Two decades of forest-related legislation changes in European countries analysed from a property rights perspective
Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: In the last two decades, attention on forests and ownership rights has increased in different domains of international policy, particularly in relation to achieving the global sustainable development goals. This paper looks at the changes in forest-specific legislation applicable to regular productive forests, across 28 European countries. We compare the legal framework applicable in the mid-1990s with that applicable in 2015, using the Property Rights Index in Forestry (PRIF) to measure changes across time and space. The paper shows that forest owners in most western European countries already had high decision-making power in the mid-1990s, following deregulation trends from the 1980s; and for the next two decades, distribution of rights remained largely stable. For these countries, the content and direction of changes indicate that the main pressure on forest-focused legislation comes from environmental discourses (e.g. biodiversity and climate change policies). In contrast, former socialist countries in the mid-1990s gave lower decision-making powers to forest owners than in any of the Western Europe countries; over the next 20 years these show remarkable changes in management, exclusion and withdrawal rights. As a result of these changes, there is no longer a clear line between western and former socialist countries with respect to the national governance systems used to address private forest ownership. Nevertheless, with the exception of Baltic countries which have moved towards the western forest governance system, most of the former socialist countries still maintain a state-centred approach in private forest management. Overall, most of the changes we identified in the last two decades across Europe were recorded in the categories of management rights and exclusion rights. These changes reflect the general trend in European forest policies to expand and reinforce the landowners’ individual rights, while preserving minimal rights for other categories of forest users; and to promote the use of financial instruments when targeting policy goals related to the environmental discourse.
Source: Forest Policy and Economics
Authors: Liviu Nichiforel, Philippe Deuffic, Bo Jellesmark Thorsen, Gerhard Weiss, Teppo Hujala, Kevin Keary, Anna Lawrence, Mersudin Avdibegović, Zuzana Dobšinská, Diana Feliciano, Elena Górriz-Mifsud, Marjanke Hoogstra-Klein, Michal Hrib, Vilém Jarský, Krzysztof Jodłowski, Diana Lukmine, Špela Pezdevšek Malovrh, Jelena Nedeljković, Dragan Nonić, Silvija Krajter Ostoić, Klaus Pukall, Jacques Rondeux, Theano Samara, Zuzana Sarvašová, Ramona Elena Scriban, Rita Šilingienė, Milan Sinko, Makedonka Stojanovska, Vladimir Stojanovski, Todor Stoyanov, Meelis Teder, Birger Vennesland, Erik Wilhelmsson, Jerylee Wilkes-Allemann, Ivana Živojinović, Laura Bouriaud
Institutions: Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, University of Copenhagen, BOKU University, University of Eastern Finland, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine, University of the Highlands and Islands, University of Sarajevo, Technická univerzita vo Zvolene, University of Aberdeen, European Forest Institute, European Forest Institute, Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia, European Forest Institute, Wageningen University & Research, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Instytut Badawczy Leśnictwa, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, University of Ljubljana, University of Belgrade, Croatian Forest Research Institute, ETH Zurich, Institute for Environmental Decisions, Technical University of Munich, University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, National Forest Centre, Institute of Forestry, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Forest Research Institute, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Language: English
Topic: Forest Management and Policy
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $388
Funders: Itä-Suomen Yliopisto, Forest Research Institute, National Research Foundation, Danmarks Grundforskningsfond, Københavns Universitet, Javna Agencija za Raziskovalno Dejavnost RS, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet, Ministarstvo Prosvete, Nauke i Tehnološkog Razvoja, Agentúra na Podporu Výskumu a Vývoja, Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Univerza v Ljubljani, Eesti Maaülikool, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Národní Agentura pro Zemědělský Výzkum, Norsk institutt for Bioøkonomi
OpenAlex ID: W3013147355