Forests in common: Learning from diversity of community forest arrangements in Europe

Abstract

Europe has a wealth of community forest arrangements. This paper aims to transcend the diversity of locally specific terms and forms, to highlight the value of considering them inclusively. Building on methods to make sense of diversity, we use reflexive grounded inquiry in fifteen cases in Italy, Scotland, Slovenia and Sweden. Within four dimensions (forest, community, relationships between them, and relationships with wider society), we identify 43 subdimensions to describe them collectively. Our approach shows how European arrangements contribute to wider discourses of collective natural resource management. Both tradition and innovation in Europe inform options for environmental governance. Arrangements challenge the distinction between ‘communities of place’ and ‘communities of interest’, with implications for social and environmental justice. They exemplify multilevel environmental governance through both vertical and horizontal connections. Emerging from long histories of political and environmental pressures, they have a role in enhancing society’s connection with nature and adaptive capacity.

The Compossessorates in the Olt Land (Romania) as Sustainable Commons

“…In the same context, another limitation is that the paper does not highlight the relationships between the Romanian commons and other forms of commons from Europe. The latter, as presented by other paper [4,5], seem to come from a common ancient natural form that adapted to the various historical contexts. It would have been useful to highlight the aforementioned common roots in order to sustain the sustainable and traditional dimension of the commons.…”

“…The first commons were concerned with the management of land, but in the history of Europe there were also commons concerned with forests, fisheries, water, and food [2]. As a form of organization employed for the management of forests and pastures, the commons are employed in several European countries: Great Britain, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey [3], Sweden [3,4], Scotland, Slovenia, Italy [4], and Spain (Galicia) [5].…”

History of Joint Ownership of Forests in Finland in the Context of European Forest Commons

“…Unlike the Finnish system, the Swedish forest commons have figured in international comparisons (see e.g. Lidestav et al, 2017;Lawrence et al, 2021). The Swedish tradition of research on forest commons is more diverse and provides a good basis for comparisons with Finland.…”

“…In this study, country-specific European examples have been used to position the Finnish JOFs in European context. To do this, the systematic analysis of "community forest arrangements" in four European countries developed by Lawrence's (2021) research team is used as a framework.…”

“…Both forest commons and community forests were included in their analysis due to great variation in the terminology countries used to describe this kind of ownership. Terminological challenges related to harmonisation of nationally originated concepts restricted comparison of information concerning "community forest arrangements" between European countries (Lawrence et al, 2021).…”