How Much Is the Abandonment of Forest Management in Private Forests Worth? A Case of Poland

Abstract

The provision of forest ecosystem services (such as biodiversity, water and soil protection, and recreation) is often associated with a reduction in timber harvesting. In the case of private forests, such a situation requires institutional solutions that allow the economic balance of forest management to be maintained. The aim of the study was to find out the average value of monetary compensation private forest owners would expect in case of timber harvesting restrictions. The study was conducted with a random sample of 1003 forest landowners. The average value of expected compensation ranged from PLN 2300/year/ha (which corresponds to the price of about 12 m3 of wood in Poland) under the condition of no restrictions on timber harvesting but the need to apply indicated of forest management methods, to PLN 4900/year/ha in the model assuming a total ban on harvesting. In general, higher compensation was expected by farmers who stated that they sold timber and those whose agricultural area was larger than the average in Poland. When harvesting restrictions are low, the expected compensation is influenced by the age and gender of the respondent, or the number of people in the household.

Forest functions and abiotic threats in private forests: conclusions from an empirical analysis of stakeholder opinions

“…Also, the participants' responses of training courses allowed for determining which extreme weather phenomena pose the greatest threat to forest sustainability. The opinions presented, especially regarding the importance of forest functions, compared with the amount of hypothetical compensations expected by forest owners (Gołos et al, 2021) The concept of forest functions was used in the questionnaire research because it is more associated with forest management, making it a closer concept for the surveyed stakeholder groups than ecosystem services, understood as benefits that are derived from forests (Maes et al, 2016). Both concepts, i.e.…”

“…Such attitudes are fully understandable if we recall the results of Swedish studies (Bjärstig & Kvastegård, 2016), which show that undertaking initiatives in the field of nature protection and perceiving the social functions of the forest are depended on the economic effects of a forest holding. An indirect confirmation of this approach among Polish forest owners is the average monetary value indicated as Willingness to Accept (WTA) for four different levels of limitations in timber harvesting (Gołos et al, 2021).…”

“…In addition, the adopted goals, both at the planning stage and their implementation, must be subject to increasing modification, taking into account the intensifying effects of extreme weather phenomena in recent years (Hanewinkel et al, 2013;Spathelf et al, 2014) that threaten the sustainability of forest ecosystems. In Poland, the structure of forest ownership varies regionally (Wysocka-Fijorek, 2014;Gołos et al, 2021). The regions selected for the survey are characterised by forest land in a total country area and a share of private forests that corresponds to the national average (Figure 1).…”

GIS analyses of land consolidation in case of the highly fragmentated of parcels

“…Private forests in Poland occupy about 19% of the total forest area, and the average forest area per owner is probably less than 2 ha (Paradowski 2020). The authors Gołos and Gil (2020) note that, among other things, the high fragmentation of forest plots contributes to the fact that the forest is treated more as a handy store of timber used for farm and household needs than as capital or a source of income for farmers. This problem is also noted in other countries such as the Czech Republic (Sarvašová and Jarský 2020) and Slovenia (Krč and Pezdevšek Malovrh 2020).…”