Working paper from Focali researcher
Anna Nordén with colleagues release new working paper based on a previous study of stakeholder's preferences on issues of biodiveristy and production in the context of the Swedish Forest Act.
The working paper "Divergence in stakeholders' preferences: evidence from a choice experiment on forest landscapes preferences in Sweden" by Anna Nordén, Jessica Coria, Anna Maria Jönsson, Fredrik Lagergren and Veiko Lehsten is published at the Department of Economics at the University of Gothenburg.
Abstract
A great deal of biodiversity can be found in private forests, and protecting it requires taking into consideration the preferences of key stakeholders. In this study, we examine and compare the valuation of forest attributes across the general public, private non-industrial forest owners and forest officials in Sweden by conducting a choice experiment. Our results indicate that citizens have a positive valuation of biodiversity protection. Moreover, their valuation is statistically higher than those of forest owners, implying that there is room for compensation. Interestingly, our results suggest that both forest owners and forest officials have a strong orientation towards production, with higher valuation than the general public of the common management practice of similar age and clear felling. Even though the Swedish Forestry Act regards production and environmental goals as equally important, we find that forest officials prefer management practices that promote production rather than biodiversity protection.