Background: Given the increased likelihood of wildfires in boreal forests due to climate change, the feasibility of current and alternative post-fire forest management strategies needs to be better understood. We assess the acceptability of post-fire management options through a survey experiment aimed at both forest owners and other forest users in Gävleborg county in Sweden—a region that experienced severe fires in 2018.
Results: We find that more than 90% of the 2217 respondents preferred selective felling of fire-affected trees or no cutting over clear-cutting—a pattern that holds for both owners and non-owners. To analyze the role of knowledge and information, we provided a random subset of 621 respondents with additional information about the socio-ecological outcomes (carbon sequestration, biodiversity impacts and economic costs) of post-fire management options. The informational treatment increased the likelihood of choosing less intensive forest management such as selective felling by 24% [95% CI: 10, 38]. Financial compensation for less intensive logging is generally supported among respondents.
Conclusions: Our results indicate that a policy-led change in the current clear-cutting regime toward less intensive post-fire forest management in Sweden would be societally preferable. They also show that informing owners and the public about the socio-ecological outcomes of different options is important for increasing acceptance of post-fire forest management that is beneficial for biodiversity and carbon sequestration.
}}, author = {{Droste, Nils and Danley, Brian and Doerr, Stefan H. and Fridén, Alexia and Kelly, Julia and Santín, Cristina and Rütting, Louise and Kljun, Natascha}}, keywords = {{Ecological effectiveness; Post-fire forest management; Social acceptability}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{1}}, publisher = {{Springer Science and Business Media B.V.}}, series = {{Fire Ecology}}, title = {{Socio-ecological knowledge increases support for selective logging after forest fire in Sweden}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s42408-026-00559-4}}, doi = {{10.1186/s42408-026-00559-4}}, volume = {{22}}, year = {{2026}}, }