Suchergebnisse

Poster presented at the Bridging the gap: collaborative conservation from the ground up conference, September 8-11, 2009, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, sponsored by the Center for Collaborative Conservation, https://collaborativeconservation.org/. This conference brought together people with experience working collaboratively to achieve both conservation and livelihood goals in tribal nations, rangelands, forests, watersheds, agricultural lands, and urban areas. The presenter is Program Manager at Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (WFLC). ; The business of managing private forestland is changing. Globalization of markets, broad economic forces, government regulations and ecological stresses (such as fire and climate change) have completely altered the operating environment for forest landowners seeking to manage their land. Large multinational timber companies are able to achieve the financial efficiencies to deal with global-scale market forces, but smaller operators have few tools to help them adjust to the increasing complexity. A new business model within a new policy framework is needed to address the needs of private forest landowners, as well as those of the local, state and federal agencies and environmental organizations who offer financial and technical assistance. In the interest of helping members of the forestry community "retool" to allow them to continue managing their forests without relying solely on traditional timber harvest models, the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (WFLC) convened a series of stakeholder workshops to identify the threats to private forests and forestry. In short, why and how are the ecological and social benefits, and the economic viability of western private forests at risk? Five workshops were held in different regions around the West, which brought together representatives from state forestry and wildlife agencies, Tribes, local government, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, industry, academia, conservation organizations and, most importantly, private forest landowners. Additional listening sessions were held with foresters from the U.S. affiliated Pacific Islands. The workshops generated a large body of ideas with regard to both threats and creative remedies. Workshop participants agreed on the need to emphasize the scarcity and value of private forest lands. Private forests often provide ecological strongholds, significant islands of biodiversity and wildlife corridors. Their value as recreational areas or access points to public recreation sites is huge. Yet, private forests make up a small percentage of the overall western landscape and can be overlooked despite their importance. From here, a drafting group will build upon the workshop results to create a report published by the WFLC and endorsed by workshop participants. The report, along with policy briefs developed by participants and partners, will be distributed to key policy makers at all levels of government to facilitate appropriate recommendations to address barriers to maintaining private working forests. Congressional testimony, memos to agency leadership and resolutions made at the state and local levels will carry the messages towards implementation on the ground. Change may be inevitable for many working forests, but their continued management offers the flexibility to adapt to change in ways that unmanaged and converted lands clearly do not. In the end, this flexibility will help private forest landowners continue to provide the many ecological, economic and social benefits expected by their local and global neighbors – including a buffer against potential climate change. Just as working lands offer resilience through flexibility, the forestry community has to be flexible in adapting to a new business model that will make healthy forest management possible and financially sustainable.

We acknowledge the funding from the whole team from FACESMAP FPS COST Action FP1201. Also VJ was supported by the Czech National Agency for Agricultural Research (NAZV) under the contract QJ1530032. ; Peer reviewed ; Postprint

AbstractA National Forum for Nonindustrial Private Forest Landowners was convened by Secretary John B. Crowell, Jr. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in St. Louis, Missouri from 31 October to 3 November 1983. Using the Interactive Management approach, an Agenda was designed, whereby the Forum would be conducted with the specific intent to achieve consensus on a wide variety of issues, and to ensure ample opportunity for the Participants to make their views heard. In view of the fact that there were 160 Participants, of whom about 20 were designated as Active Participants, the achievements of this Forum, reported in this paper, were remarkable. The Active Participants were engaged directly in the identification, structuring, and resolution of public policy issues confronting the Forestry Community, while the Supportive Participants were able to observe the facilitated discourse by means of TV monitors dispersed throughout the conference room. Numerous caucuses were held, whereby Supportive Participants gave their views to the Active Participants. One of the most positive and productive outcomes of the Forum was the engagement, for the first time, of the various segments of the Forestry Community in collecting ideas on problems and opportunities, developing options for realizing those opportunities, and deciding who should act on those opportunities.

There is increasing political interest in the use of voluntary agreements (VA) as a policy instrument. The attraction has grown also in environmental policy, VAs are expected to be less costly, more effective and more cost-efficient than regulation. Using a realist review methodology, our analysis focuses on the effect of contextual factors and mechanisms on private forest owners' willingness to enter into formal voluntary nature conservation agreements. The framework we use to analyse the effects includes: forest owner characteristics, forest attributes, institutional context and process, advisors and other forest owners, and contract design, for contextual factors – and economic attitudes, environmental attitudes, sense of autonomy, sense of justice and fairness, trust as well as knowledge, for mechanisms. The analysis allowed merging findings from different types of VAs in varying contexts in a systematized way, and consolidating evidence of how the mechanisms influence the programme implementation process, and its outcome. 43 reviewed articles, from an originally retrieved set of 2231 papers, provide evidence for environmental attitudes supporting willingness to enter into an agreement. Environmental attitudes are strengthened by forest owners' wishes to protect a heritage, suggesting considerable influence through personal, emotional attachment to the forest. This finding shows the central role played by sense of autonomy, with economic compensation also importantly affecting the willingness to enter a VA. Along with these results, the developed comprehensive analytical framework shows how VAs can become more effective if tailored for different contexts and types of forest owners. ; Previously included in thesis in manuscript form, with title: "Voluntary agreements to protect private forests"

International audience ; Payments for ecosystem services could be a mean to increase the maintenance and provision of ecosystem services, which otherwise would provide a too low return to forest landowners. This paper examines the recent experience from applying bidding sytems for forest biodiversity, in Finland. The Finnish Metso programme is an example of voluntary bidding systems, which are mediated by the government and are capable to encourage participation of conservation-minded forest landowners.

Payments for ecosystem services could be a mean to increase the maintenance and provision of ecosystem services, which otherwise would provide a too low return to forest landowners. This paper examines the recent experience from applying bidding sytems for forest biodiversity, in Finland. The Finnish Metso programme is an example of voluntary bidding systems, which are mediated by the government and are capable to encourage participation of conservation-minded forest landowners.

Highlights • A realist review of factors influencing voluntary conservation agreements. • Contexts and mechanisms were investigated for their impact on participation. • Economic and environmental attitudes dominated as targets of research. • Research gaps were mostly found for trust, sense of justice and knowledge. • Voluntary agreements can become more effective if tailored to forest owners. ; There is increasing political interest in the use of voluntary agreements (VA) as a policy instrument. The attraction has grown also in environmental policy, VAs are expected to be less costly, more effective and more cost-efficient than regulation. Using a realist review methodology, our analysis focuses on the effect of contextual factors and mechanisms on private forest owners' willingness to enter into formal voluntary nature conservation agreements. The framework we use to analyse the effects includes: forest owner characteristics, forest attributes, institutional context and process, advisors and other forest owners, and contract design, for contextual factors – and economic attitudes, environmental attitudes, sense of autonomy, sense of justice and fairness, trust as well as knowledge, for mechanisms. The analysis allowed merging findings from different types of VAs in varying contexts in a systematized way, and consolidating evidence of how the mechanisms influence the programme implementation process, and its outcome. 43 reviewed articles, from an originally retrieved set of 2231 papers, provide evidence for environmental attitudes supporting willingness to enter into an agreement. Environmental attitudes are strengthened by forest owners' wishes to protect a heritage, suggesting considerable influence through personal, emotional attachment to the forest. This finding shows the central role played by sense of autonomy, with economic compensation also importantly affecting the willingness to enter a VA. Along with these results, the developed comprehensive analytical framework shows how VAs can become more effective if tailored for different contexts and types of forest owners.