Amenities of Swedish Forests
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Amenities of Swedish Forests Attitudes and Values Among Stakeholders Johan Norman Faculty of Forest Sciences Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre Alnarp Doctoral Thesis Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Alnarp 2009 Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae 2009:76 Cover: Autumn in Söderåsens National Park in Skåne, Sweden. (photo: J. Norman) ISSN 1652-6880 ISBN 978-91-576-7423-4 © 2009 Johan Norman, Alnarp Print: SLU Service/Repro, Alnarp 2009 Amenities of Swedish Forests: Attitudes and Values Among Stakeholders Abstract The forests of Sweden provide many amenities (e.g. timber, outdoor recreation and biodiversity) that contribute to the welfare of forest owners and other stakeholder groups in society. The amenities have characteristics of private and public goods. In this thesis, measures of attitudes and values towards different forest amenities were studied by means of mail surveys and existing literature. In paper I, the attitudes of private forest owners regarding different forest amenities (timber production, outdoor recreation and biodiversity) were investigated and compared with the forest advisors’ interpretation of the forest owners’ attitudes. The survey was conducted in three regions of Sweden (South, Central and North). The results indicated that the timber production was the most important amenity to the private forest owners, followed by outdoor recreation and biodiversity. The forest officers’ understanding of what was important to forest owners did not consistently coincide with the attitudes of the forest owners. Other aspects of outdoor recreation and biodiversity among stakeholder groups of the Swedish public were studied in papers II, III and IV. In paper II, a travel cost analysis was used to estimate the recreational value of the forests in the southernmost part of Sweden (Skåne and Blekinge). An analysis was also conducted to determine how this value would be affected by a change in the share of broadleaves in the region. It was shown that maintaining or increasing the share of broadleaves would positively affect the recreational value. In paper III, outdoor recreation was studied using data on health measures of recreationists from three different mail surveys, (outdoor recreationists among the general Swedish public, forest recreationists in southern Sweden and hunters in Sweden). The results showed that outdoor recreation activities in all three categories were expected to have a positive impact on self-rated health. In paper IV, the value of attaining the national environmental objectives of Sweden, including the protection of forest land for biodiversity purposes, was studied using data from a contingent valuation survey. The value varied between different levels of forest land protection, and the benefits of protection outweighed the costs by a small margin. The values of amenities in a typical broadleaved and a coniferous stand during a rotation period were reviewed in paper V. The results suggested that most amenity values developed in a similar way during the rotation period in the two stands. This was true for all amenities except for berries. Considering recreational values in forest management is unlikely to affect the timing of harvesting decisions, while considering biodiversity values as part of forest management would tend to prolong the rotation age. Keywords : amenities, attitudes, biodiversity, contingent valuation method, human health, mail surveys, outdoor recreation, travel cost method, valuation Author’s address: Johan Norman, slu, Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, P.O. Box 49, 230 53 Alnarp, Sweden E-mail: [email protected] Dedication To myself for finally arriving at the finish line… To my family who always supports me in everything I do. The days a man spends fishing or spends hunting should not be deducted from the time that he's on earth. In other words, if I fish today, that should be added to the amount of time I get to live. That's the way I look at recreation. That's why I'll be a big conservation, environmental President, because I plan to fish and hunt as much as I possibly can. George H.W. Bush, quoted in Los Angeles Times, 30 December 1988 5 6 Contents List of Appended Papers 8 Abbreviations 9 1 Introduction 11 1.1 Background on forests and forestry in Sweden 11 1.1.1 Outdoor recreation 13 1.1.2 Biodiversity and nature conservation 16 1.2 Current multiple-use forestry issues 17 1.3 Objectives of the thesis 18 2 Theoretical considerations 21 2.1 Attitudes, intentions and behaviour 21 2.2 Demand and supply 22 2.2.1 Private goods 24 2.2.2 Public goods 24 2.3 Efficient multiple-use 25 3 Materials and Methods 27 3.1 Data 27 3.2 Surveying outdoor recreation and biodiversity 29 3.2.1 Private forest owners and forest officers (I) 30 3.2.2 Stakeholders among the Swedish public (II, III, IV) 30 3.3 Literature Review (V) 34 4 Results 35 4.1 Attitudes of private forest owners towards outdoor recreation and biodiversity (I) 35 4.2 Stakeholder values of outdoor recreation and biodiversity 36 4.2.1 Recreational values in southern Swedish forests (II) 36 4.2.2 Human health and outdoor recreation (III) 37 4.2.3 Biodiversity values of protecting forest land (IV) 37 4.3 Management of multiple forest amenities (V) 38 5 Discussion 41 References 45 Acknowledgments 53 Appendices 55 7 List of Appended Papers This thesis is based on the work contained in the following papers, referred to by Roman numerals in the text: I Kindstrand, C., Norman, J., Boman, M. & Mattsson, L. (2008). Attitudes towards various forest functions: a comparison between private forest owners and forest officers. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 23 133- 136. II Norman, J., Ellingson, L., Boman, M. & Mattsson, L. (2009). The value of forests for outdoor recreation in southern Sweden: Are broadleaved trees important? Ecological Bulletins, accepted. III Norman, J., Annerstedt, M., Boman, M. & Mattsson, L. (2009). Influence of outdoor recreation on human health: Comparing three categories of Swedish recreationists. Manuscript submitted to Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. IV Boman, M., Norman, J., Kindstrand, C. & Mattsson, L. (2008). On the budget for national environmental objectives and the willingness to pay for protection of forest land. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 38(12), 40-51. V Boman, M., Bredahl Jacobsen, J., Strange, N., Norman, J. & Mattsson, L. (2009). Forest amenity values and the rotation age decision: A Nordic perspective. Ecological Bulletins, accepted. Papers I and IV are reproduced with the kind permission of the publishers. 8 Abbreviations CVM Contingent valuation method EUR European currency, Euro (for exchange rates, cf Table 1) EQ-5D The five dimensional health measure of EuroQol EQVAS The visual analogous scale component of the EQ-5D Ha Hectares (1 hectare=100*100 metres) MBDC Multiple Bounded Dichotomous Choice SEEA System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting SEK Swedish currency (Krona, for exchange rates, cf Table 1) SEPA Swedish Environmental Protection Agency SOU Swedish Government Official Reports Series TCM Travel cost method USD US currency, American dollars (for exchange rates, cf Table 1) VAS Visual Analogous Scale WTP Willingness to pay 9 10 1 Introduction 1.1 Background on forests and forestry in Sweden Few countries in Europe are covered with more forests than Sweden, where about 56% of the total land area is forest cover (Statistical Yearbook of Forestry, 2008). The forest cover differs geographically, from about 80% in the North to about 20% in the South. In terms of standing volume, the percentage composition of tree species in Sweden is as follows: Norway spruce 42%, Scots pine 38%, birch, aspen and alder 14%, ’noble’ broadleaved species (oak, beech, elm, ash, maple, lime, hornbeam and cherry) 2%, other broadleaved species 1% and dead trees 3% (Statistical Yearbook of Forestry, 2008). Sweden is divided by three vegetation zones: the boreal zone, the nemo- boreal zone and the nemoral zone. The northern parts of the country belong to the boreal zone, the middle and the southern parts to the nemo- boreal and the southernmost part to the nemoral zone (Swedish forest agency, 2009). Most of the ’noble’ broadleaved species are not able to grow north of the nemo-boreal zone, reflecting differences in growing conditions between the North and the South (Almgren, 1986). Half of the forest land in Sweden is owned by private forest owners, while 30% is owned by other private owners and companies, and the remaining 20% is owned by the state or state-owned companies (Statistical Yearbook of Forestry, 2008). The utilisation of forests has a long tradition in Sweden. In the agrarian society during the 17th century, the forests were used for cattle grazing, hunting, and collecting e.g. berries and mushrooms (Hytönen, 1995). Wood was harvested for heating, cooking, house building, and fencing. In the 17th and 18th century, tar, potash and charcoal were important products from an economic perspective. With the development of the sawmill industry in the 11 middle of the 19th century, the demand for roundwood increased while other forest-related uses decreased (e.g. tar, potash and charcoal) (Kardell, 2004). Cattle grazing was the only long established use that continued into the 20th century (Stridsberg, 1984; Holmberg, 2005). At the end of the 19th century, the forests of Sweden were used by the sawmill industry to a large extent (Kardell, 2004; Ekelund & Hamilton, 2001). The main purpose of Swedish forest policy has evolved during the last 100 years. As a result, this put an end to deforestation at the beginning of the 20th century. During the middle of the century, strategies developed to supply the forest industry with roundwood. Since the end of the 20th century, timber production and the consideration of nature conservation and other social interests have equal importance in regards to Swedish forest policy (Ekelund & Hamilton, 2001).