Riparian buffer zones in production forests create unequal costs among forest owners
Bakx, Tristan R.M. LU
; Akselsson, Cecilia
LU
; Droste, Nils
LU
; Lidberg, William
and Trubins, Renats
(2024)
In European Journal of Forest Research
- Abstract
Riparian buffer zones (RBZs) are an important instrument for environmental policies for water and biodiversity protection in managed forests. We investigate the variation of the cost of implementing RBZs within different property size classes across the size range of non-industrial forest owner properties in Southern Sweden. Using the Heureka PlanWise decision support system, we quantified the cost of setting aside RBZs or applying alternative management in them, as the relative loss of harvest volume and of net present value per property. We did this for multiple simulated as well as real-world property distributions. The variation of cost distribution among small properties was 4.2–6.9 times higher than among large properties. The... (More)
Riparian buffer zones (RBZs) are an important instrument for environmental policies for water and biodiversity protection in managed forests. We investigate the variation of the cost of implementing RBZs within different property size classes across the size range of non-industrial forest owner properties in Southern Sweden. Using the Heureka PlanWise decision support system, we quantified the cost of setting aside RBZs or applying alternative management in them, as the relative loss of harvest volume and of net present value per property. We did this for multiple simulated as well as real-world property distributions. The variation of cost distribution among small properties was 4.2–6.9 times higher than among large properties. The interproperty cost inequality decreased non-linearly with increasing property size and levelled off from around 200 ha. We conclude that RBZs, due to the irregular distribution of streams, cause highly unequal financial consequences for owners, with some small property owners bearing a disproportionally high cost. This adds to previous studies showing how environmental considerations differentially affect property owners. We recommend decision makers to stimulate the uptake of RBZs by alleviating these inequalities between forest owners by including appropriate cost sharing or compensation mechanisms in their design.
(Less)
- author
- Bakx, Tristan R.M.
LU
; Akselsson, Cecilia
LU
; Droste, Nils
LU
; Lidberg, William
and Trubins, Renats
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- in press
- subject
- keywords
- Distributional fairness, Forest management, Forest policy, Property size, Riparian buffer zone
- in
- European Journal of Forest Research
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85188460807
- ISSN
- 1612-4669
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10342-024-01657-1
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.
- id
- c80580ca-f07f-4985-a56e-9a5dc161a30c
- date added to LUP
- 2024-04-03 06:10:00
- date last changed
- 2024-04-04 13:24:33
@article{c80580ca-f07f-4985-a56e-9a5dc161a30c,
abstract = {{<p>Riparian buffer zones (RBZs) are an important instrument for environmental policies for water and biodiversity protection in managed forests. We investigate the variation of the cost of implementing RBZs within different property size classes across the size range of non-industrial forest owner properties in Southern Sweden. Using the Heureka PlanWise decision support system, we quantified the cost of setting aside RBZs or applying alternative management in them, as the relative loss of harvest volume and of net present value per property. We did this for multiple simulated as well as real-world property distributions. The variation of cost distribution among small properties was 4.2–6.9 times higher than among large properties. The interproperty cost inequality decreased non-linearly with increasing property size and levelled off from around 200 ha. We conclude that RBZs, due to the irregular distribution of streams, cause highly unequal financial consequences for owners, with some small property owners bearing a disproportionally high cost. This adds to previous studies showing how environmental considerations differentially affect property owners. We recommend decision makers to stimulate the uptake of RBZs by alleviating these inequalities between forest owners by including appropriate cost sharing or compensation mechanisms in their design.</p>}},
author = {{Bakx, Tristan R.M. and Akselsson, Cecilia and Droste, Nils and Lidberg, William and Trubins, Renats}},
issn = {{1612-4669}},
keywords = {{Distributional fairness; Forest management; Forest policy; Property size; Riparian buffer zone}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{European Journal of Forest Research}},
title = {{Riparian buffer zones in production forests create unequal costs among forest owners}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10342-024-01657-1}},
doi = {{10.1007/s10342-024-01657-1}},
year = {{2024}},
}