Forest owners, management, and rural territories

Abstract

Non-industrial private forest and its management have recently received increasing attention in the literature, where the analysis has focused mainly on the objectives and practices as aligned with the owners’ socioeconomic profile and forest property characteristics, while the territorial context has been largely ignored. This study identifies the social dimensions of the territorial context that differentiate the patterns of owners’ management practices. Based on the argument of the social embeddedness of economic behaviour, the local social context is chosen as the scale of analysis of forest management. Discriminant linear canonical analysis of data for 2406 owners in 26 territories is used for the purpose. Our results underscore the importance of considering local social dynamics when analysing forest owners’ management.