification systems. These efforts can strengthen consumers' intentions to purchase certified products, thereby supporting sustainable forest management practices. This study contributes to the exiting knowledge by validating the extended TPB model in the context of environmentally sustainable purchasing intention and highlights the critical role of trust and environmental concern in shaping consumer intention. The findings of the research include actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners aiming to promote sustainable consumption and enhance public participation in environmental conservation efforts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 103592"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144840925","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}
Naveed Imran , Simo Sarkki , Anna Krzywoszynska , Hannu I. Heikkinen
{"title":"Corrigendum to ‘Ways to Maintain and Challenge Hegemony: Actor Coalitions in Finnish Forest Governance’ [Forest Policy and economics (2025) FORPOL_103572]","authors":"Naveed Imran , Simo Sarkki , Anna Krzywoszynska , Hannu I. Heikkinen","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103591","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103591","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 103591"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144840926","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":"Influence of communication channels on forestry programs participation: Evidence from smallholders in Vietnam","authors":"Thi Mai Anh Tran , Kyungmook Lee , Dongwook W. Ko","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103585","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103585","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Communication plays a pivotal role in enhancing rural households' engagement in forestry programs, yet its impacts have not been thoroughly explored. In this study, we examine the influence of communication channels on the participation decisions of 300 randomly sampled households across 30 communities in Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data on communication aspects, household characteristics, socioeconomic status, institutional considerations, farm attributes, and biophysical factors. Logistic regression and Bayesian model averaging were utilized for data analysis. Our findings revealed that government-led formal communication channels were more influential in increasing forestry participation than informal farmer-to-farmer communication. Further, information on forestry programs, planting knowledge, forest area, formal communication channels, and household wealth ranking jointly predicted landholders' participation decisions. As for policy interventions, we suggested improving transparency and monitoring of formal communication channels, extending educational outreach initiatives, and utilizing informal networks to disseminate technical information/supports to local households. Implementing tailored support instruments for resource-constrained households is further recommended. Collectively, our study offers a foundation for understanding communication's role in forestry program participation, contributing to the development of context-tailored strategies to enhance the efficacy and socioeconomic viability of forestry development projects in rural Vietnam.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 103585"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144809958","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}
Meti Ekayani , Fitta Setiajiati , Nugraha Akbar Nurrochmat , Suria Darma Tarigan , Dodik Ridho Nurrochmat , Iskandar Zulkarnaen Siregar , Ulfa Adzkia , Arif Satria , Janne Siregar , Erwin Widodo
{"title":"Policy forum: Reducing expansion of oil palm plantations into forests through land intensification, agroforestry, and added value creation of processed palm oils","authors":"Meti Ekayani , Fitta Setiajiati , Nugraha Akbar Nurrochmat , Suria Darma Tarigan , Dodik Ridho Nurrochmat , Iskandar Zulkarnaen Siregar , Ulfa Adzkia , Arif Satria , Janne Siregar , Erwin Widodo","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103582","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103582","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>President Prabowo's statement at the end of 2024 about expanding oil palm plantations in Indonesia has become a contentious issue in national and international discourses. The discussion heated up because the expansion of oil palm plantations is suspected to be one of the causes of deforestation. However, increasing revenue cannot be achieved only through palm oil plantation expansion but also through land intensification. In addition, with an appropriate strategy, the extensification of oil palm plantations will not always result in deforestation. Based on the 2024 National Forestry Plan (RKTN) evaluation report, not all forest zones are physically forested. It is recorded that 29 million ha of the forest zone are heavily degraded or no longer forested. Thus, developing oil palm-based agroforestry will help to restore those degraded lands. In addition to oil palm-based agroforestry, promoting the added value of processed palm oil is also crucial for meeting state revenue targets with minimal oil palm expansion into forests. This study demonstrates the role of mainstreaming the export of processed palm oils, i.e., Refined Palm Oil (RPO), Oleochemicals (OLM), and Biodiesel, in increasing the added value of palm oil products. This study shows that downstreaming the national palm oil industry is thought to impact the environment positively, create significant economic benefits, and make the palm oil industry more sustainable.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 103582"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144771596","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":"Policy integration and coherence of EU and Finnish forest policy","authors":"Hanna Siiskonen, Jukka Tikkanen, Jouni Pykäläinen","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103586","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103586","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Forests are increasingly subject to competing demands, including their role as carbon sinks, reservoirs of biodiversity, sources of raw material and renewable energy. Although the European Union (EU) has no competence to regulate common forest policy, forest-related issues are addressed across multiple policy domains, which often creates challenges for policy coherence. In the recent years, the EU-level governance has expanded significantly through legal bases that directly or indirectly impact forests.</div><div>We conducted an ex-post analysis of forest policy integration and coherence of EU and Finnish forest policy during the period 1995 to 2024. We examined how EU forest policy has developed, and whether the EU level development has been coherent with the development of Finnish forest policy. Our data comprised 66 regulatory policy instruments which were analysed using document analysis and policy-analytical framework.</div><div>We identified three distinct policy eras in EU forest policy: the era of sustainable forest management, the era of bioeconomy, and the era of ecological crisis. These eras reflect transitions in policy priorities – from production-oriented approach an increasing urgency around climate and biodiversity crises. Policy objectives between EU and Finland were largely aligned during the two first eras but diverged during the era of ecological crisis.</div><div>Overall, the fragmented multi-sectoral governance of EU forest policy presents significant challenges to achieving policy integration and coherence. Enhancing policy integration and coherence in EU forest policy requires effective consideration and reconciliation of the diverse range of benefits that forests provide within the policy-making process.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 103586"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144738601","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}
Lydia Rosenkranz , Mario Peters , Walter Sekot , Jussi Leppänen , Milan Šinko , Silvio Schueler , Björn Seintsch
{"title":"Assessing the potential of the ‘typical forest enterprise approach’ for research in forest economics and application in policy making: A comparative analysis based on five national case studies","authors":"Lydia Rosenkranz , Mario Peters , Walter Sekot , Jussi Leppänen , Milan Šinko , Silvio Schueler , Björn Seintsch","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103587","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103587","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Small-scale private forest enterprises (SSPFEs) play an important role in the forest sector in many EU member states. However, unlike large-scale or publicly-owned forest enterprises, they are often not included in statistical surveys. This results in a lack of elementary basic economic data on wood production on SSPFEs, which is a prerequisite for effective policy implementation and impact assessment across the EU. To address this data gap, this pilot study examines the potential application of a modified “Typical Enterprise Approach” (TEA) to forestry for the first time for SSPFE in Austria, Finland, Germany, Slovenia, and Sweden. In the TEA, models of enterprises are constructed, reflecting the typical conditions and management practices in a specific region or country. For our study, extensive literature research and expert interviews were selected to identify typical companies and depict their wood production system with key performance indicators. Our findings show, that despite sharing EU membership and common political and legal frameworks, data availability, typical enterprise characterization and cost and revenue structures vary across the five countries. Notwithstanding further need of refinement, the TEA has the potential to serve as a key source for understanding different wood production systems and for providing socio-economic key figures. By providing comprehensive and consistent data from typical enterprises, a refined TEA can help to estimate the geographical variation, identify best practices and contribute to enhancing the sustainability of SSPFEs. Therefore, a permanent establishment of an international TEA network in forestry would be highly beneficial.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 103587"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144723732","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":"Marketing of NTFPs by forest-dependent communities in Maharashtra, India: Alternative models for state support","authors":"Anuja Anil Date , Sharachchandra Lele","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103584","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103584","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Studies show that forest dependent communities (FDCs) can improve economic outcomes through community-based forest enterprises (CFEs) based on timber harvest and sale. In India, since FDCs do not have rights to timber even under decentralization laws, they must rely on unpredictable non-timber forest product (NTFP) markets for economic benefits. Additionally, their enterprises would have to compete with pre-existing well-funded state-assisted NTFP marketing institutions. Few studies have focused on CFE performance under such challenging conditions. Recently, FDCs in Maharashtra (India) have formed ‘Village Federations (VFs)’ specially for marketing an important NTFP: tendu (<em>Diospyros melanoxylon</em>) leaves. In this study, we ask whether small-scale, self-financed VFs improve economic outcomes for FDCs as compared to state-assisted NTFP marketing institutions, and what key operational choices lead to those outcomes. We conduct a multi-dimensional assessment of economic outcomes including price and quantity of leaves sold, proportion-timing-accessibility of payments, administrative costs, creation of buffer funds; and compare two VFs and two state-assisted marketing institutions. We find that VFs consistently secured higher prices, enabled faster payments, lowered administrative costs, and created community buffer funds in contrast to the state-assisted models. VFs achieved this through more efficient leaf production, and better management of leaf collection centers, among other measures, to improve operations. The underlying reason for VFs being able to improve operations is that their sole purpose is marketing NTFPs and, unlike the state-assisted counterparts, they are unhindered by other objectives. Further studies can help identify financial and institutional pathways to strengthen VFs and their impact on forest-dependent communities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 103584"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144713158","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}
Frank Piedra-Jimenez , Diego Broz , Juan M. Novas , Ignacio E. Grossmann , Maria Analia Rodriguez
{"title":"Optimizing forest planning: Balancing timber production and carbon sequestration through a multi-objective disjunctive formulation","authors":"Frank Piedra-Jimenez , Diego Broz , Juan M. Novas , Ignacio E. Grossmann , Maria Analia Rodriguez","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103575","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103575","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This work introduces a multi-objective model for the Forest Planning Problem (FPP), designed to optimize forest management by determining the best combination of silvicultural treatments, land harvesting proportions, net carbon sequestration, and timber flow. Using Generalized Disjunctive Programming (GDP), the model addresses two conflicting objectives: maximizing net present value and maximizing <span><math><mrow><mi>C</mi><msub><mrow><mi>O</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></mrow></math></span> sequestration, while accounting for carbon sequestration losses from third parties. The model is reformulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem using both Hull reformulation and Big-M reformulation and validated with data from a forest company in Misiones, Argentina. Results show that increasing forest area reduces reliance on external timber, and that stand characteristics and diverse prescriptions are more effective for improving <span><math><mrow><mi>C</mi><msub><mrow><mi>O</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></mrow></math></span> sequestration than simply expanding forest area. Additionally, the Hull reformulation proves more robust for complex problems, while Big-M is advantageous for simpler cases.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 103575"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144686292","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}