Resistance to the use of prescribed fire is strong among many private land managers despite the advantages it offers for maintaining fire‐adapted ecosystems. Even managers who are aware of the benefits of using prescribed fire as a management tool avoid using it, citing potential liability as a major reason for their aversion. Recognizing the importance of prescribed fire for ecosystem management and the constraints current statutory schemes impose on its use, several states in the United States have undertaken prescribed burn statutory reform.

Despite widespread adoption of conservation practices by farmers in the Cannonsville watershed, part of the New York City water supply system, there is considerable resistance to riparian buffer practices of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Traditional approaches to promoting CREP adoption, based on the adoption-diffusion model, were not effective in promoting CREP. We surveyed farmers in the Cannonsville watershed to evaluate factors affecting CREP adoption.

The nation's family forest lands can be an important contributor to carbon sequestration efforts. Yet very little is known about how family forest landowners view programs that enable them to sell carbon credits generated from the growth of their forest and the compensation that would be required to encourage a meaningful level of participation. To address this information gap, we conducted a study to identify and quantify family forest landowner interest in participating in a voluntary carbon market trading program in the Lake States, USA.

This paper describes the development and implementation of a method to measure the transaction costs in situations of multiple land-use, where the actions of one actor have negative effects on the other and vice versa (i.e., where the two actors’ usage patterns are interdependent). In situations where more than one agent is using a limited resource, transaction costs arise, which may affect the governance of that resource. For example, in northern Sweden the forestry and reindeer husbandry sectors incur transaction costs during consultations over land-use management.

The Adja plateau (Benin) is densely populated by tenant and landowner farmers engaged in oil palm based cropping. Landowners use oil palm sap for the production of sodabi (a local spirit), and an oil palm fallow (if no crops are grown beneath the palms) to restore soil fertility. In this area, growing oil palm for its oil is uncommon. Tenants access the land under specific contracts but are not allowed to plant oil palm.

Recent emphasis on producing energy from woody biomass has raised questions about the impact of a wood-energy market on the U.S. South’s wood supply chain. We surveyed wood-energy facilities, fibermills, sawmills, private landowners, and government landholders to investigate the expected impact of a vibrant wood-energy market on the southern wood supply chain. Specifically, our study was designed to document potential competition for resources, wood supply chain profitability, and landowner willingness to sell timber to energy facilities.

Sweden is undergoing an extensive transformation from single species management towards ecosystem-based management. This study analyses the implementation of the new moose management system, focusing on the newly formed partnerships at ecosystem level (the moose management areas) and their potential to ease conflicts between participants and develop into sustainable collaborations that enable ecosystem-based management.

This research uses an econometric model to analyze the factors affecting non-industrial private forest landowners’ choice of intermediate forest management practices, and to examine how these choices might change in response to incentives for carbon sequestration. We also use parameter estimates to simulate the carbon sequestration potential for different combinations of management practices, and compare the effectiveness and costs of carbon sequestration-based and practice-based incentive payment schemes.

Dutch peatlands have been subsiding due to peat decomposition, shrinkage and compression, since their reclamation in the 11th century. Currently, subsidence amounts to 1–2 cm/year. Water management in these areas is complex and costly, greenhouse gases are being emitted, and surface water quality is relatively poor. Regional and local authorities and landowners responsible for peatland management have recognized these problems. In addition, the Netherlands Royal Meteorological Institute predicts higher temperatures and drier summers, which both are expected to enhance peat decomposition.

Using a nationally representative survey of 263 farm operators in Ireland, this study develops a typology of private forest landowners' objectives for forest ownership. It is important to understand farmers' forest ownership objectives as this will enhance economic analysis in general, but also to formulate more effective policies that take into account the range of motivational profiles of landowners. Using principal component analysis, three core motivations for forest ownership are identified representing economic, lifestyle and multifunctional benefits.

In 2012, focus groups were organized with individuals owning 20+ acres in the Lake States region of the United States (Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) to discuss various issues related to forest carbon offsetting. Focus group participants consisted of landowners who had responded to an earlier mail-back survey (2010) on forest carbon offsets. Two focus groups were held per state with an average of eight participants each (49 total). While landowner participant types varied, overall convergence was reached on several key issues.