No evidence of systematic pre-emptive loggings after notifying landowners of their lands’ conservation potential

Abstract

Landowners can intentionally impair biodiversity values occurring on their land to pre-empt biodiversity protection. This often leads to significant negative effects on biodiversity. We studied whether landowners in Finland engaged in pre-emptive loggings after they were notified that their wooded mires are candidate sites for a mire protection program. After the notification, harvesting rates of the candidate wooded mires were significantly lower compared to harvesting rates of similar but non-candidate wooded mires. Annual and monthly harvesting rates indicated that notifying landowners of the conservation potential did not launch systematic pre-emptive logging behavior. Nevertheless, part of the candidate wooded mires were logged, so some landowners place more weight on other values than the biodiversity ones. Pre-emptive behavior has been observed in other studies suggesting that many country- or system-specific factors such as cultural background or level of compensation can affect landowners’ behavior.

Metsäluonnon turvaava suojelun kohdentaminen Suomessa

“…Vanhoja metsiä ja luonnontilaisia metsiä tuhoutuu edelleen hakkuissa sekä yksityisillä että valtion omistamilla mailla. Tutkimuksen valossa vaikuttaa siltä, että yksityiset maanomistajat ovat vastuullisia ja pidättäytyvät hakkuista, kun heille on ilmoitettu heidän maillaan sijaitsevista luontoarvoista 33 . Tästä huolimatta riski aavistushakkuisiin voi olla olemassa.…”

“…Urskogar och naturskogar fortfarande förstörs vid avverkning på både privat mark och statsägd mark. Enligt en undersökning verkar det som om privata markägare tar sitt ansvar och avstår från avverkning om de har informerats om de naturvärden som finns på deras mark 33 . Trots detta kan det finnas en risk för avverkning för att utnyttja skogen innan den skyddas.…”

“…Old-growth and primary forests continue to be destroyed through logging on both private and state-owned land. Research suggests that private landowners are responsible and refrain from logging when they have been informed that their land is valuable in terms of biodiversity 33 . Despite this, there may be a risk of owners felling their forests to prevent them from being established as protection areas.…”