TY - JOUR
T1 - How private are Europe’s private forests? A comparative property rights analysis
AU - Nichiforel, Liviu
AU - Keary, Kevin
AU - Deuffic, Philippe
AU - Weiss, Gerhard
AU - Thorsen, Bo Jellesmark
AU - Winkel, Georg
AU - Avdibegović, Mersudin
AU - Dobšinská, Zuzana
AU - Feliciano, Diana
AU - Gatto, Paola
AU - Gorriz Mifsud, Elena
AU - Hoogstra-klein, Marjanke
AU - Hrib, Michal
AU - Hujala, Teppo
AU - Jager, Laszlo
AU - Jarský, Vilém
AU - Jodłowski, Krzysztof
AU - Lawrence, Anna
AU - Lukmine, Diana
AU - Pezdevšek Malovrh, Špela
AU - Nedeljković, Jelena
AU - Nonić, Dragan
AU - Krajter Ostoić, Silvija
AU - Pukall, Klaus
AU - Rondeux, Jacques
AU - Samara, Theano
AU - Sarvašová, Zuzana
AU - Scriban, Ramona Elena
AU - Šilingienė, Rita
AU - Sinko, Milan
AU - Stojanovska, Makedonka
AU - Stojanovski, Vladimir
AU - Stoyanov, Nickola
AU - Teder, Meelis
AU - Vennesland, Birger
AU - Vilkriste, Lelde
AU - Wilhelmsson, Erik
AU - Wilkes-Allemann, Jerylee
AU - Bouriaud, Laura
PY - 2018/7
Y1 - 2018/7
N2 - Private forests are widespread in Europe providing a range of ecosystem services of significant value to society, and there are calls for novel policies to enhance their provision and to face the challenges of environmental changes. Such policies need to acknowledge the importance of private forests, and importantly they need to be based on a deep understanding of how property rights held by private forest owners vary across Europe. We collected and analysed data on the content of property rights based on formal legal requirements existing in 31 European jurisdictions. To allow a comparison across jurisdictions, we constructed an original Property Rights Index for Forestry encompassing five rights domains (access, withdrawal, management, exclusion and alienation). We documented substantial variation of the private forest owners’ rights, and notably to i) make decisions in operational management and the formulation of management goals, ii) withdraw timber resources from their forest, and iii) exclude others from the use of forest resources. We identified broad relations between the scope for decision making of private forest owners and jurisdictions’ former socio-political background and geographical distribution. The variation in the content of property rights has implications for the implementation of international environmental policies, and stresses the need for tailored policy instruments, when addressing European society’s rural development, the bioeconomy, climate change mitigation measures and nature protection strategies.
AB - Private forests are widespread in Europe providing a range of ecosystem services of significant value to society, and there are calls for novel policies to enhance their provision and to face the challenges of environmental changes. Such policies need to acknowledge the importance of private forests, and importantly they need to be based on a deep understanding of how property rights held by private forest owners vary across Europe. We collected and analysed data on the content of property rights based on formal legal requirements existing in 31 European jurisdictions. To allow a comparison across jurisdictions, we constructed an original Property Rights Index for Forestry encompassing five rights domains (access, withdrawal, management, exclusion and alienation). We documented substantial variation of the private forest owners’ rights, and notably to i) make decisions in operational management and the formulation of management goals, ii) withdraw timber resources from their forest, and iii) exclude others from the use of forest resources. We identified broad relations between the scope for decision making of private forest owners and jurisdictions’ former socio-political background and geographical distribution. The variation in the content of property rights has implications for the implementation of international environmental policies, and stresses the need for tailored policy instruments, when addressing European society’s rural development, the bioeconomy, climate change mitigation measures and nature protection strategies.
KW - Comparative analysis
KW - Europe
KW - Forest management
KW - Index;
KW - Private forests
KW - Property rights
U2 - 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.02.034
DO - 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.02.034
M3 - Article
SN - 0264-8377
VL - 76
SP - 535
EP - 552
JO - Land Use Policy
JF - Land Use Policy
ER -