Forestry legislation - stimulating or discouraging forest owners?

NYLUND, J.E.; GOWDA, J.H.

Forest Ideas

Publishing House of the Faculty of Forestry, Sofia

Lugar: Sofía; Año: 2010 vol. 16 p. 100 - 106

1310-5639

All legislation implies compromises between conflicting interests. In forestry, the stakeholder groups can be defined as forest owners, timber users, general public and ideological interests groups such as conservationists. Furthermore, a single actor may have ties to more than one group. Forestry legislation in its narrow sense usually has the owners as their primary target group, by issuing prohibitions, restrictions and mandatory actions, as well as in some cases incentives such as subsidy and advisory services. In many countries, forest owners are poorly organized, or there may be a strong polarity between the interests of family, corporate and public owners. Legislators tend to take law compliance for granted, but the process of making laws and regulations operative involves many steps, including communicative and value-based process. These aspects are frequently dealt with in forest policy research. Yet, forest owners can also be seen as economically rational actors. Much well intended legislation may never be effective, as the cost of law compliance is high to the owners. We examine three cases: Sweden in the 17th century, and in the first half of the 20th century, and Argentina today, and discuss the current situation in (mainly) Europe, where broadened societal targets such as sustainability and multifunctionality have to match the interests of family foresters.