Integrating Social and Ecological Knowledge for Targeting Voluntary Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract

Improving the effectiveness of voluntary biodiversity policies requires developing trans-disciplinary conservation plans that consider social constraints to achieving ecological objectives. We integrated data on landowners' willingness to participate in voluntary conservation efforts with ecological data on conservation values in a spatial prioritization, and found that doing so considerably reduced the loss in conservation value caused by landowners' reluctance to participate. We learned that conducting prioritization with stakeholder input gained through dialogue during field visits could be beneficial for increasing the legitimacy of conservation plans with stakeholders. Thus, in addition to developing a methodology for using data on stakeholder perceptions of conservation in spatial prioritization, our study suggests that engaging landowners and other stakeholders in the conservation prioritization process will improve the success of conservation plans.

Knowledge use in the management of privately owned forests: a focus on decision support services for multi-objective forest use

“…Data for this study were collected using a postal survey in the North Karelia region of Finland (Figure 3) in the spring of 2014 as part of a larger survey also targeted at other regions in Finland (Paloniemi et al 2018). North Karelia was chosen as the target region because it has both an active forestry sector with high felling rates and has been forward-looking in enhancing forest biodiversity (Finnish Forest Centre 2016b).…”

Recognizing the Interest of Forest Owners to Combine Nature-Oriented and Economic Uses of Forests

“…Data were collected in a postal survey in the Northern Karelia region of Finland (Fig. 1) in the spring of 2014 as part of a larger survey also targeted to other regions in Finland (Paloniemi et al 2017). Northern Karelia was chosen as the target region for this study because it has both an active forestry sector with high felling rates and has been forward-looking in enhancing forest biodiversity (Suomen Metsäkeskus 2016).…”

“…Non-response bias was evaluated for the wider survey, which consisted of three sample areas in addition to Northern Karelia (Paloniemi et al 2017). We compared the basic characteristics of the respondents with the Finnish Forest Owner Survey 2010 results (Hänninen et al 2011) and conducted 74 non-response telephone interviews.…”

A Review of Social Dilemmas and Social‐Ecological Traps in Conservation and Natural Resource Management

“…; Paloniemi et al . ). However, resolving one or more of these concerns (e.g., by providing more scientific information and improving community representation in decision making) does not always work.…”

“…A lack of cooperation in conservation may arise for many reasons. Individual willingness to cooperate, for example, may be reduced by differences in values and perceptions, problematic interpersonal dynamics, asymmetries in power, or a lack of clarity on benefits and tradeoffs (e.g., Waylen et al 2010;Dharmawan et al 2016;Paloniemi et al 2017). However, resolving one or more of these concerns (e.g., by providing more scientific information and improving community representation in decision making) does not always work.…”