Adapting to the gender order: Voluntary conservation by forest owners in Finland

In this article we explore the hidden gender order of the biodiversity policy and, in particular, the social and societal positions offered to male and female forest owners in voluntary conservation. Two studies were conducted in the region where the National Biodiversity Program for Southern Finland (“METSO”) has been implemented. Study 1 focused on forest owners’ discursive practices that construct different actor positions to female and male forest owners; 27 interviews with forest owners were analyzed. Three discourses – “conservation threatens forestry,” “forestry threatens conservation,” and “good forestry is conservation” – were identified. Forest owners typically described themselves as “loggers” who were explicitly described as masculine. This was paired with the feminine position of “bystander.” The other two positions found, “protectors” and “political agents”, by contrast, were discussed as non-gendered positions. In Study 2 we examined quantitatively how individual forest owners’ nature conservation preferences and willingness to conserve forests is mediated by gender. The responses of 965 owners were analyzed with structural equation modeling. The endorsement of nature conservation preferences was found to increase willingness to conserve forests only among male owners. The results illustrate how individual forest owners adapt their nature conservation preferences to forestry's masculine socio-cultural context.     

“The man,the administration and the counter-discourse”: An analysis of the sudden turn in Dutch nature conservation policy

The Netherlands were at the forefront of European nature conservation policy until recently. For years, a stable ‘social contract’ around Dutch nature conservation existed. To the surprise of many, this stability suddenly disappeared and Dutch nature policy has taken a dramatic shift with changing discourses on nature conservation, the halting of implementation of several key-policies and budget cuts up to 70%. This paper engages with discursive-institutionalism to understand such abrupt institutional changes through emerging ideas and discourses that reshape and undermine existing institutional arrangements. We show how the institutionalization of policy not only engendered but also restricted the impact of critical discourses in the 1990s and 2000s. However, critical discourses eventually played an important role in the sudden turn in nature conservation policy. The rise of a general populist discourse and the economic crisis contributed to the credibility of critical discourses and their translation into popular frames and storylines. Authoritative actors such as a new State Secretary opened up popular media for the critical discourses and contributed to their resonance among larger audiences. As such, the man and his new administration successfully used already existing counter-discourses to de-legitimise nature policy and break down important institutional arrangements at a pace unseen in Dutch politics. Adding a discursive element to institutionalism provides for analytical tools to understand change from both external as well as internal forces. In turn, enriching discourse theory with insights from neo-institutionalism helps to evaluate which ideas and discourses become materialized in policy and practice.     

中国林权改革政策分析——基于林业经济与生态二维功能的视角

在林业生态功能日益突现的语境下,中国林权改革政策蕴含着公共政策价值取向的变化,同时也反映了在林业产业特殊性基础之上,林业经营者摆脱固有林业效益提升困境的基本诉求。林业生产经营基本架构的重构、经营方式和行为的变革,必然通过公共政策的制度保障方式得以落实。对当前林权改革政策的结构体系、林业发展政策理念、执行机制与绩效的公共政策进行分析,就成为把握当前林权改革进程,调整林权改革政策的重要方式。通过分析可以发现,林权改革政策层次之间有效支持度不高、公共政策价值与市场效益诉求的内在矛盾性、林改政策执行中缺乏全局视野与掌握力,是造成林业改革出现问题的主要原因,对林权改革政策体系的优化与整合是问题解决的基点。     

美国、墨西哥林业考察报告

美国、墨西哥森林资源丰富,林业管理先进。介绍了两国森林资源及管理、林业政策、项目资金及财务管理、人员机构及执法等方面的经验,尤其是其重视生态环境保护、林业计划和规划执行较好、林业项目运行规范有效、公务员监督机制健全和严格的绩效考核制度。两国的管理制度值得我们借鉴。提出了我国林业改革与发展相关建议。     

Analysing foregone costs of communities and carbon benefits in small scale community based forestry practice in Nepal

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conservation and sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon (REDD+) are considered to be important cost effective approaches for global climate change mitigation; therefore, such practices are evolving as the REDD+ payment mechanism in developing countries. Using six years (2006–2012) data, this paper analyses trade-offs between carbon stock gains and the costs incurred by communities in generating additional carbon in 105 REDD+ pilot community forests in Nepal. It estimates foregone benefits for communities engaged in increasing carbon stocks in various dominant vegetation types. At recent carbon and commodity prices, communities receive on average US$ 0.47/ha/year of carbon benefits with the additional cost of US$ 67.30/ha/year. One dollar’s worth of community cost resulted 0.23 Mg of carbon sequestration. Therefore, carbon payment alone may not be an attractive incentive within small-scale community forestry and should link with payments for ecosystem services. Moreover, the study found highest community sacrificed benefits in Shorea mixed broadleaf forests and lowest in Schima-Castanopsis forests, while carbon benefits were highest in Pine forests followed by Schima-Castanopsis forests and lowest in Rhododendron-Quercus forests. This indicates that costs and benefits may vary by vegetation type. A policy should consider payment for other environmental services, carbon gains, co-benefits and trade off while designing the REDD+ mechanism in community based forest land use practice with equitable community outcomes. The learning from this study will help in the formulation of an appropriate REDD+ policy for community forestry.     

Ecosystem services from community-based forestry in Nepal: Realising local and global benefits

Community-based Forestry (CBF) is now a popular approach for landscape restoration, forest management, biodiversity conservation and support for rural livelihoods worldwide. The Himalayan country Nepal has been at the forefront of CBF for over four decades, with almost 40% of the total population directly involved in protecting and managing more than 32% of the country’s forested land. However, in the past, the focus of CBF in Nepal was the provision of goods for local subsistence, and there has been limited analysis of the role of CBF in providing ecosystem services (ES) from restored forest landscapes. Based on material drawn from a literature review and a stakeholders’ workshop, this paper analyses changes in Nepalese forest policies to provide a more holistic framework for CBF that provides a wider range of ES and to potentially underpin payments for ecosystem services in Nepal. The analysis indicates that Nepal’s forest policy and practices are still dominated by a narrowly conceived notion of forest management that does not accommodate the holistic concept of ES. The study illustrates that CBF provides many ES from local to global benefits as result of forest restoration. For example, timber, firewood, food, and water have local importance, while climate regulation, flood/erosion control, and habitat improvement have global importance. Many innovative cases are emerging in the long journey of CBF in Nepal that demonstrate more diverse management strategies, new forms of tenure rights and autonomy in institutional spaces. These can potentially provide a catalytic platform for the wider adoption of the ES framework in CBF regimes, in order to focus and reward forest management more directly for the provision of services such as water, biodiversity, climate regulation and recreation. Consequently, this study discusses the issues and challenges that are impeding the implementation of the ES concept in Nepal and suggests some ways forward.     

An assessment of the policies and practices of selective logging and timber utilisation: A case study from natural forests of Tarai Nepal and Queensland Australia

Selective logging (SL) contributes nearly 15 percent of the global timber needs. Considering its role in sustainable timber production, biodiversity conservation and forest carbon enhancement, assessment of SL policies and practices is crucial. This paper assesses the policies and practices of SL in natural production forests of the Tarai region of Nepal and Queensland Australia to explore the key differences in such policies and practices and their possible implications in achieving sustainable forest management objectives. The primary methods applied in the study were review and synthesis of key policy documents and qualitative analysis of the information gathered from key informant interviews and stakeholders’ workshop. Altogether, 53 respondents from a wide range of stakeholder groups (government organizations-15, non-government organizations/networks-15, private sector including the individual landowners-13, local political leaders-3 and independent forest experts/scientists-7) were consulted. Findings suggest that: (1) frequent and inconsistent changes in policy provisions, lengthy administrative procedures and heavy engagement of state forest agencies in forest product harvesting and sales processes play key roles in sub-optimal forest production in Nepal, whereas lower dependency on forest-products, higher labour costs, lack of species-wise royalty rate and flexibility in selecting optional logs are the key factors for increased wastages of forest products in Queensland; (2) recovery and utilisation of the harvested forest product is better in Nepal but policy and practical considerations on biodiversity and environment are better in Queensland; and (3) Forest harvesting specific codes of practice, occupational health and safety standards, and their compliance mechanism of Queensland could be beneficial for Nepal to minimise operational harvesting risks and to attract professional harvesters that support promoting sustainable use and management of natural forests, as we found this aspect almost neglected in Nepal.     

2011年集体林权制度改革效果监测报告

通过对福建等7个省、56县、279村、2800户的入户调查,研究了样本地区集体林权制度改革进展和取得的成效:农户经营林地面积翻一番,营林投资水平提高,森林资源量质双增,林地产出率增加,农户对改革措施总体满意。急需国家在扩大政策性森林保险范围、发展林业合作组织、加强林业科技服务、强林惠林等方面出台政策。最后,从农户政策需求出发,探讨了国家下一步政策的基本取向,并在此基础上提出政策建议。     

服务全局 开拓进取 开创林业计财工作新局面

全面回顾了2011年的林业计划财务工作,认为2011年的计划财务工作成效显著。表现为:完善规划体系,在谋划林业发展方面取得重大进展;完善林业政策,在加大林业资金投入方面取得重大突破;加强基础设施建设,在改善林区民生方面取得显著成效。提出了2012年林业计财工作的总体要求:围绕林业发展全局,着力完善规划体系,创新政策机制,增加投资规模,加强资金管理,提升服务水平。重点是抓好规划编制、资金和政策落实,抓好山区综合开发、扶贫开发和区域林业发展,抓好林业产业和对外开放,确保资金安全和使用效益,为现代林业发展提供有力保障。     

林改后农户对集体公益林投入意愿影响因素分析——以天保工程区武隆县、会理县和玉龙县为例

文章运用文献分析、问卷调查与计量经济分析相结合的方法对林改后影响农户对集体公益林投入意愿的因素进行分析。结果显示,家庭总收入、家庭林业收入、户主文化程度等因素对农户投入意愿的选择影响显著。提出完善公益林补偿机制、搞活公益林经营机制、加强公益林政策宣传、增加农户林业收入、促进公益林建设等建议。     

伊春林区林权制度改革的调查分析

林权是林业政策的核心,也是林业发展必须解决的首要问题。伊春林区以林权制度改革为突破口,在桃山、乌马河等林业局进行试点,大力发展非公有制林业,进行森林、林木和林地使用权和经营权的流转。通过对伊春林权制度改革的调查,分析其取得的成果,并针对其改革的不足,提出建立森林保险保障体系,实施政府对林地产品的规划,并建立健全与林权改革相配套的中介组织等相关建议。     

关于实行林业战略转型发展的思考与建议

回顾了我国林业由传统林业逐步向现代林业转变的发展历程,总结出我国林业发展方式上的经验和教训,阐述了解决国家生态安全、木材安全和民生需要的根本出路在于转变林业发展方式。其中国有林场应率先实行。同时提出建立经济财政保障政策。     

Forester networks: The intersection of private lands policy and collaborative capacity

Privately owned forestland provides abundant ecosystem goods and services to society at scales beyond the individual forest parcel. However, successful mechanisms to encourage broad-scale management in privately owned, multifunctional, landscapes are relatively limited. In the United States, state agency and private foresters may be poised to help facilitate landscape-scale management given their role as gatekeepers to private landowner incentive programs or emerging markets for ecosystem goods and services. A key question remains as to the collaborative capacity of public and private sector foresters, especially in the face of evolving private forestry incentive programs, some of which have shifted toward public–private partnerships (PPP's). We used qualitative interviews and a social network survey with professional foresters in Northern Wisconsin, an area with a high demand for diverse forest ecosystem services, to identify the structure of current business networks among land managers in the region and characteristics of these relationships that may influence collaboration. Of the nearly 300 different individual professionals identified, most (86%) were state, consulting, or industry foresters, suggesting a relatively homogeneous network of professionals and potential need for other types of natural resource professionals to tie into existing foresters’ networks. We found that central network positions were occupied by all three types of foresters, while the qualitative analysis suggested the private forestry incentive program is likely driving, in part, network configuration. Interviews yielded a nuanced understanding of foresters’ relationships, including the impact of forest policy changes on public–private partnerships and specifically the growing role of private foresters in providing private lands forestry services and the need for successful mechanisms to reduce conflict and improve collaborative capacity among professionals.     

林农技术需求意愿影响因素实证分析——以江西宜春为例

以江西宜春312户林农调查数据为基础,运用Logistic模型对林农技术需求意愿的影响因素进行了实证研究。研究表明,林农林业技术需求意愿与户主受教育程度、林业收入在家庭收入中的重要程度、对林业政策稳定性的评价和过去技术应用效果的评价等呈显著正相关关系,与在家劳动力人数、林地与公路的距离等呈显著负相关关系。基于上述结果,提出了相关政策建议。     

Socioeconomic drivers of forest loss and fragmentation: A comparison between different land use planning schemes and policy implications

Forest loss and fragmentation, which generate various negative environmental and ecological consequences, have become widespread phenomena across the globe. Motivation to investigate the underlying drivers is essential for land use planning and policy decision making. This paper characterizes forest loss and fragmentation from 1979 to 2014 in the Ningbo region (China) using multitemporal satellite imageries and a set of landscape metrics (area-weighted mean patch area, edge density, area-weighted shape index, Euclidean nearest neighbor distance, effective mesh size and total area); and then quantifies the responsible socioeconomic drivers (economy, social activities, science and technology, culture and policy, demography) under different land use planning schemes (urban and non-urban) using multivariate linear regression. Results show that the two zones present identical trend of intensifying forest loss and fragmentation but differ in changing magnitude and speed. More specifically, forest loss and fragmentation in the non-urban planning zone occurs at a significantly higher pace and magnitude. For the urban planning zone, population pressure, economic growth and fruit consumption are the primary drivers of forest loss, while forest fragmentation is mainly driven by economic openness, cash crop consumption and environmental protection consciousness. For the non-urban planning zone, income increases, fruit consumption and infrastructure development are the primary drivers of forest loss, while infrastructure and tourism development are the major drivers of forest fragmentation. Besides, forest loss and fragmentation in the two zones are both heavily subjected to land use policy. The variance partitioning analysis highlights that the policy driver is the most influential one and economic driver also has strong effect on forest loss and fragmentation in the urban planning zone. For the non-urban planning zone, the influence of policy driver is the strongest and social activity is also very powerful. These results provide compelling evidence that land use planning fails to play an efficient role in protecting forest resources in the Ningbo region. The failure should be attributed to several issues associated with land use planning and forestry governance that widely exist in China. We finally propose some pertinent implications and suggestions for China’s land use planning and forest policy. This study is believed to advance the understanding of the socioeconomic drivers of forest loss and fragmentation. It therefore provides some new insights in land use policy.     

森林经营与林业可持续发展

林业是为进行森林经营组织起来的 ,以进行木材、林产品生产和保护性资源经营而以后者为基础的基础产业和公益事业。林业发展必须以森林经营为基础 ,林业可持续发展的前提是森林的可持续经营 ,面对当前我国的林业形势和实际 ,要确立“生态林业”的发展思路 ,放开商品林经营 ,改革林政管理制度和税费制度 ,改革和完善法规体系     

Blocking,attracting, imposing,and aligning: The utility of ASEAN forest and environmental regime policies for strong member states

International institutions, including ‘global regimes’ and ‘regional regimes’, address an increasing number of environmental issues. While in the past much attention was given to global regimes, a plethora of regional institutions and organizations (regional regimes) and their environmental policies have recently gained more momentum in political practice and attention in scholarship. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one such regime, and is actively developing its own policies relating to (e.g.) forests and the environment. These policies necessarily have to be useful for the regime’s member states; however, we further argue, that within the member states the regime’s policies especially have to be useful for specific member states’ bureaucracies, because it is they who actually develop the policies on behalf of the member states. Further, this paper aims to analyse the utility of ASEAN’s forest and environmental policy for specific member states and their responsible bureaucracies. Our analytical framework builds on regional regime theory, bureaucratic politics, and concepts of actor’s utility and interests. It differentiates the utility of the regional regime policies into several functions: (i) blocking unpleasant international initiatives, (ii) attracting international political or financial support, (iii) imposing rules on other member states, and (iv) aligning the interests of member states against external political opponents. Our results indicate that ASEAN’s environmental and forest policies serve all four functions. For instance, through ASEAN structures, Indonesia is blocking strict CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) regulation of ramin wood to maintain existing ramin protections and business, and the ASEAN Biodiversity Centre is found to be instrumental in blocking ambitious claims towards biodiversity from international actors. In addition, Malaysia and Singapore have imposed an ASEAN wildfire haze pollution agreement onto other member states in order to protect their directly affected interests in air quality and air traffic. ASEAN is also attracting to its members various international environmental funds in areas including climate change, community-based forestry, and sustainable peatland management. Last, member states under ASEAN actively align their positions in international climate negotiations as well as global forest deliberations to enhance their influence. We conclude that policies developed within regional regimes such as ASEAN are aligned with the interests of stronger member states, and their bureaucracies in particular. It remains unclear, however, how powerful these actors need to be in order to make this customization of regime policies valid for them. The results suggest that not only a potential hegemon, but also second or third powers may have this option. At the same time, member states’ activities do not seem to be conducted by states as unitary actors; instead, issue-specific actions are based on the interests of issue-relevant bureaucracies, which are in charge of representing a given member state in a given field of a regime’s policy.     

林业政策的制定与创新文献综述

搜集大量相关文献,分析比较了世界各国学者在林业政策方面进行的研究,介绍了世界主要国家林业政策的特点,就林业政策的制定、检验、评估的相关研究以及在森林管理实践中发展起来的社区森林模式、REDD机制和可持续森林管理理念进行了综述,最后阐述了少量学者在林业政策理论方面所做的研究。通过综述发现,对林业政策的评估与检验未形成有代表性的方法,对林业政策在实施环节的问题亦缺乏深入研究。     

永安市集体林权制度改革的绩效分析

在全面推行、深化集体林权制度改革的背景下,前期改革的实施情况和成效日益成为研究的热点。本文依托国家林业局集体林权制度改革跟踪监测课题的调查情况,以福建省永安市为研究对象,从林地经营的投入、产出,林地的流转,林改的满意度和政策需求等方面,探讨集体林权制度改革的成效。研究结果发现:集体林权制度改革增加了林农的林业生产收入,拓宽了林业融资渠道;同时也导致林业投入的增加,林业合作组织的出现和加强。最后指出提高永安市集体林权制度改革绩效的政策方向。     

Perceptions of public land governance from two Canadian provinces: How is the social agenda being met through sustainable forest management?

This article presents a comparative assessment of current spaces for public involvement in Crown (public) land management in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. More specifically, it addresses the barriers to public participation by examining the agency-client relationship – specifically, through the theoretical lens of capture – as an impediment to the inclusion of values that are outside the traditional, technocratic management realm of public forest management. Without public input, the public’s needs, values, and desires are not articulated and the social side of sustainable forest management is likely to be neglected. Low levels of trust in public land management agencies in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, coupled with minimal space for public involvement, have created the perception of a policy network that is dominated by industry and/or government and provides minimal space for other interests. The primary research method is an online survey informed by forty-two interviews. The survey was administered to 89 key forestry stakeholders in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Participation observation and a document analysis are utilized to complement the survey. This research finds that (1) although survey participants come from diverse affiliations and two provinces with different forest policy and unique approaches to public participation, there is essential consensus of the need for an improvement of public involvement processes for public land; (2) trust in the forest industry and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is extremely low in both provinces. Even with recent participatory efforts in Nova Scotia, the trust level is lower than in the neighboring province of New Brunswick. Some participants connect this distrust to privileged access for certain interest groups and a closed policy network; (3) barriers to participatory processes differ between provinces, especially a fear of retribution, which is specific to New Brunswick; and (4) key stakeholders identify barriers to engagement that they perceive to be different for themselves and the general public.