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Private forest owners' involvement in forest management has been frequently examined through the attitudes, values, beliefs, objectives and motivations associated with owning and managing forestland. Owners' views on forest management do not always align with those of policymakers who believe forest owners do not actively manage their forests. However, empirical studies on forest owners' conceptualisations of forest management are scarce. To determine how private forest owners in Europe conceptualise forest management, a survey (n = 1,140) was undertaken in seven European countries (Portugal, France, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia and Romania). The owners were asked to indicate their level of agreement with 19 pretested statements defining forest management on a five-point Likert scale. Classification and regression trees were used to explain the major factors that influenced owners' conceptualisations. Owners primarily conceptualised forest management as preserving forests for future generations and considered "a good business opportunity", "an opportunity to earn additional money" or a "source of subsidies" less important. Their understanding of forest management as a mixture of forest maintenance, ecosystem stewardship and economic activity does not match with alleged policy makers' views. Property size, age and Eastern/Western countries were the most relevant predictors of definitions of forest management. Small-scale forest owners from Western Europe considered ecosystem orientation more important, while owners from Eastern Europe considered economic aspects and forest maintenance more important. These differences might be associated with the socio-political system dynamics in Europe in the 20 th century and changing values in postmodern society. Policymakers must be aware of the different forest management paradigms among forest owners in Eastern-Central and Western Europe when designing European forest policies.

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This study analyses the linkages between private forest owners' perceptions of forest management, and their affinity for subsidies, in a range of European countries. Society increasingly requires the provision of ecosystem services from forests, but the willingness of forest owners to redirect management goals from wood production to the provision of public goods is crucial for sustaining ecosystem services. EU incentives in the forestry sector are still mainly oriented towards an anthropocentric vision of forest management. Forest owners and managers are diverse, and although many efforts have been made to understand the role of forest subsidies in private forest management, it is still necessary to analyse the different perspectives on forest subsidies with a regional comparative approach. This paper explores European private forest owners' affinity for subsidiesthrough survey data at European leveland estimates an ordered probit model to (i) analyse how private forest owners in Europe respond to subsidies in forestry, including regional differences in terms of affinity for subsidies, (ii) characterise the factors that influence these responses and (iii) discuss lessons learned related to forest owners' attitudes on subsidies and the implications for introducing similar kind of incentives such as payments for ecosystem services. Simulations were conducted to examine the potential effects of changes in property fragmentation or the time allotted to forest activities. Forest owners with an utilitarian view of forest management, bigger forest holdings, full or part-time farmers and forest owners from East Europe are most in favour of forest subsidies. Property fragmentation and absenteeism decreases affinity for subsidies.

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